Spoilers (?)
To say RDX is the Malayalam movie I’ve been waiting for, wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Haven’t had this fun an experience since Thaneer Mathan Dinangal, watching a movie in the theatre. Different movie and genre, yes. Brought back memories of watching Rajamanikyam all those years back in a packed theatre in Thiruvananthapuram. Personally, I felt that it was a much wholesome and engaging outing compared to some of the films from other languages, sold as mass masala entertainers in recent times. In the news for wrong reasons early on, RDX erases all blemishes and emerges at the box office in all glory, literally set to blow it up this festival season.
The leading men of RDX haven’t had a pleasant time off screen of late thanks to incessant social and news media scrutiny and the accolades and the love they’ve been receiving from the audience since the movie debuted is almost poetic. Pepe was a revelation, in a movie branded as an out and out actioner, you didn’t expect him to up the ante as an actor with capabilities to emote like the best out there. To me the most special Pepe moment was the emotional breakdown outside the ICU. I hope filmmakers have noticed this too. Then there’s Shane Nigam who was almost ostracized by the who’s who of the film fraternity, proving that talent prevails over everything. He gets a character that has an arc and does full justice here and goes a notch above with some stellar action scenes. The boat fight is a YouTube search tag in waiting. Watching him dance made me realize that it was probably the first time he was doing that in a film and nothing less than a criminal waste it is that no filmmaker out there explored this talent of his yet, on screen. And of course Neeraj Madhav, he fights with the nunchak like he raps and had more goosebump moments on screen than his peers I think. He sure has come a long way from that cable guy in Drishyam, and how ! Reminds me of the headline for The Hindu review of Jackie Chan’s “Rumble in the Bronx” – A Pint Sized Dynamo . If i have to pick a scene, it would be the one where the kids yell, “master”.
The film also puts the nostalgic element that us Malayalis devour and still thirst for, to good use. The love story had all the feels of one from the 90s, with a slight dash or modernism, I felt. Mahima Nambiar impressed, playing the role that was written for her. The surprising factor was the comedy and there was a moment where I had this thought that this could almost be In Harihar Nagar directed by Shaji Kailas. Blame it on the bikes and the Kochi backdrop. Nahas Hidayath takes his sweet time to pay tribute to you-know-who and that was the moment when the theatre truly erupted. He works this film like a seasoned practitioner of the genre and it’s hard to believe that it’s his debut as a director. The work of Action choreographers AnbArivu speaks for itself and is the soul of the film. Aiding them is some rigorous editing by Chaman Chacko and nimble cinematography by Alex J. Pulickal. The score by Sam C.S rises up to every occasion that the movie demands. What works most for the film is the emotional core that Nahas and his writers Adarsh Sukumaran and Shabas Rasheed build. Makes you root for the characters from the word go and makes all the difference. The bad guys led by Vishnu Agasthya help with their intense and earnest performances too. After the Hotstar series Kerala Crime Files, Harishankar Rajendran makes an impression again. Lal fits the bill in the role of a father to two hot headed youngsters and the scene where he loses it in the kitchen is probably the makers telling us where the kids got the bad temper from.
The film is not without flaws though and I had an issue with the way life in a colony was portrayed, especially the way the wedding scene was envisioned. Made me wonder about the thought process that went into the construction of the scene. But then, it’s not a perfect world and as they say, you love things for their flaws.
gopakumarpurushothaman 