It's that time of the year where we have a plethora of movies hoping to cash in on the last set of holidays before the dawn of 2025. This review is essentially about two such movies that appears as action thrillers on the surface but adopts diverse tracks to narrate their stories. Interestingly, both of them have struck a chord with the audience as the box office returns have brought smiles to their makers. So what kind of an experience did these flicks provide me???
Marco: "Technically impressive that stays true to its tagline to the point of being disturbing!!!"
Even prior to watching this movie, I was sure that it was difficult to write my opinion about it coz I have never been a fan of hyper masculine narratives especially when it involved excessive gore like maiming humans. Hence when the makers announced that this was the most violent Malayalam movie, I was pretty sure what I was getting into but I still decided to give it a try coz of Haneef Adeni, since he knows how to present his heroes in a stylised manner & also because of Unni Mukundan, who I consider as one of the finest when it comes to action.
As in the case of most of his movies, Haneef has penned the script as well & he has taken the characters of Adattu George (Siddique) and his foster brother, Marco (Unni) from his own "Mikhael", and placed them here, with no other obvious connection with that flick. Apart from Marco, George had a brother named Victor (Ishaan Shoukath), who was blind & things take a turn when the latter gets killed by one of the member in the gold smuggling syndicate, in which George held a prominent position. As expected, Marco vows to unleash hell on whoever were behind his brother's murder.
The first thing that I would like to touch upon are the technical aspects & the production quality, both of which were top notch. Chandru Selvaraj's cinematography was brilliant with Shameer Mohammed's seamless cuts enhancing the impact. To add to that, Ravi Basrur's BGM elevated many such sequences just like how he did in "KGF" & "Salaar". In terms of the story as such, obviously it is a generic revenge story & I dont think it is a negative as long as it is packaged well & the action that unfolds serves purpose to what the story wants to convey. The first half worked reasonably well as the story unfolds with Marco hot on the trails of his brother's murderers. But the latter half failed to make any sense for the level of violence that was unleashed, with the pre-climax sequence in Marco's home being repulsive to say the least. Even from the protagonist's stand point, all those dialogues barely had any significance considering what he eventually ends up with.
Despite the weak writing, there is no doubt that Unni has done an excellent job as he had the swag, style & physicality that the character demanded. I dont think there is any other actor in Malayalam who could have pulled off this character with such impact. One of the few plus points in "Mikhael" was the imposing presence of Siddique as George & over here as well, he was impressive. The choice of Jagadish as the suave schemer was interesting, though it kind of felt like a miscast for me. What do I say about Kabir Duhan Singh? Damn...he literally killed it with his spine chilling performance. Another artist that deserves mention is Abhimanyu Shammi Thilakan who did justice to his role though the dialogue delivery as such right across the board was quite average except for Siddique & Jagadish.
Verdict: Seemed like the makers were keen on remaining true to their statement that it is the most violent movie in Malayalam & it would be fair to say, that I think it could possibly be 'in India' itself. However, I am shocked at the way, violence is being normalised nowadays in movies (it is a topic for discussion at another instance), with the second half of "Marco" being repulsive for me as it felt like they just had those sequences for the sake of it rather than serve any purpose. In short, taking cue from Tony Issac's dialogue, I appreciate Haneef's stylised execution & Unni's dedicated performance but feel sorry for our brains!!!
Rating: 1.5/5
Rifle Club: "Ambada Puluso...Aashiq Abu back with a bang!!!"
Aashiq Abu is a name that has always been in the news for one reason or the other, though it wasn't related to the work that he had done. The last time that kind of a discussion happened was in 2019 when he came out with an ensemble cast for a well crafted "Virus", which is still one of my favourite movie over the past decade. Anyway the wait for yet another impressive work doesn't have to extend any further as he has come out with "Rifle Club", a wholesome entertainer for this Christmas.
Set in 1991, Mammoookka's "Mrugaya" has been the talk of the town which made the romantic hero, Shajahan (Vineeth Kumar) rethink about his choice of movies. At the insistence of his manager, he decides to spent some time at the 'Rifle Club' in Wayanad to get accustomed to the ways of hunting which was the subject of his next movie. The club was established by Kuzhiveli Lonappan (Vijayaraghavan) along with two of his friends & was presently handled by Avaran (Dileesh Pothan). Around the same time, the son of Dayanand (Anurag Kashyap), an arms dealer based in Mangalore was found dead in a dumpster which leads him to the rifle club as well. What subsequently unfolds in the club as a result of all these events is what this movie is about.
Even as the focus obviously shifts towards the action sequences in the second half, it is important to create a strong case in the lead up to it with attention being paid to the geography & the dynamics between the extended family members in the club. This was penned sensibly by Syam Pushkaran, Dileesh Karunakaran & Suhas with a smart sprinkling of humour right throughout. It was executed well by Aashiq, who also handled the cinematography giving us a wholesome entertainer in less than 2 h. At the same time, the final act lacked the punch & was quite hurried, failing to cash in on the high that it had created until then. Another major positive was Rex Vijayan whose tracks & BGM was in sync with the mood.
The movie has an ensemble cast & pretty much most of them have done justice to their parts. Though quite a few of them had very limited screen time, almost all of them gets to mouth or showcase some quirks. The standout is undoubtedly Dileesh Pothan who was top notch with Anurag Kashyap also having his moments. Vijayaraghavan rocked as usual while Vishnu Agasthya continues to prove his caliber as an artist. Sooraj aka Hanumankind was an intelligent casting choice & he was damn impressive with the swag. The rest of the cast such as Vani Vishwanath, Suresh Krishna, Unnimaya etc were all fine in their parts.
Verdict: Certainly Aashiq's best since "Virus" as he provides us with a flick that is also about guns but still keeps the mood quite light & enjoyable till the very end. In short, it is a Wild Wild West set in the Western Ghats. Do check it out!!!
Rating: 3/5
Regards...Ben
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