After a second foray into motor racing, Ajith signed a film directed by Venkat Prabhu, titled "Mankatha", which notably became his 50th project. The film featured him in a full-length negative role as Vinayak Mahadevan, a suspended police officer with a lust for money. His performance and his decision to portray a character with negative shade, breaking the stereotype hero image in Tamil cinema, were lauded by critics, with reviewers from "Sify" and "Rediff" terming the film as an "out and out Ajith film" that worked "only because of Ajith". Heaping praise on the actor's performance, the former noted that he "rocks as the man with ice in his veins as the mean and diabolic cop" and that he played "the emotionless bad man, to perfection", while the latter wrote that practically "he carried the whole film on his capable shoulders". "Mankatha" became a financially successful venture.