'Marco' movie review: Gruesome violence makes it an unpalatable experience
Ever since its announcement, Marco has been promoted as the ‘most violent film from Malayalam’. All the promos, including the posters, songs and teaser, screamed violence and bloodbath. After watching the film, it’s safe to say that these claims weren’t mere marketing ploys. Forget Malayalam, Marco has some of the most disturbing moments ever seen in an Indian film.
But the problem is, there’s no real purpose or method to the endless spree of killings, which are as gory as they can get. Why is Marco so violent? We don’t know. Or why are the syndicate members so barbarous? Again, we don’t know.
Sure, they are villains and are expected to kill people. But what we see in this film are not the usual murders. Instead, ears are bitten off, limbs chopped with saw machines, heart, eyes, and intestines ripped out, and a baby pulled out from a mother’s fetus with bare hands. Yes, you read that right.
Marco is a result of the increasing acceptance in Kerala for non-Malayalam films with hyper-masculine narratives. Realising the market potential, the makers have dished out an excessively violent action film, which is a cocktail of films like KGF, John Wick, Animal, and many other such celebrated works.
To be fair, director Haneef Adeni shows his potential in crafting a visually appealing, sinister world, with black as the dominant colour. He also conceives and executes a couple of terrific action sequences, which are anything unlike what we usually see in Malayalam cinema. The director, who has a knack for presenting his heroes in stylish avatars, finds the right person for it in Unni Mukundan.
Mostly dressed in suits, the actor looks fit and dapper as Marco, the killing machine. But looks aside, the character lacks meat. An adopted son, he is driven by love and loyalty to the Adat family. When one of them is tragically killed, Marco sets off on a mission to nab the killer and protect the remaining family members. Though tried and tested, it’s still a decent storyline for a revenge film.
Haneef Adeni, who has also penned the screenplay, begins the film on an intriguing note. Information is dropped gradually for us to form a faint picture of the Adat family, its head George (Siddique), the gold smuggling syndicate he is part of, and of course, Marco. But the writing isn’t consistently engaging. Haneef also employs old-school techniques like letting other characters hype the hero before his intro.
Here, we see a bunch of kids singing paeans on their uncle Marco and his bravery. But that’s all that Marco is. He is powerful and ferocious but hardly uses his brains. At one point, Jagadish, who plays one of the villains, mocks, “I appreciate your valour, but I’m really sorry about your brain.” For a good part of the first half, Marco is tricked and misled by people around him. Likewise, when his family is under the threat of an attack, Marco doesn’t have any backup plans and relies purely on his brute power. What happens over the next 10-15 minutes is gut-wrenching, quite literally, and Marco is reduced to a mere spectator.
Marco also has a girlfriend to whom he is engaged, but he hardly cares. When she calls him out as toxic and a perfect red flag, he says, “But this obsession and toxicity is my expression of love.” Well, he is a flawed guy, straight out of a Sandeep Reddy Vanga film, and he can very well say that. Thankfully, the film steers clear of sexual violence, a norm in revenge flicks these days.
The film’s best part is its action set pieces. A particular sequence modelled on the iconic corridor fight from Old Boy has Unni fighting hundreds of henchmen in a cramped stairway. Unlike the other fights in the film, this brilliantly executed scene has a sense of purpose and urgency. The close-combat choreography also makes it thrilling.
Chandru Selvakumar’s excellent work behind the camera and Shameer Muhammed’s editing are a massive asset to the film as they make up a lot of the writing flaws. As mentioned above, Haneef resorts to dated ideas like supporting characters needlessly hyping the hero, cops landing on coincidental evidence, and the villain kidnapping a pregnant woman. It’s also just a matter of time before the M134 Minigun template joins the ‘dated idea’ category.
The KGF influence becomes all the more evident in the dialogues, with some of them even ending up unintentionally funny. Like, when Unni asks his accomplice whose hand has just been severed, “Ninakku vedhanikkunnundo?”
Marco becomes extremely hard to sit through towards the end when a family, including kids and women, is subjected to brute torture. Violence is never the problem; why and how you show it holds the key. It is ridiculous how insensitively these portions are filmed and then repeatedly played to amp up the emotions. If it was intended to make the viewer feel Marco’s pain and rage, the makers should realise that such a callous portrayal only distances us from the proceedings on screen. But if the idea is to make us squirm and puke, then yes, mission accomplished.
Film: Marco
Director: Haneef Adeni
Cast: Unni Mukundan, Siddique, Jagadish, Abhimanyu Thilakan, Kabir Duhan Singh, Anson Paul, Yukti Thareja
Rasting : 1.5/5