Mugamoodi (Eng: Mask) is a 2012 Indian superhero film written and directed by Mysskin. The film features Jiiva, with newcomer Pooja Hegde, and Narain in the lead roles, while Girish Karnad, Nassar, and Selva play supporting roles. The music was composed by K with cinematography by Sathyan Sooryan. With mixed critical response, the film was released on 31 August 2012 along with its dubbed Telugu version titled Mask. It has also been dubbed in Hindi as Mahabali Ek Super Hero. The film marks the debut film of Hegde.
The film is about a man who cannot tolerate injustice and corruption and hence turns into a vigilante to fight against it for a better society. This film was dedicated to Bruce Lee.
A series of severe heist cases is happening in multiple places in India, which has so far left dozens dead and countless amounts of money robbed. The story is set in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, where police believe that a new case of the series is about to take place. Anand alias Bruce Lee is a college graduate who cannot stand the idea of a 9-to-5 job. Instead, he studies martial arts with a group of similarly jobless friends. Attempting to recruit new students who can pay tuition and save their school, he gets involved in a brawl and meets Shakthi, the daughter of Police Deputy Commissioner Gaurav. Lee falls in love with Shakthi immediately, but she pepper-sprays him on both of their initial meetings. When his grandfather advises him to make the girl see him as a hero, Lee borrows a superhero costume and goes to see Shakthi, who is looking after her elder sister’s children.
A masked Lee in a Superman costume, who claims to be Mugamoodi, tries to impress them with his martial arts skills and accidentally ends up in the middle of a police chase. He helps the police capture one of the bandits. However, the gang shoots the captured member dead afterwards when police are transferring him and kill an inspector that was involved in the mission of arresting him, as revenge. Lee is now also in danger, but his identity is unknown to all. The news that Mugamoodi captures one of the most wanted suspects, which police cannot do in many months spread across the city, makes Shakthi begin to like Mugamoodi.
Gaurav successfully finds a match between the fingerprint they collected in the crime scene and one from police records. Lee tries to visit Shakthi again, unmasked, to reveal his identity and confess his love to her. When he arrives, he encounters a new murder scene, where the gang member shoots Gaurav, and therefore, Lee tries to seize him. The gunman escapes after the gun being seized by Lee, and all the family has seen Lee with a gun in hand in a shooting scene. All believe that it is Lee that shot Gaurav, and he is therefore being chased by police and on the run. The gang also kills Viji, Lee’s friend who went with him to visit Shakthi. Lee is seen by police again with a dead body alone and is naturally thought responsible for the killing. Later on, Lee’s grandfather and brother create a more professional superhero costume with a blue bodysuit, a black belt with the letter M on it, a black superhero mask which reveals the mouth and forehead, black leather boots, and black gloves.
Gaurav survives the shooting, and the gang decides to kill him again and his family in the hospital. Mugamoodi (masked Lee) saves them by defeating the gang with his kung fu skills and takes away Gaurav’s police documents which contain the latest finding of the robber case, including the fingerprint match, because he wants to revenge Viji’s death on his own. To his shock, he learns those police findings in the document are against his Master, Sifu Chandru, who taught him kung fu for years.
However, Chandru says that he is not connected to those cases but connected to the one that carried out them, Anguchamy alias Dragon, because they learnt kung fu in the same school 22 years ago. Meanwhile, Dragon also somehow learns that Mugamoodi is Lee. His gang raids Chandru’ s kung fu school to kill Lee, only to find that Lee is not there, and they kill Chandru.
The gang takes over a port and kidnaps 30 children and three adults, including Shakthi, and takes them hostage to blackmail the police. They demand that Mugamoodi drive a van of gold alone, and the police arrange a ship and guarantee their safety when they are later crossing the Indian border, threatening to kill those hostages if refused. Mugamoodi accepts the deal and drives the gold there, where a fight breaks out between him and Dragon. During the fight, Dragon takes off Mugamoodi’s mask and reveals his identity to Shakthi. He also confesses that Lee did not shoot Gaurav, and his gang member did. Shakthi, shocked, now realizes that she wronged Lee.
With the help of his grandfather and his friends that sneaked into the port, Lee kills some key members of the gang and saves all the hostages. In the climax fight between Lee and Dragon, the latter hangs from a ladder, using a hammer to hold on. Lee sticks his hand out for Dragon to pull himself up, but Dragon instead falls to his death in the sea. Shakthi kisses Lee on the forehead, after being released. The hostages thank Lee after saving them as Lee runs off.
The film ends with the Bruce Lee quote: “As you think, so shall you become.”
Directed by Mysskin
Written by Mysskin
Produced by Ronnie Screwvala & Siddharth Roy Kapur
Starring Jiiva, Narain, Pooja Hegde, Girish Karnad, Nassar, Selva
Cinematography Sathyan Sooryan
Edited by Gaugin
Music by K
Production UTV Motion Pictures & Lone Wolf Productions
Distributed by UTV Motion Pictures
Release date 31 August 2012 (India)
Running time 162 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
