Bazooka X reviews: Mammotty’s film has ‘nothing impressive’, fans call it average 2025 best
Got it! Here’s a detailed 2000-word long-form movie review of Bazooka, the new Malayalam film starring Mammootty:
‘Bazooka’ Movie Review: A Dull, Patchily-Written Gaming Thriller That Fails To Hit Its Target
In a cinematic era where genre-blending is becoming increasingly common, Bazooka attempts something both ambitious and intriguing: a techno-thriller rooted in the world of video games, revenge, and virtual identities. Directed by debutant Deeno Dennis and starring Malayalam cinema’s iconic Mammootty, the film promises high-stakes drama wrapped in digital mystique. Bazooka X reviews: Mammotty’s film has ‘nothing impressive’, fans call it average 2025 best Unfortunately, what it delivers is a muddled, unevenly paced narrative weighed down by patchy writing and underwhelming execution.
Plot Premise: A Game Within a Game?
Bazooka begins with an atmospheric premise: two young men, Imaan (Gautham Vasudev Menon) and Amar (Sharaf U Dheen), attempt a high-stakes blackmail and kidnapping operation involving a mysterious man named Bazooka—played by none other than Mammootty. Bazooka X reviews: Mammotty’s film has ‘nothing impressive’, fans call it average 2025 best From the onset, the film flirts with the idea that we are inside a game, or at least inside a story that blurs the boundary between reality and simulation.
Imaan, a game developer, believes that this “mission” is merely a part of a roleplay experience for a virtual gaming concept. But things begin to unravel when Bazooka reveals that he isn’t just some corporate actor—they have accidentally picked a man far more dangerous and calculating than they could’ve imagined.
What follows is a game of cat and mouse, laced with cyber-intrigue, revenge backstories, and moments that try to echo the style of Christopher Nolan orBazooka X reviews: Mammotty’s film has ‘nothing impressive’, fans call it average 2025 best David Fincher’s psychological thrillers. But for all its thematic ambition, Bazooka fails to sustain momentum.
Mammootty: The Star Power That Holds It Together
One of the most striking aspects of Bazooka is, unsurprisingly, Mammootty. At 72, the actor shows no signs of slowing down. His portrayal of Bazooka is icy, composed, and unsettling—an elite criminal mind cloaked in sophistication. His mere presence elevates the dullest scenes. Bazooka X reviews: Mammotty’s film has ‘nothing impressive’, fans call it average 2025 best He effortlessly switches between a charming intellectual and a ruthless strategist, making the audience cling to the hope that the film might eventually live up to his performance.
But even Mammootty, with all his gravitas and screen charisma, struggles to salvage the material. There are extended stretches where his character is given nothing compelling to do except talk in riddles, play mental chess, or walk through shadowy corridors. Despite his best efforts, the character of Bazooka never becomes fully dimensional. He’s enigmatic, yes, but never truly fascinating.
A Script That Feels Like a Draft
The biggest issue with Bazooka is the writing. Deeno Dennis’s script tries to juggle multiple tones—suspense thriller, techno-game narrative, and revenge drama—but ends up achieving none of them effectively. The first half is slow and confusing, Bazooka X reviews: Mammotty’s film has ‘nothing impressive’, fans call it average 2025 best relying too much on cryptic dialogue and atmosphere. While this could have worked if the payoff were strong, the second half collapses under the weight of its own over-explanation and predictability.
The screenplay frequently substitutes vagueness for depth. Characters are introduced with intriguing setups but are dropped without consequence. Bazooka X reviews: Mammotty’s film has ‘nothing impressive’, fans call it average 2025 best Dialogues try to sound philosophical but often land as pretentious. The editing by Nishadh Yusuf tries to inject rhythm with quick cuts and fragmented flashbacks, but the pacing remains inconsistent throughout.
The plot’s final twist—a supposed revelation that ties together the motivations behind Bazooka’s elaborate revenge—feels both rushed and unearned. What should have been a chilling crescendo becomes an eye-roll-inducing monologue.
The Techno-Thriller Angle: Style Without Substance
One of Bazooka’s major selling points was its use of gaming as a thematic and narrative metaphor. Posters teased neon visuals, hacker-like environments, Bazooka X reviews: Mammotty’s film has ‘nothing impressive’, fans call it average 2025 best and the dark underbelly of gaming psychology. However, the film barely scratches the surface of the video game world. We get brief glimpses of in-game environments, user interfaces, and stylized transitions meant to resemble “levels” or “missions,” but they serve more as aesthetic gimmicks than core narrative devices.
