Sandalwood’s action queen Malashree is back on the silver screen after six years. ‘Marakastra’ (lethal weapon) is just another action film to her oeuvre.
Gurumurthy Sunami, the director, forces a dozen action sequences and four ill-timed songs into the film. Its story centres around greed for hidden treasure, an unholy nexus between politicians and bureaucrats, and black magic.
Prof Shankar and his wife Parvathi manage an orphanage. Parvathi’s father nominates her as the heir to his properties, but her brother wants the land.
The film opens with an MLA committing the murder of a contractor for money, which is followed by the murders of a deputy commissioner, an advocate, a doctor, and a police inspector. Prof Shankar’s two children also get murdered. The department appoints IPS officer Jahnavi (Malashree) to probe the murders. What is the connection between Shankar’s family and the murders? How tactfully will Jahnavi investigate the case? Gurumurthy takes over two-and-a-half hours to answer these questions, as he defies logic and reasoning.
It also exposes the director’s understanding of the police department — Bengaluru city police commissioner appoints an IPS officer as the Superintendent of police of Ballari district to probe the murders! While white magic is adopted to beat black magic, here doctors and police officers are used to neutralise the effects of black magic.
The subplot involving Bharat (Anand Arya) and crime reporter Nandini (Harshika) is irrelevant. Though Malashree performs, her dialogue delivery is hard to digest. Manju Kavi’s music is not impressive. You can give ‘Marakastra’ a miss.