Movie Review | Maruthi Nagar Police Station: Lines between good cop, bad cop blur
The ‘Drishyam’ franchise other than its entertaining factor threw up an interesting question regarding legality vs morality. Can what Georgekutty does in ‘Drishyam’ be legally accepted? The jury is still out on this as for now, we have had two parts of the movie and a talk of third has been around for a while.
Tamil movie ‘Maruthi Nagar Police Station’, (MNPS) being streamed on aha, too bases its plot on the same debate. Here we have a police officer Archana played by Varalakshmi Sarathkumar who along with her friends hatches a plot to eliminate another policeman who is responsible for their common friend, Jai’s death. To top it this entire thing has to be executed in a police station.
According to their plan, Archana gets herself transferred to Maruthi Nagar Police Station in Chennai where the killer cop is working. The plan is that one by one her friends drop in at the police station as accused and complainants, the power goes off, and the accused cop is killed. However, just like the best-laid plans of mice and men, here comes the first twist. Not only the cop but a notorious goon who is sitting in front of him and having a conversation is also killed. Even before we are allowed to sink that in, comes the second twist. None of those who devised a plan to kill the cop actually did it and from here begins a wild hunt to find who did it.
‘MNPS’ written and directed by Dayal Padmanabhan is full of such so-called twists and turns. It’s fine as that helps the movie to pass muster as a murder thriller or a mystery. But the writing, in fact, the entire premise on which the main plot is built, is ridiculous, to say the least. A cop getting her friends to her workplace to bump off someone is easier said than done. Keeping spoiler alerts in mind, this ludicrosity increases when we are given a completely unbelievable backstory of ACP Nedunchezhian (Aarav Kizar) and Jai (Mahat Raghvendra), the friend whose death is being avenged.
For decades now police have been shown in a bad light in our movies. ‘MNPS’ takes it many notches higher and makes fun of the profession. How can one believe that it is so easy for policemen to misuse their office to settle personal scores and kill people? Had that been the case, the society at large would be under threat.
Not that it can be justified as cops are meant to protect and follow the law and not break it, but ‘MNPS’ fails spectacularly to even provide a semblance of sensibility or sanity to the story.
Varalakshmi Sarathkumar does a decent job as a cop who gives more importance to her friend’s death and revenge rather than following the righteous path of law. Besides her, the only one who manages to leave an impression is Aarav Kizar, a tough cop with mysterious looks and motives.
But what could have turned out to be a major talking point a la ‘Drishyam’, ends up like a whimper. The makers have failed to pull off this complex theme and only a few cheap thrills can not make it a memorable one. Maruthi Nagar Police Station is an absurd place to be.
Movie: Maruthi Nagar Police Station
OTT: aha
Director: Dayal Padmanabhan
Cast: Varalakshmi Sarathkumar, Aarav
