Martin movie review: Dhruva Sarja has fun playing the bad boy, but film is an assault on the senses

2/5

Martin movie story: A man who single-handedly took out dozens of men, but claims to have no recollection of who he is, is captured on Pakistani soil. They reckon he is dangerous and try to get rid of him, but he manages to break free and tries to piece together his identity. What does he find out?

Martin movie review: Who is Martin? That’s the central plot of Dhruva Sarja’s latest action thriller. The actor took great pains to also repeatedly reiterate that he is playing Arjun Saxena in the film and yet the Anthem of Martin gave away that he was Martin too. The question then was if Dhruva was indeed going to be seen in dual roles or if it would be one character either with amnesia or on an undercover mission. Since the film is based on a story by Arjun Sarja, patriotism would be at the heart of the tale, so those were the scenarios I could think of. I wasn’t completely off – retrograde amnesia does get a mention and well there’s a lot of Dhruva. With the actor playing both Arjun and Martin, there’s literally 2 hours and 27 minutes of him onscreen, which can get a little too much to handle.

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But then, that’s the only interesting element in the story – to have Dhruva play both hero and villain and give the bad boy much of the screen time. There was a lot of growling and snarling initially - almost like a rabid dog – because one of these characters has been given a cocktail of drugs that’s left him with partial brain damage and memory loss. The magic of cinema is such that this gets reversed in no time to give the film a strong interval reveal – Who is Martin becomes I am Martin.

The second half is when the conflict between Arjun and Martin is revealed, but there’s not much to write about. As bold a move it was to pit Dhruva against Dhruva, the makers refrain from going the whole hog and copped out eventually. A ruthless gangster whose trademark it is to shoot people dead with a bullet right through their left eye also has a redemption arc – there’s a line even he won’t cross and that’s because he is a patriotic Indian.

Martin’s cast also includes Vaibhavi Shandilya, Anveshi Jain, Chikkanna and Nikitin Dheer, all of who put together get maybe 10 minutes of screen time, and less than half a page of lines said in the film. Mani Sharma’s songs are unremarkable, including the item number featuring Giorgia Andrani, who is kitted out in the skimpiest of outfits. Ravi Basrur’s background score is passable, but not the most memorable either.

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Worst of all, though, are the visual effects, which are shoddy at best and there’s liberal use of graphics throughout the film, which makes for a jarring visual experience. In fact, whatever cinematographer Satya Hegde tries to do to present a visual spectacle is undone by the graphics. It’s most glaring in the Dhruva vs Dhruva fight, making it easily one of the worst dual role stunts. One lingering thought at the end of the movie was that Dhruva Sarja should, perhaps, do more characters with shades of 'dark grey', It's unlikely he will, but well...

Martin is a tad under 2 and a half hours, but it felt like an eternity and evoked serious worry of lasting brain damage after that sensory assault. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Martin’s making way for Rhino. Sigh!

Martin movie verdict: Martin feels like a lost opportunity; Dhruva vs Dhruva had potential, but what we get is a wafer-thin plot as old as time that will, perhaps, appeal to die-hard fans of DS Boss. For the rest, well, you’ve been warned.