Marco (Telugu) Review

Imagine a movie that seamlessly blends the finest visual elements of iconic mafia films like The Godfather and Scarface, the best martial arts masterpieces such as Kill Bill, The Raid, The Killer and Ong-Bak, the goriest movies such as the Saw franchise, and recent Indian hits such as Kill, Animal and KGF - and yet stands as a superb, unified whole. That's Marco - perhaps one of the most brutal action thrillers of the world.

Marco (Unni Mukundan) is the adopted son of the Adattu family, a notorious gold-smuggling syndicate in Kerala. When his blind brother Victor (Ishaan Shoukath) is brutally murdered by a rival smuggling syndicate, Marco embarks on a relentless quest for vengeance against everyone responsible.

It doesn't take long for the gorefest to start - the two murders (of Victor and his friend) that trigger it take place within just minutes of the movie starting. By then all the key characters have been introduced and the plot is established. And from that point, Marco's vengeance is unleashed - it's an unapologetic rampage right until the end, with each successive scene bloodier than the last. By the climax, the human violence escalates into beast mode.

The movie is everything it promises to be - bloody, violent, brutal and gut-wrenching (quite literally). In Marco's sinister world, violence spares nothing - heads roll, ears are bitten off, limbs are chopped, and hearts, eyes and intestines are ripped out. Even fetuses are pulled from wombs with bare hands. The carnage involves anything within reach - bare hands, hammers, chairs, knives, spoons, machetes, chainsaws, stones and gas cylinders - as well as the exotic, like absolute hydrofluoric acid and automatic firearms, including M134 machine guns. And if you think the result of it all is overkill, you're wrong - the action and stunts are fresh from the factory and gratuitous. Every lover of gore will find the movie God-send.

The movie may not resonate with you on a personal or emotional level like Kill did, as it doesn't delve deeply into the interpersonal relationships between the characters. And occasionally it defies physics for the sake of massy gore, lacking some of the rawness of Kill. However, in terms of brutality, gore and disturbing visuals, it surpasses all expectations.

The movie demands that you approach it as pure fiction - don't search for reason, suspense or intricate plot twists, because there aren't many. As mentioned earlier, the entire plot unfolds within the first few minutes. What follows is revenge and its modus operandi. You already know the outcome, but what keep you glued are the grand execution and the inventive action choreography that borrows from the best - Hong Kong, Indonesia, Hollywood and India - and makes its own deadly cocktail.

Unni Mukundan doesn't just play Marco - he becomes him, channeling raw ferocity and vulnerability in equal measure. His eyes alone carry the weight of vengeance, and with every step, he drags the audience deeper into his relentless world. The rest of the cast rises to meet him, matching his intensity beat for beat. Each moment lingers, etched into memory long after the screen fades to black.

Anson Paul, Kabir Duhan Singh and Sreejith Ravi flesh out this gritty underworld, but it's Jagadeesh as Tony Issac who surprises the most. Decked in sharp suits and fluent in icy English, Jagadeesh has a mafioso charm that conceals a predator beneath the polish. We've seen him go dark before, but never like this - suave yet seething, a businessman whose handshake feels as lethal as a gunshot.

The film is frugal with dialogues, but the few that it has are short, impactful and reminiscent of those in The Godfather. Words take a backseat to fists and fury here. The writing hums quietly in the background while bones creak and crack and blood spills freely. And Chandru Selvaraj's cinematography screams from the forefront all through. Every frame drips with style - shadows stretch long, and rain slicks the streets like ink on glass. And Ravi Basrur's score breathes life into the bone-crunching fights.

But all the gore isn't just for shock. Prosthetics, CGI and VFX blend seamlessly, making each snapped bone and severed limb feel unnervingly real. This isn't just action - it's art crafted with precision and unflinching honesty. The movie makes extensive use of a black and grey palette like in KGF and Kalki. Rare flashes of light and warmth are dominant only when showing Marco and Victor sharing fleeting moments of brotherhood.

With Marco, Mollywood proves once again that it plays in a league of its own. This is more than a film - it's an experience, one that demands to be seen uncut. Marco doesn't ask for permission; it grabs you by the collar and pulls you headfirst into its brutal beauty.