Marco Hindi Version Review This is Unbelievable

That Marco has an A rating makes sense only if you watch a film starring Unni Mukundan in the lead. This is a warning to those who don't like to see blood and don't have the guts to see humans and sometimes even dogs being mutilated. Now that's over, let's get to Marco, written and directed by Haneef Adeni, who also produced the 2019 film Mikhael, starring Nivin Pauly. While there have been speculations of Marco being a spinoff, the production team has been tight-lipped about the connection.

Marco (Unni Mukundan) and his adoptive elder brother, Adattu George (Siddique) first appear in Mikhael. And they appear in this film too; Marco and George are brothers. George's father brought Marco home as a child and raised him like his own.

To say that it is an action thriller doesn't reflect the full extent of the 'action' in it. It is full of 'mass-y' gore. The plot is quite simple - Adatu George's blind younger brother Victor is murdered because he is a 'witness' to the murder. And Marco is willing to do anything for his family - no matter what it takes, even if he dies. But he mostly kills and maims. Marco is about how the brothers wreak havoc on their brother's killers - Tony Isaac and his sons. The first half of the film lays the groundwork for the action that follows. In the second half, everyone in the film goes crazy.

Driven by testosterone, Marco gives his female characters very little to do. Also, one can't avoid wondering what the police are doing when Adatu George avenges his brother by shooting people he thinks might be responsible for the death or when Tony's sons kill people. Marco is reminiscent of the Transporter series, the carnage and gore reminiscent of Dexter, with a little Animal but none of the misogyny. If this review seems focused on the violence in the film, it's because that's what Marco is all about. You walk out of the theatre thinking about the violence and the many ways a human can be cut, stabbed, dismembered and stabbed.

Marco demands that you watch it as pure fantasy and if you go looking for a reason, you'll be disappointed. If you like an action film with lots of stunts and little dialogue, this is for you.

The writing, whatever it is, falters after the first half and then it's a disaster. In an action-packed film like Marco, the writing matters less than the stunt choreography and cinematography, both of which score high. Cinematographer Chandru Selvaraj has done a wonderful job with extremely stylised frames, as has composer/lyricist Ravi Basrur. The background score for the first fight before the interval makes the whole sequence poetic.

The character arcs and plot could have been developed better, for instance the back story of Marco and his fiancée or Tony and his sons. The only relationship, if even explored, is Marco's attachment to Victor. In a film whose palette is predominantly black and grey, light and tenderness come through and we get a glimpse of why Marco wants blood for blood.