After a series of unimpressive movies, Kichcha Sudeep delivers a strong mass masala action thriller
Inspector Arjun Mahakshay goes with the name Max– the name no one barely calls him but recognised by only one of the many villains. Max comes with the track record of multiple suspensions and transfers due to his unabashed sincerely. The typical honest police officer role. However, MAX is not about Arjun. MAX is a one-night crime cover up thriller; an escaping drama from two powerful ministers and their men after the death of the minister’s son in the police station.
Writing strong villain characters and making the hero overcome the obstacles and dangers set by the villains is a perfect template for a mass masala action thriller that doesn’t treat its characters as just tools to elevate the heroism of the hero. But, MAX does use all the characters as tools for the sake of the hero. Sunil playing the gangster Guna is the main villain, Varalakshmi Sarathkumar as an insider cop working for Guna gets an interesting entry into the story with the hyped heftiness of a fox-like cunning cop. But, that doesn’t hold for long. We are made to believe that the villains are too powerful only through the shivering fears expressed by incompetent police officers. Vijay Kartikeyaa should have taken a bit more care to craft the intelligence of the characters rather than just telling the audience to believe that the politicians and gangsters are really powerful and dangerous.
MAX is not a flawless movie. It has its flaws, far too many from the standpoint of characterization. However, MAX works well because of Kichcha Sudeep’s heroic screen presence as an all-powerful big-brain strategic cop who never loses his cool unless he is talking on a phone call. The Lokesh Kangaraj’s Khaidi like plot-line of one-night actioner and goons of powerful men covering up the entire isolated police station gives MAX an immediate sense of tense urgency that keeps the audience hooked for the next moves. And, the positioning of the police station– designed by Shiva Kumar– in an isolated place is also a bit less convincing but it had to be that way for the plot to progress as Karthikeyaa had written it.
The heroic swagger of Kichcha Sudeep fired up by the background score of Kantara-fame Ajaneesh Loknath saves this underwritten escape thriller that engages you throughout the film.
TF Rating: 3/5
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