Maruthi Nagar Police Station Movie Review: Enough twists and turns, but barely an impactful connect

Police stations. These are a place of contrast, an amalgamation of perceived white and black characters. Sometimes a venue that promises hope for justice, while at the same time standing out as a testament to the ruthlessness of mankind. In Dayal Padmanabhan’s feature, the Maruthi Nagar police station is the place of suspicion, crime, and revelations. At one point, even a cop says that she does not want to go to a police station to seek personal justice. While the scene is staged and performed awkwardly, the message is clear… the path to justice is not always straightforward. The film does not delve into understanding the ethics behind this but merely takes it as a rule to stick to the crime thriller genre.

Director: Dayal Padmanabhan

Streamer: Aha

Cast: Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar, Santhosh Pratap, Arav, Amit Bhargav, Mahat, and others

In an uncomplicated yet interesting narrative, Dayal sets up the premise of this murder mystery. There is Jai (Mahat) who witnesses wrongdoing and wants to report it at the station. But the cop Guru (Amit Bhargav) takes him to the crime spot, colludes with gangster Naga (Subramanya Siva), and finishes off Jai. From here, follows the attempt of Jai’s four friends to avenge his death. Even as the loss of their friend instigates them to the extent of plotting murders, their presence feels like a piece of cardboard that can only be folded linearly. There is hardly an impactful arc that will make you grieve with them. Nevertheless, we move on, even if they don’t and we see cop Archana (Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar), along with her three friends, who enter the station to kill Guru and Naga. Even though everything goes according to plan, they find an all-important deviation, and the entry of ACP Nedunchezhiyan (Arav), which makes things all the more mysterious. 

While staying honest with its genre, the film does deliver much-needed twists and turns. But do they really translate into an intriguing drama? That’s a topic of debate. At one particular point when Nedunchezhiyan investigates Guru’s wife, she says, “nermai na en veetukar, en veetukarar na nermai”. Dialogues like these hardly work in a film like this. In another case, when the cops call workers to get inside a manhole inside the perimeters of the station, as part of the investigation, the workers get in, wholly unarmed and with basic clothing, only to come out covered with filth. I understand that the film is not a social drama, but probably a mention of safety guards, or machine-induced actions, could definitely have had a passing, yet lasting impact on manual scavenging, given how we are socially and consciously consuming cinema in today’s times. Isn’t it sometimes several films with passing references that condition our mind, rather than one strong film that questions the system?

While the film thrives on building emotional importance between the characters, they aren’t etched clearly enough. They are the foundation stone of this thriller but the building is still very shaky because dialogues are used flippantly without having any salient moments. The music does not overpower the narration, but the same cannot be said for the performances that are just overkill. In such a character-driven film when the film fails to have a neat arc for the principal characters, and give them enough to do, then we are just left with a film with a lot of promise that is buried under the floor of the police station.