Teaser For Suriya's MASSS Hints At Something Scary

I've often lamented the fact that Suriya, who is one of Tamil cinema's most popular leading men, has had a hard time finding roles in films that fit his talents. Suriya is a handsome, charismatic fellow with a body built for action cinema, but his last few projects have been high concept, big budget disappointments. I don't know that I would go quite far enough to call them failures, but they have all overshot their targets and ended up feeling flaccid because of it.

So, it is with trepidation and cautious optimism that I present the first teaser for his next project, Masss. The term "mass" is a colloquial term predominantly in south Indian cinema that indicates popular entertainment. It is often contrasted with "class", or the artier, more serious side of cinema. An actor is said to be "mass" when he can get big crowds in small town cinemas, "class" films tend to find their homes in urban areas among the intellectual elites. Frankly, I enjoy both, and many south Indian filmgoers do, but it's a division that is very often drawn in the media.

This film, directed by Venkat Prabhu (Mankatha, Biriyani), looks to firmly embrace the idea of mass entertainment and its kitchen sink aesthetic. Masss has been described to me as a horror comedy, an unlikely trend in Tamil cinema these days following the success of Lawrence's Kanchana and the recent Tamil horrors Pisasu and Darling, however, there's not a whole lot of that to be seen in this first trailer. In fact, it's only during the final seconds that we get any inkling that there will be anything other than standard action romance fare from Masss. In either case, I'm keeping my hopes high and expectations low for Masss.

Masss is scheduled to open on May 29th, enjoy the first teaser.