RDX review: KGF stunt directors Anbariv pack too much action in a simplistic martial arts film that doesn’t quite cut it

Robert (Shane Nigam), Dony (Antony Varghese), Xavier (Neeraj Madhav) are karate students with a heroic mission to protect the family. (Screen grab / RDX trailer/ Saregama Malayalam)

RDX stands for Robert (Shane Nigam), Dony (Antony Varghese), Xavier (Neeraj Madhav). It’s also the name of an explosive, and the names aren’t a coincidence. This Nahas Hidayath directorial is about three Angry Young Men who get angrier and angrier, until the climax when they are the angriest. Post-pandemic, there is a perception in the Malayalam film industry that it’s only action films that will attract the audience to the theatre. The success of 2022 releases like Bheeshma Parvam and Thallumaala have pushed more and more filmmakers to explore the genre in ways that are new for the industry.

RDX is the latest in line, a martial arts film centred around the hero’s oldest mission – protecting the family. Robert and Dony are brothers while Xavier is a close friend. All three of them are experts in karate, and train in Xavier’s father’s (Babu Antony) academy in Kochi. The film opens with an attack, and moves back in time to show how it all began.

Thallumaala also had a similar non-linear structure, but the fights in the film were over silly reasons. In that sense, it was a self-aware and edgy celebration of toxic masculinity. RDX, however, takes itself too seriously to be anywhere as fun as its inspiration. The incident that provokes Robert, Dony and Xavier to enter a prolonged and bloodthirsty battle is a graphic assault on the family. The camera painstakingly documents the violence, and not even the perpetually screaming baby is spared.

The audience, therefore, is expected to feel that the RDX mission of pulping everyone involved is justified. Stunt directors Anbariv of KGF fame are behind the action choreography in RDX, and you can see the effort that has gone into the sequences. But it still doesn’t feel like a martial arts film. The actors neither look the part nor are agile enough. Just ask the generation that grew up on Bruce Lee films. The fights end up resembling action sequences we’ve seen in every other Indian action film, with Sam CS’s background score pumping up the energy. There’s lots of sound and fury, but not much calculation or intelligence.

While Robert, Dony and Xavier belong to wealthy families, the men they’re up against are from a “colony”. The latter group is lower class and possibly lower caste, but the film doesn’t dwell on this obvious power inequality. Moreover, the RDX boys are related to a senior police official, and yet, we’re meant to believe that all their social capital is of no use. Sachy’s Ayyappanum Koshiyum (2020) was also an “adi padam” where two egoistic men went up against each other, but the film offered a commentary on their respective social locations too.

The lack of layered writing makes RDX a simplistic film that becomes repetitive and tiring. Shane Nigam is charming as the baby-faced loverboy and is easily the best performer in the cast. His romance with Mini (Mahima Nambiar) is of the cringe variety, but Nigam somehow makes it work with his flashing dimples. Barring him, the casting isn’t so great, especially the ‘youth’ in the cricket team who look distinctly middle-aged.

There are few light-hearted moments in RDX, and when you say it’s “action-packed”, it truly is. Packed wall to wall and with very little breathing space. A husband speaks lovingly to his wife in the ICU but before you can take in the exchange, she is attacked by a goon. It is this relentless focus on action scenes that proves to be the film’s undoing.

RDX tries hard to be original, but ends up being a pale imitation. It’s entertaining in parts but needed more originality to be truly explosive.