The nunchaku climax in RDX
Nahas Hidayath took Malayalam cinema by surprise with his directorial debut RDX (2023), which saw him rehashing the greatest hits of the genre to great effect. The film dealt with three brothers who took it upon themselves to protect their families from a group of ruffians, hell bent on revenge. In a film populated with well constructed action set pieces, one moment that stood out was the climatic block where veteran action star Babu Anthony got to use his preferred instrument of choice; the nunchaku. The moment works as it banks on the sub textual understanding of the star’s earlier on screen persona. The writing positions the yesteryear action star as a largely inert, passive bystander for the majority of the film’s run time, oftentimes lending support to the younger leads tasked with the bloody action.
However, our basic understanding of his legacy and the genuinely inspired casting choice lets the viewer’s imagination run wild throughout the movie, often waiting for the inevitable punch to land, but the screenplay does not reward that itching feeling and constantly tweaks and plays with our expectations. Then, towards the end, we get the ultimate cinematic release when Nahas and his screenwriters construct a moment of pure euphoria with a tiny set piece within the set piece moment, featuring a flying nunchaku that takes its sweet time to come down to the hands of the one man who has been dormant the entire runtime.
With inputs from Ram Venkat Srikar, Kaira, Shruti, Prathyush Parasuraman, Arjun Menon and Nishanth A