Quick Gun Murugun: Misadventures of an Indian Cowboy

I normally avoid watching movies in a cinema hall unless it is filled with special effects or something which demands a large screen and loud sounds. So here I was, entering a cinema hall to watch Quick Gun Murugun (QGM).

The problem with all comedies is that it has to grab you within the first 3 minutes. Attention is easy to grab, but difficult to retain. In action movies, you can step down the tempo with relief scenes or other movie making tricks, but with comedies, you cannot lose the tempo and you cannot rehash the same thing over and over again.

There is a simple plot of evil villain wanting to take over the world with a perfect dosa to keep the movie going, but it is not the soul.

From a viewer perspective, I felt that QGM lacked a vista. It is obviously noticeably that it is not a big budget movie, otherwise I suppose the film would have been panoramic and given me a more fulfilling cinema hall experience. It is a movie made for the sake of making movies and not money making. If the movie carries by word of mouth and does a Blair Witch Project and a sequel / prequel is approved, I would like to see film making passion increased exponentially - along with special effects, action and drama. But the special effects in the film is surprisingly good.

My overall impression of QGM was that an opportunity for making cult classic may be lost. The film showcases a director's love for making films and not money generating love. The script was brilliant in places but dragged in equal number of other instances. The acting was adequate, but did not make me love or hate the personalities. In some of the action sequences, the editing faults were a little too obvious to me.

The film focuses too much on the central characters, which is actually a good thing since you can devote more time and space with them, but I would have preferred a John Woo or a Wong Kar Wai or even the Sergio Leone treatment of the main characters. You need to be under the skin of these characters and empathise with them. I would also have personally preferred a more national flavour rather than limiting it to the south of India using the Bengali, Punjabi, Bihari and other fine Indian nuances.

The film was a light experience and as an after thought, made me want to watch more. These are the kind of carbon elements that the big producers should be focusing on. Not producing loud movies or having characters hamming in the name of comedy.

Somehow, the only line that remains imprinted in my mind and brings a wistful smile is "Lizzen no ..."

His name is Quick Gun Murugun, mind it! And I think the passengers around me would have thought I was mad enough to watch an Indian film, and an Indian cowboy one at that, laughing out loud in almost every scene which I can't help to because it's just so funny.

I mean, face it, here's probably the only Indian vegetarian Cowboy hero whose main objective in life is to take care of the cows (well, at least that's what cowboys do he believes), as well as being the guardian of the sacred animal of course. Armed with no more than two 6-shooters and a fancy gunplay technique, Quick Gun Murugun (Dr Rajandra Prasad) protects the meek from meat-eating gangsters such as Rice Plate Reddy (Nasser) who has megalomaniac plans to rid the world of vegetarianism!

Sounds dastardly, but not if our hero can help it, while juggling with his relationship woes with Locket Lover (Anu Menon) who resides in, well, his locket! For all the garish colours in his outfit of choice, the villains he goes up against is just as colourful, with names such as Gun Powder (Shanmughraja) and Rowdy MBA (Raju Sundaram), each with their own comical quirks that fans of Indian cinema would come to appreciate, and chuckle at. And despite our hero possessing some great skill with his pistols (head shots only, no less), he comes with an inherent weakness, and that's the number of bullets his pistols can store, before getting soundly beaten.

It's actually two films in one, with a time travelling and supernatural elements brought in for good measure, and more laughter. In present day Mumbai, he continues to seek out his arch enemy Rice Plate, who has gone on to start McDosa, a fast food chain bent on making Dosa from meat thanks to the recipe of Dr Django (Ashwin Mushran). And while waiting for more gunslinging action, there's another romantic subplot thrown in which involved Rice Plate's current moll Mango Dolly (Rambha), and how Quick Gun's now a fish out of water,

If you find the plot quite ridiculous, it actually is! And everything is just so hammed up, from the saturated colours, acting and dialogue, that it's actually incredibly smart in knowing when to hit the right notes, making you do double takes at just about every scene. Sight gags are galore too, and I reckon with every re-watch you'll find something new to laugh at, either from signages in some corner, or by the dialogue which come in healthy doses of Inglish.

If you're game for some irreverent comedy and one that has plenty of gags, then watch Quick Gun Murugun, which I endorse, I say!

Buying the ticket for this unusual kind of attempt, I had two thoughts in my mind. One that it may be a complete entertainer served with a different South Indian humor and two, it may turn out to be a sincerely attempted unsuccessful experiment by its makers. Unfortunately, it fitted well into the second category of my thoughts and was a big disappointment.

