RDX: Robert Dony Xavier

I'm so proud of Nahas Hidayath for overcoming all the obstacles he faced as a filmmaker (including shelving his first film with Antony Varghese) and surprising us this Onam with a banger like RDX! Here's a pure action entertainer that we can add to the likes of Ajagajantharam and Thallumaala, with higher emotional stakes than both those films. The three leads - Robert (Shane Nigam), Dony (Antony Varghese), Xavier (Neeraj Madhav) - share great brotherly chemistry and that helps elevate even some of the ordinarily written scenes.

Nahas attributes distinct specialties to the fighting styles of each protagonist - something that, I felt, was picked up from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - heck, we even have a character like Master Splinter (Babu Antony). Robert's kicks are crazy, Dony's punches are thunderous, and Xavier's good with nunchaku. Plus, when we have stunt masters Anbarivu on board, the action blocks are carefully designed, choreographed, and stylized. The introductory fight (during the flashback) is the only one that felt a bit out of place, and it's also because, at that point, I was only getting used to seeing Shane Nigam and Neeraj Madhav execute action the way they do in the rest of the film (whereas Antony Varghese had already proven his point!). Out of all the set pieces, my favourites include one that takes place on a boat, one inside a colony full of thugs, and the climactic showdown outside the hospital. The good thing is that the story necessitates the action, not the other way round.

The cinematography work also gets better with each set piece. Sam CS produces a riveting score that not only underlines the action, but also the breather scenes in between. The antagonist (Vishnu Agasthya) is splendidly portrayed and his viciousness is felt from the very first scene. The guy emanates a kind of naturally devilish charm that's been lacking in Malayalam actioner villains lately. Mahima Nambiar, who plays Robert's love interest, also does well. She even gets a whistle-worthy moment in the final act. Speaking of whistle-worthy moments, Babu Antony gets the best one in the entire film (a treat for us '90s kids).

Big thanks to Sophia Paul for bankrolling this venture, trusting Nahas and his team's conviction, and offering a great addition to the list of kickass Malayalam actioners!

RDX offers good action sequences. But the script fails to impress. Malayalam film industry is going through a hard phase. We have been provided with too many poor movies which lead us to a point where we get so excited or impressed over slightly above average movies.

Most of the scenes felt illogical because of the situations and the things they do. The main character's friends are not there. Their uncle who's a policeman is not there. It's always just the 3 leads fighting their own battles. The climax made no sense at all. I'm not gonna spoil anything.

The song was unnecessary. Pepe was so good and so was Shane. Neeraj did great with action scenes but lacks the mass aura.

It works better if you watch with an electrifying crowd.

RDX is a well established Action packed movie following the footsteps of Ajagajanthiram & Thallumala. Anbraivu's action is the major highlight of the movie with impeccable action scenes. Anthony Varghese, Neeraj Madhav & Shane Nigam, the male protagonists performed whole throughout the movie with slight upper hand by Neeraj & Shane. Background score & songs by Sam CS also helped the movie to be more interesting. The antagonists played by Vishnu Agasthya, Sandeep, etc delivered their finest performance and I will consider that as the backbone of the movie. Family sentiments and romance was perfectly fused with the high octane action. Cinematography by Alex. J. Pulickal was top notch. Editing by Chaman Chacko deserves a loud round of applause for making RDX a crispy explosive one.

The lady characters played by Mahima, Aimie, Mala Parvathi deserves special mention.

All in Whole, as the name denotes.. RDX is mass destruction Explosive.

Watch it in theaters for the amazing experience.

8.7 on 10 is my score.

RDX has its fair share of problems, maybe because it's the director's debut, but it had more than enough to look over those for me, and since even with films like "Thallumaala" such proper action-oriented films still are not always sight that is seen in Malayalam. The film has what feels like a template 90s Malayalam action movie story and for that, they chose the early 2000s as the time period. But those 90s movies were more about the firebrand dialogues that would hype you up which would end with a bang of action, which, even though it wouldn't look that great, was not bad, and was entertaining enough for the time. Here, they chose to showcase the villains in a way that we are already enraged enough, so the story flows with just enough exposition and the rest would naturally lead to the action scenes, and then filled it with a variety of settings for the action. Neeraj, gets the least focus among the three, as Xavier but his dancing skills are converted into the nunchuck-wielding martial artist and works great with what he has. Anthony Pepe, following his flavour of action from "Angamaly Diaries" and "Ajagajantharam" shows off his "naadan thallu" and comes off as the hardest hitting "boxer". Shane as Robert does look like the hero here, pulling off romance and action without any problem and also clearly showing he's much more than a "depression star" as many like to call him. The three of them made a great team together and the mere presence of Babu Antony, the OG martial artist star of Malayalam makes it a great experience (even though I would have really liked it if he had more to do in it).

Now, the movie does have a lot of problems. The flashback love story was a bit dragging even though the 90s music filling that space and hitting us with nostalgia was a clever way to not make it feel too laggy. The action by Anbarivu was great but the cinematography and the editing of the action scenes themselves could have been a lot better.

However, despite all the problems, it was a great experience watching something that simultaneously satisfies those who miss the 90s and those who want a decent action movie of modern times.

Action choreography, direction and background music made the movie.

If you insist on a story, you might want to carry a balarama with you.

Nothing Nolan about this movie - simple stuff, stylish action weaved into emotions. With a no-star cast, the director has been able to pull off a pretty good movie.

Background music had a freshness to it and complimented the action very well. Facial expression closeups backed by Sam CS' BGM.

Action choreography is very well done, lot of meticulous work has gone into stylizing each and every shot. Acting performances have been great - good screen presence from Pepe, Shane and Neeraj. Pepe stood out a little more.

It is a light stylized action movie.