Adanga Maru 2018

(Poster source: www.bollywoodlife.com)

Jayam Ravi have always been an underrated actor – he is not “big” as other actors at his age like Surya or Vijay but he hold his own fort when it comes to acting. He has the right charisma & expression when it comes to tense moments and comedy. The only let down has been a good story & characters have not been forthcoming easily for him.

His latest movie - Adanga Maru has all the right vibes and a strong story that seems tailored made for him.

The Synopsis

Subhash is an upright and sincere Sub-Inspector of Police in Chennai. Subhash cannot stand the suffering of the public and looks for ways to better their lives, and this often lands him in trouble with his superior Inspector Muthukaruppan. One day, Chandran and Subhash are called on to investigate the supposed suicide of a girl. On closer investigation, Subhash deduces that it was not a suicide and that she was murdered.

While collecting evidence to support this, he comes across a person called Abhijit (Bharath Raj), whose cell number was active near the place. On confronting Abhijit and his friends Christy, Bhuvan, and Deepak, they reveal that they are all stoners from affluent families and show a video of them doing drugs, raping and murdering the girl and many other women, as well. Subhash gets enraged, beats them up, and locks them in jail.

When his superior, a corrupt Joint Commissioner Saarangan asks for the proof behind his accusations, he finds out that the phone had automatically deleted all the video files just as he was trying to unlock it. The four are released due to lack of evidence and the influence of their respective fathers and Subhash is suspended. Abhijit and his friends vow revenge and soon enough, when Subhash goes home, he finds his parents and brother's family dead. Only one of his nieces, Anusha, is left alive.

Dejected at his powerlessness even though he is a police officer, Subhash resigns and threatens Saarangan that he will avenge his family's death and will make sure that the four guys die mercilessly at the hands of their own fathers.

The film ends with Subhash being promoted to IPS and saving another rape victim.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The Story

The underlying story of an honest cop held back by corrupt superior and who had lost his family to criminals is NOTHING new in the Indian movie. But add a strong & creative screenplay, dialogues and relevant characters into the mix; you will get a winning formula. The fact that the hero telling that the 4 criminals will die in the hand of their own fathers sets an intriguing premise.

And it is good to see that they embrace technology and intertwine it within the story line. This like surveillance technology, smartphone hacking, online games and social media are well used in this movie.

Behindwoods even commented:-

The latter half has a well-constructed screenplay that engages and the cat and mouse game between Jayam Ravi and the antagonists are well etched out. The mind games are infused neatly with the inclusion of science and technology, showcasing the intelligence in the writing department.

The inclusion of android games into the screenplay is an interesting aspect that adds a good amount of freshness in the treatment. Inspite of the predictability, the screenplay still looked gripping only because of this freshness in the writing and the execution.

(Source)

(Can you dodge bullets? Image source: www.firstpost.com)

However the overall storyline is not perfect and this is not a big surprise when it comes to Indian movie scenario. Whilst it was interesting to see how the criminals get away with their crime at first and the pain that they inflicted on Subhash and how Subhash pans out his strategy to take his revenge, the question remains – since all the children of the rich, powerful men are all dead in the end, why didn’t the rich, powerful fathers did not then kill off Subhash in the end? Didn’t they held back doing this because of the safety of their kids?

And there is a scene of the hero dodging bullets despite having 7-8 men shooting at him and there is a lack of protection from this hail of bullets. Yes, I know it is not something new for an Indian movie hero. But personally I feel that no movie hero should be able to dodge bullets other than Neo of Matrix.

Final Say

Adanga Maru is a good bad cop; good cop movie and one with a strong storyline and it worth watching more than once

Pros: Strong storyline, good screen play & dialogues, good showcase of technology in use in police investigations and Jayam well played role and expressions. 

Cons: Some plot holes in the storyline but it is not major – it does not distract us from the main plot. The revenge scenes against the 4 criminals could have been done better and it was seemed short.