Moving around the revenge saga of a South Indian Cowboy called "Quick Gun Murugun", the movie is full of animated action sequences with bullets being shot in slow motion. The supreme hero never gets hurt seriously, as seen in the cinema of 70s and keeps on fighting with a miraculous touch. He can see the bullet coming towards him clearly, can hold it in his bare fist and can even catch it with his teeth. Senseless shots like these keep on repeating throughout the movie with characters speaking in heavy South Indian accent which also becomes unbearable after a while. Symbolically, there is a fight between the Vegetarian Hero and the Non Vegetarian villain who has plans to introduce his own Non-Veg Dosa. And another angle reveals how "Murugun" has also been to "Swarg" and even struck a deal with "Chitragupt" managing the life-accounts there.

The movie is quite strange and bizarre in its unreal treatment with no storyline heading towards any particular direction. It seems like the director just had the idea of this "South Indian Cowboy Character" and then he simply started shooting sequences of his fight with the villain and the project was ready. It makes you feel like watching a children comic strip running on the screen full of childish action sequences. It is even hard to believe that how the director not only managed to find big producers for this project but also successfully released it in the theaters with a fine promotional campaign. That was indeed a Great Job done! There is nothing much to write about the different technical departments of the project as I really found everything done lavishly but without any specific direction. Right from the sincere acting of Dr. Rajendra Prasad (QGM) to the stylishly done graphics, the efforts are barely visible due to the uninteresting and lifeless narration. Surprisingly the movie is just around 90 minutes of duration which serves as a boon for its viewers. May be they were not able to squeeze in more actions scenes towards its climax as it was already overdone.

In short, I can only describe this movie as purely made out of director Shashank Ghosh's passion and love towards the character "Quick Gun Murugun". The idea was pretty good and the project could have been the platform for another cult character of our movies. But sadly it could not materialize perfectly and the end result was just like an avoidable flavorless Dosa.

Worth every second.

The movie revolves around our hero and his enemy Mr. Rice Plate Reddy (Wow what a name). Our hero is a real hero who is very egoistic and humble at the same time.

He is a strict veggie. ( Which is really the need of the hour ) As i Myself is also pure Veggie. He tries to stop the villain to promote non-veg. He even argues with the Chitragupta and convinces him to send him back to the earth. So that he can promote vegetarianism.

The film is purely about gun shots as done by Clint Eastwood. The hero and his elder brother both are die=hard fans of Clint Eastwood.

The heroine name Mango Dolly. wow again what a creative name. She also is very sexy at the same time very homely. All that She does in the film is to seduce the hero until the end.

What is unsure is what happened after he killed Mr. Rice Plate Reddy. The music of the film is very good and catchy. I know that I don't write good reviews.

An honest Tribute to Clint Eastwood.

Quick Gun Murugun is a little more than what you expect – and yet falls short of your expectations. It is the wacky tale of a 'vegetarian-cowboy' who takes on Rice Plate Reddy and his gang of villains. It is also a spoof of too many things to count – South-Indian-movies, standard bollywood masala movies, cowboy movies and even McDonalds !! Filled with smart jokes – they will have you howling with laughter at the one liners. But believe it or not, the movie is somewhat of a drag ….

Telegu star Dr. Rajendra Prasad plays gunslinger Quick Gun Murugan with élan – bright orange pants and all. He is an avowed protector of cows and vegetarianism – and soon runs into Rice Plate Reddy, who is on a quest to convert every Udipi restaurant into non-veg. Reddy gets the better of him in the first encounter and our hero is thirsty for revenge.

This time, he gets a little help from Mango Dolly (Rambha) – Reddy's blonde moll – who falls for our Murugun's simple charms. On Rice Plate Reddy's side there is Dr Django and Rowdy MBA – who are implementing his plan of taking over the world with his dosas. And of course, there is our very own Lola Kutty with Murugun as well.

While hilarious, the story is actually very simple and sometimes it feels like the movie is too long for such a story. And the jokes are not spaced out enough to catch the slack in screenplay. But all the same, it is impossible to control the laughter that erupts when, for example, you see Murugan's love song picturisation. But be ready to be surprised with the violence as well – the violence is NOT picturised like a Tom and Jerry cartoon … All in all, a lot of very clever jokes interspersed with some not so interesting parts. Even though its overall rating is average, I would recommend a watch – because you are going to recall the jokes for days after the movie and chuckle thinking about it.

I write about movies regularly at http://bisprad.blogspot.com