As condescending as
Quick Gun Murugun - a northie take on the
sambar cult - was, it still showed that a spoof could indeed go the way of a full-length movie. Super Cowboy is an attempt at a full-blown satire - on life as well as on cinema - and uses a Western adventure format to do so.
However, at the risk of sounding overly negative about what is undoubtedly a creative attempt at a rare cerebral genre, here's the verdict - Super Cowboy is a rather dull undertaking. And this being a dubbed offering, it already suffers from a general lack of crowd pull, besides having a name suggestive of an avoidable B-grade experience.
The plot involves a troubled town - Jaishankarpuram - in the far West being thoroughly oppressed by a villain Nalla Taj (Nasseer) who inhabits an "Iron Fort", and whose ruthless flunky (Saikumar) wreaks havoc everywhere. The village elders catch hold of Simhachalam (Raghava Lawrence), a look-alike of their now dead hero Simham, whose daredevil acts kept the townspeople safe from all evil.
The timid, quivering Simhachalam can't hold a candle to the swashbuckling Simham, but the villagers are still convinced he's him and are infused with new spirit. His war against Nalla Taj, in whose fort several have been imprisoned, begins. A legion of Red Indians and a treasure hunt form the rest of the saga.
Super Cowboy has several sparks of brilliance constructed the way an advertising wizard would. Sadly, it's all lost amid a largely mediocre production. The whole bit about the Red Indians' chief's translator is smartly written as well as well-executed, and the treasure hunt contains much day-to-day humour. The tool for all the comedy is some noisy cowboy Western action, with outlandish stunts and mock melodrama.
Then again, we are probably mostly a slapstick audience, who'd react to Venu Madhav's vocal loudness and Brahmanandam's visual hilarity slightly better than to a pun hidden in a dialogue. Super Cowboy is mostly about cerebral humour, but in any case, it isn't too greatly presented, and leaves much of the audience disinterested.
Lawrence, Nasseer, Saikumar (who's been given some hilariously outrageous make-up) and a few other actors all look like they're thoroughly enjoying themselves. The rest of the cast, however, looks absolutely lethargic, especially the leading ladies. And like we said, there are too few known faces for audiences out here to wholeheartedly enjoy the flick.
Then, there's the issue of the poor visual quality - another fallout of being a dubbed movie - that doesn't in the least keep you gripped. So despite great Western sets that include funny names for the streets and pubs, and a rather innovatively constructed treasure hunt, there's nothing by way of spellbinding.
The music had great potential to top up all the comedy, but just doesn't. Except for a weak song spoof towards the end, the rest of the songs are speed-breakers strewn in an already over-stretched movie.
We'd recommend this for an interesting time if you set yourself up for it, but an engaging movie this isn't.