20 great movies from the past 20 years: Mersal

I’m counting down to the 2025 best-of-the-year season by recommending 20 of my favorite movies from the past 20 years. Here are the previous entries, if you want to catch up:

2005: Caché
2006: Undisputed II: Last Man Standing
2007: Sunshine
2008: Speed Racer
2009: Vengeance
2010: Unstoppable
2011: The Three Musketeers
2012: Eega
2013: Rope A Dope
2014: Hill of Freedom
2015: SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
2016: Love & Friendship

My favorite movie of 2017 was First Reformed, Paul Schrader’s masterful drama about faith, the climate crisis, whether it’s possible to enact meaningful change, and the importance of holding on tight to the people you love in the face of the cruelties this world has to offer. Honestly, I just feel too emotionally worn to write about it today, but you should read my former colleague Joshua Rivera’s recent piece about it and The Exorcist. (And you should watch the movie if you haven’t before – it’s free with a library card on Kanopy, or free with ads on Tubi.)

Instead, I’ll recommend another politically-tinged movie from 2017: Mersal. If, like me, you recently saw your health insurance costs are rising by an egregious amount, this Tamil language action-thriller about the evils of for-profit healthcare is for you.

Mersal follows a string of abductions of medical workers and the police’s lead suspect in the crime spree: a doctor who prioritizes affordable care for his patients. The movie is unflinching in its views of for-profit healthcare as evil, and does so by highlighting the very real people who suffer the consequences of that greed. Without giving too much away, the abductions are revealed to be motivated by greed and negligence on the part of the medical industry and these specific practitioners, which directly led to the death of a patient and his wife.

The doctor/suspect is played by Vijay, one of the most popular and decorated Tamil movie stars ever. Vijay retired last year to launch a left-wing political party, and some of his work, like Mersal, is imbued with leftist values while still managing to be thrilling, mass entertainment genre fare that’s just plain fun to watch. Vijay is also an endlessly charismatic, one-of-one movie star who clearly relishes the opportunity to play multiple roles (as he does in Mersal). He shines in Mersal’s dramatic sequences, action scenes, and dance numbers – balancing the multiple characters he’s playing while utilizing his seemingly effortless charm to win over the audience.

Mersal is directed by the filmmaker Atlee, who also made the fantastic Shah Rukh Khan vehicle Jawan (streaming on Netflix), another incisively political action thriller with a generational star in a dual role that is a personal favorite of mine. Atlee brings a propulsive energy and rich imagery to the movie’s colorful set pieces, resulting in a big-budget crowd-pleaser that is still at its heart about the inherent immorality of for-profit healthcare, and has massive plot twists that still manage to feel earned.

Unfortunately, Mersal is no longer streaming anywhere in the United States (it used to be on Netflix), and isn’t available for digital rental or purchase. Modern Indian movies rarely get physical releases these days, but there is a DVD version of the movie out there if you look for it (and, if you’re dedicated to finding it, other online sources have digital versions of the movie – not always with English subtitles, however). For another great Vijay movie, I highly recommend Master, which is streaming on Prime Video and available to rent.