It’s clear the filmmakers were inspired by titles like Inception, Mr. Robot, or even Black Mirror, but Bazooka lacks the coherence and emotional intelligence to emulate them. The game-based elements are treated superficially—like window dressing on a conventional revenge drama.
There is a commentary buried somewhere about identity, control, and trauma in the digital age. But it remains underdeveloped. We are never quite sure whether the characters are players or pawns, and not in the deliberate, mind-bending way that would reward analysis, but more in a frustratingly vague sense.
Supporting Cast: Underutilized Talent
While Mammootty remains the film’s towering presence, the supporting cast is a mixed bag. Gautham Vasudev Menon, in a rare acting turn, delivers a surprisingly composed performance as Imaan. His character is the emotional anchor for the first half, and his confusion over the unfolding chaos reflects the viewer’s own sense of disorientation. However, his arc is disappointingly truncated in the second half.
Sharaf U Dheen as Amar brings some energy, but his character veers into caricature territory. The film sets him up as a volatile wildcard but gives him little emotional or narrative depth. Anjali, in a brief role, feels entirely wasted—her character enters late into the story and exits before making any real impact.
This unevenness in character writing contributes significantly to the film’s hollow emotional core. There is very little to root for. Even when the film tries to introduce elements of loss and vengeance, the characters are too underwritten to evoke genuine empathy.
Technical Aspects: A Slick Surface
On the technical front, Bazooka tries hard to look like a premium thriller. Nimish Ravi’s cinematography captures the cold, neon-lit environments with flair. The film plays a lot with contrast—dark rooms with glowing monitors, stark daylight in sterile environments, drone shots of cityscapes—all of which create a moody, dystopian aesthetic.
Midhun Mukundan’s background score is pulsating in parts, clearly influenced by Hans Zimmer’s bombastic style. The synth-heavy tracks and recurring motifs do add tension to certain sequences, though they often feel louder than necessary, perhaps to compensate for the flat screenplay.
The production design by Santhosh Raman deserves praise. The hideouts, server rooms, and the simulated gaming environments are well-designed, if underutilized. However, the VFX, while adequate, is not seamless. Some of the game-simulation visuals look outdated, which undercuts the immersive intent.
Missed Opportunities: What Bazooka Could Have Been
There was genuine potential in Bazooka’s premise. A character-driven thriller exploring trauma and vengeance through the prism of video games could have been groundbreaking in Indian cinema. The idea of blurring the lines between reality and simulation is ripe with psychological and philosophical potential. But Bazooka only flirts with these ideas. It never commits to exploring the deeper implications of its own setup.
For instance, there’s a subplot about Bazooka’s tragic past that is revealed late in the film. While it attempts to give emotional weight to his actions, it comes far too late to matter. The audience has already disengaged from the stakes, and the attempt at pathos feels like an afterthought rather than a revelation.
Moreover, the film’s attempt to present a morally ambiguous protagonist falls flat. Bazooka’s actions are too contradictory—he is alternately cold-blooded and sentimental, meticulous and reckless. The writing doesn’t earn these complexities, making him feel more like a collage of cool traits than a coherent character.
Final Verdict: All Style, Little Substance
Bazooka is not an outright disaster, but it is a frustrating film—one that had all the right ingredients for a gripping psychological techno-thriller but squandered them through uneven writing and half-baked ideas. For all its stylistic ambition, the film fails to connect on an emotional or intellectual level.
Mammootty’s commanding performance is the only consistent strength in a film that otherwise meanders between ambition and confusion. It’s the kind of film that wants to be dissected and discussed but doesn’t give enough clarity or substance to sustain such conversations.
In the end, Bazooka is a missed opportunity. It tries to push boundaries but doesn’t know where it’s going. It toys with complexity but lacks conviction. It promises a cerebral thriller but ends up delivering an aesthetic slideshow of half-formed thoughts.
Rating: 2.5/5
Pros:
- Mammootty’s magnetic screen presence
- Stylish cinematography and production design
- Intriguing core premise
Cons:
- Weak, patchy script
- Underdeveloped characters
- Poor pacing and inconsistent tone
- Surface-level engagement with game-based themes
Would you like me to do a character breakdown for Bazooka or maybe compare it with Mammootty’s past thriller roles like CBI Diary Kurippu or The Great Father?
