We have seen many cops in many movies with some peculiarity or other, but it would be very hard to find an encounter specialist who waits for a target for more than a day, perched on a building, rifle in hand, in a crowded locality of Mumbai.
That is Maddy or Madhava Menon for you, the diligent and belligerent policeman portrayed by Mohanlal in Karmayodha, directed by Major Ravi. This is the first time that the director has got out of the military barracks to tell a story, and it shows.
Mad Maddy (Mohanlal), as the encounter specialist is nicknamed, is temperamental as his name suggests, and repeats many times that he kills people for a living while interrogating them. And he kills at will.
He gets involved in a case of abduction of a teenage girl. After the initial investigation and spraying a few more bullets in Mumbai, the trail leads him to Kerala by road as he is informed that the girl is being transported there inside a shipping container.
After arriving there and spending a few mandatory moments in his mother's (Sukumari)
lap, Maddy dives headlong into the investigation getting help from his local friend in the force, Saikumar.
In between, we are shown ridiculous sequences of how young girls using cell phones fall prey to racketeers who traffic women, because they talk to strangers and maintain secret friendships!
There's some more pontificating on the breaking up of the joint family system that is pushing the elderly into old age homes. Maddy finds some more clues and suspects, whom he happily tortures. When he is reminded that this is a civilised place and his brutal methods will not be tolerated here, he blurts out that he has not come here in search of just any girl but his own daughter.
He gets more support in his search in the form of Mukesh, a local policeman, and some youngsters led by Bineesh Kodiyeri who are tracking a similar 'girl missing' case.
In the end, our hero and the menacing bad guy portrayed by Murali Sharma come face to face and it seems they have a history.
On the whole, Karmayodha is too loud and unrealistic and has precious little to say of any worth.
Rediff Rating: