Ajith Vs Vijay, an evergreen topic for discussion among staunch believers for the last 15 years and still going strong. Wouldn't it be interesting for Ajith fans to know what do (rational) Vijay fan feel about the movie. 

Now why should one watch Mankatha?

4. Neo-noir genre: Second Tamil film in a year to adopt this genre (first was Aaranya Kaandam). First time with a star in the movie. Neo-noir style of filmmaking involves anti heroes as protagonists, unconventional screenplay, lot of twists and turns, concealment of certain important information during the course.

3. Character visualization: The characterization is like a pack of cards where you have Jokers (2) Mahath & Prem who change the course of the game, Queens(4) indirectly responsible for change in the game, Jack(4) Kamal, Faizal, Sumanth & Ganesh who are mere executors, King(2)  Prithvi (apparently he is the only guy with a king's name), Arumuga Chettiar the losing king and finally there is a King maker or the Ace of spades.

2. Story & BGM: The film is a not a rip-off from any unpopular English film (at least till now). Though there would be instances where you will have a déjà vu experience if you have seen movies like Shade, usual suspects, The Italian job, Ocean's 11,12,13 etc. But the film is a clean Ulle-veliye (another name for 'Mankatha'). Yuvan proves his class in choosing the right BGM for the movie, definitely addictive.

1. Vinayak Mahadevan: Yes it is Vinayak after Sakthivel (of Kireedom), Deva (of Vaali), Shiva (of Kadhal Mannan) who remains in our mind. Portrayal of Vinayak as a money obsessed, drunkard police officer with absolutely merciless is classic. At no point Vinayak loses his focus on money, moves every other character to get his work done. Ajith has used most of the negatives like his grey hair, age, tummy to show the maturity of Vinayak. This is one of the finest portrayals of a negative shade by Ajith.

0. Bloopers: Never enjoyed the bloopers so much, Ajith's expression in the bloopers (“innoru dabha sollen”) is sufficient enough to say that none of his directors have extracted the natural humor out of this guy.

 All said and done 'Mankatha' is not a milestone in Tamil cinema, but it is definitely for Ajith's career. I still go back to bed as a Vijay fan expecting Ilaya Thalapathy to deliver a bigger, better film than Ajith and even if he doesn't we still love Ilaya Thalapathy for what he is.