A Clint Eastwood-worshipping vegetarian Tamilian cowboy. This is a joke that needs no punchline.
Quick Gun Murugun is based on the iconic Chanel V character created in 1994 by Rajesh Devraj and Shashanka Ghosh. Murugun, played by veteran Telugu actor Rajendra Prasad, is the dosa-eating crack shot cowboy who roams the streets in the most spectacular superhero outfit seen since Phantom donned purple tights.
However going from 30-second spots to a full- length feature film is a tricky evolution. Ghosh who has directed the film, from a script by Devraj isn’t entirely successful but Murugan packs enough laughs for a viewing.
The plot, which is totally inconsequential, pits Murugan against his arch-enemy Rice Plate Reddy, played by Nasser. Reddy who heads the nefarious McDosa corporation plans to commit the ultimate sacrilege--create a machine-made, non-vegetarian dosa. Aided by Mango Dolly, a delicious moll with a heart of gold played by Rambha, Murugn foils the evil Reddy. Parts of Murugun are fabulously funny.
The insistently lurid colors, Prasad’s pitch perfect melodramatic expressions and the dialogue, including Murgun’s favorite phrase Mind It, will have you giggling till your sides ache. Ghosh spoofs our favorite film conventions with affection and style. But a 90-minute spoof is hard work. What’s funny for the first half starts to feel like work in the second. Beyond a point, the joke seems strained.
The energy flags and the film becomes uneven. I also didn’t enjoy the excessive cartoon violence. We have close-ups of bullet holes in bodies and a plot twist about bombs in tiffin boxes. That struck me as too macabre to be amusing.
Eventually then, Quick Gun Murugun isn’t the roller coaster ride it could have been but I still recommend you make time for it. Because it’s wacky, original and inventive. At one point, in a tender, post-coital moment, Mango Dolly asks our cowboy: how was it for you? To which he replies: Next time, put more elaichi in the payasam. That scene alone is worth the price of the ticket.
I’m going with two and a half out of five stars but suggesting that you Mind It.