Marjaavaan movie review: It's Hindi version of over-dramatic South Indian action movies

Bollywood has a good hand in making mass entertaining movies that cater well to the single screen audience. However, even those films need some quality to be impressive enough. Marjaavaan is one film that has a good dose of action and emotion but is too cheesy and outdated overall.

STORYLINE

Raghu (Sidharth Malhotra) works as the most loyal goon of a mafia boss, Anna (M Nassar). An orphan since childhood, Raghu has been raised by Anna, and hence they share a deep emotional bond. This becomes a reason for enmity between Raghu and Anna's son, Vishnu (Riteish Deshmukh), as the latter cannot bear the emotional connect his father shares with Raghu.

Meanwhile, Raghu comes across Zoya (Tara Sutaria), a mute girl who believes music has the power to kill violence. He falls in love with Zoya in no time, and that is when his life gets a complete U-Turn. The ruthless killer now wants to quit all the bad works and start a new life with Zoya.

While things were not supposed to be that easy for obvious reasons, it gets worse when Zoya becomes witness to a murder committed by Vishnu. Now, the don and his son want the girl to be dead, but Raghu stands in between. Things take a drastic turn when eventually Raghu himself shoots Zoya dead out of compulsion. After this is a revenge saga.

PERFORMANCES

Sidharth Malhotra suits well as a good-looking thug. He entertains in certain parts with his swag and action. Riteish Deshmukh showcases the dwarf character's evil side in an unconventional manner. Tara also does a good job considering it is her second film. Rakul Preet Singh is equally good as far as performance is concerned.

POSITIVES

Marjaavaan shines in certain parts as it mixes action, romance and emotion nicely. Single screen audience might find a lot of scenes worth blowing whistles. Sidharth and Riteish's negative chemistry is good to watch also.

NEGATIVES

The biggest drawback of Marjaavaan is the treatment. It is extremely backdated and lacks logic. Gone are the days when it used to be touching to see the hero dying a slow death resting his head on a girl's lap. The dialogues are too cheesy. For example – "Main Marunga toh marjayega, dobara janam lenese daar jayega".

Forced songs further seem to be distracting. While high-octane action sequences are nice to watch, it certainly appears silly to see men bouncing like football all around. It reminds me of those South Indian action movies where heroes are capable of creating mini sand storms with their legs and twenty men flying all round with a single punch.

VERDICT

Marjaavaan could have been a good mass entertainer if the treatment was not this old-fashioned. Moreover, over-the-top dialogues and action stunts should have been avoided. Even single-screen audience has evolved now, and watching Marjaavaan is like going back to the 90s.