Bazooka Review - Never Really Fires!

Ashwin Ram

Bazooka is a heist thriller starring Mammootty and Gautham Vasudev Menon in the lead roles. The film is directed by debutant Deeno Dennis.

Premise:

Mammootty is a former forensic investigator who is up for a secret mission to solve a serial-theft case joining hands with the Kochi city ACP played by Gautham Vasudev Menon. How they play their game to save the day forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction:

The bait idea used to find the key piece of a puzzle is fine, the gamer element is conceptually interesting too. But the screenplay never stays in focus with the core subject and the entire first half literally feels avoidable. The involvement of Mammootty in the story is absolutely absent till the interval point, instead he keeps appearing in irrelevant heroic blocks just for his namesake presence. The whole bus stretch was a crashing bore with random scenes happening one after the other, it felt like the train episode from Mahesh Babu’s Sarileru Neekevvaru. Gautham Menon and his team of Police officers get more screen time than the lead, but they are kept dummy till the very end. None of the theft sequences in the initial hour is smart or engaging, they are painful to sit through as presented in a detailed manner. The film picks up momentum only when Mammooty’s job in the story is revealed, which is after the halfway mark and by the time it is too late as we are detached from what is going on. Still the valuable contribution of the writer at one particular bank robbery situation clicks and offers a lengthy gripping scene. Post which the flow again falls flat for almost the rest of the time. The climax twist might have been a big one on paper, since the movie never really fell in place, there is no scope for impact. After all the nuisance, we don’t get a closure but a teasing lead for the second part.

Performances:

Mammooty is subtle at most parts to explode in the climax, he has played both his calming and eccentric nature of roles to perfection. It was nice to hear Gautham Menon speak in his mother tongue Malayalam in the movie, glad he himself dubbed. A proper full-fledged role for him for the first time in Mollywood, but his character was written in a lacklustre manner. Truckload of supporting artists, but none barely make a mark. Even well-known artists like Shine Tom Chacko are wasted just by simply showing off in the opening and closing scenes.

Technicalities:

Nothing goes in the favour of the film and that includes the technical department as well. In some areas, the background score is a rip-off from Nolan movies, the original ones fail to create any sort of tension to the narrative. Plenty of frame jumps, blurry shots, overall the visuals are inconsistent which makes the look and feel of the movie outdated. The film had chances to be a passable outing at the least if there was a helping at the edit table, full of lags and also the whole narrative of the director is a complete mess.

Bottomline

A very generic heist thriller that carries no steam from the very beginning. A couple stretches seem to be interesting, but nothing lands even close by the rightful spot. A patience testing random first half followed by a slightly better below par latter.

Rating - 2/ 5