Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea movie review: A 100 crore budget film, but is it really worth the hype?
Plot Summary
'Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea' was inspired by a martyr named "Kunjali Marakkar", a rebellious naval chief from the 16th Century of Calicut Zamorin. The film highlights the first Indian freedom fighter who courageously fought against the Portuguese army using exquisite strategies and astonishing fighting skills followed by the tragic incidents faced by his family which made him fight for the local's wellbeing. As a token of his bravery and sacrifice, the Government of India commissioned a Naval Air Station located at Colaba, Mumbai as "INS Kunjali", which presently has been renamed "INS Shikra".
Highlights and Drawbacks of the film
Main Drawbacks of the film
- The extended storyline
'Marakkar' is a film by "Priyadarshan" a veteran director from the Indian film Industry who promises 3-hour long extensive storytelling with a combination of history, fiction, and mythology. If we dissect the whole movie into its sub-portions, some stood as an overwhelming aspect, but when it tried to focus on smaller details the story lost its direction and became a bit disoriented. This literally affected the climax where the scenes were fast-forwarded probably due to time constraints and left the viewers unsatisfied.
- Fight Scenes
When a movie primarily focuses on revolution, ancient history, and thriller experience, the fight scenes require some creative effort and sword skills, which was a letdown throughout the film. The film has an amazing star cast of Mohanlal, Pranav Mohanlal, and Sunil Shetty who have already performed impressive action stunts in their previous films which were not perceived in this movie. Some action sequences looked so artificial enough where the characters were flying which was also an unsatisfactory thing to look up to.
- Huge star cast
While watching this movie I was shocked to see such amazing actors teaming together for a historic movie with a big-budget title of 100 crores with no prominent roles to showcase their individual talent, making it the film's biggest drawback. The combination of 'Manju Warrier' and 'Mohanlal' in this film wasn't surprising enough as they have done the same role in their previous movie named "Odiyan" which probably was meant for their supporters but it shouldn't be given as a priority when your main focus is to create a historic film with an educational aspect for the audience. However, there is a slight difference in Sunil Shetty's character where the role was prominent in the film but nothing was surprising enough to highlight it except the Malayalam dialogues delivered by the actor.
Main Highlight of the film
- The technical aspect
The technical aspect that stood out at its peak was the level of detailing and visual treat promising the best theatrical experience. Ranging from the battleground, warships, court-rooms, sea battles, storms, thunder waves, and much more is something that everyone would appreciate after watching the movie. 'Siddharth Priyadarshan' should be highly appreciated for acting as the visual effects supervisor of the film for bringing quality content right to the screen irrespective of other downfalls which also won the title of Best Special Effects award.