‘Mr X’ movie review: Arya-Gautham Karthik’s promising mission undone by excess

There’s intrigue the minute Mr X opens on the big screen. Did you know that in 1965, India and the United States of America joined hands for an operation that attempted to install a nuclear-powered surveillance device on the Nanda Devi mountain range, the aim being able to monitor Chinese missile and nuclear activity?

Mr X throws open this sequence at first, and immediately cuts to Chennai, where we spot a shirtless Goutham (Arya) emerging from an underwater fitness routine. Goutham is a secret RAW agent, as are the other members of his team. On the surface, they are just ordinary people, like a businessman and a delivery driver. But when there’s a mission, they should unite.

As they do, busting a money laundering racket in Sowcarpet with all guns blazing. So, is Goutham Mr X? What is the connection between him and the missing missile from the Nanda Devi operation?

For answers, you will have to sit through 153 minutes involving multiple characters who have multiple backstories, long-drawn action sequences that do not seem to end and twists that are not entirely necessary.

The makers intend to design it as a slick, Hollywood-style spy thriller — and the good part is that Mr X has some level of focus, restraining the urge to dive into unnecessary commercial Tamil cinema elements — but halfway, it becomes not just predictable but also too long-winding for its own good.

The disclaimer in the beginning is a clue for that. Director Manu Anand’s film begins with an announcement stating that it is a “fictional story, woven together by various incidents that reportedly happened over a period of time”, and that long passage of time shows. The characters are in Chennai at one instance, and suddenly, they are in Russia, even as a flashback shows a sequence in Pakistan. There are just too many things happening at breakneck speed that the film forgets to breathe.

In terms of physicality, Arya fits the bill of a RAW agent; he shoulders the action sequences with ease. But there’s little scope for performance for the actor in him, the one that we saw in films like Naan Kadavul or Sarpatta Parambarai…which is why even in a supposedly emotional scene, he stays cold.

Gautham Karthik in ‘Mr X’

Amaran (Gautham Karthik) is written much better. With a code name that goes ‘Lone Wolf’, the actor’s deceiving smile hides something far more grey than he reveals. If used well, Gautham Karthik might well turn out to be a good choice for future Tamil filmmakers scouting for actors to play young, sophisticated villains. And then there’s Sarath Kumar, who has a crucial character in the scheme of things. While he aces the routine action sequences, he also appears in a throwback of sorts to a few popular characters he has played in the past, which brings a smile. Manju Warrier has an impact in a role that could have probably been developed better.

Crisp editing by Prasanna GK and music by Dhibu Ninan Thomas cannot salvage the largely forgettable second half that even features a sequence after what we perceive to be the end, thus setting the stage for a Mr X 2. Now, that is not a mission we are looking forward to undertake.