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Genre : Action/ Horror
Cast : Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
Brimming with delicious symbolism, George Miller’s reboot of the post-apocalyptic road movie is an intense comic-book take on the world we are going to inherit. Shekhar Kapur is taking time to draw his Paani but Miller has painted a violent picture of the world where the resources like water and blood are in control of one war lord called Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrnes). He lives on the high ground and sells his folks jingoistic ideas and his men are keen to lay their lives like suicide bombers. There are gangs interestingly named as diesel group and bullet group indicating the coming together of power groups to control the world.
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Like most despots in the history Joe is turning his personal battle into a war that everybody must fight. His wives or sex slaves have run away with a feminist defector Imerator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Too much layering for a high octane summer blockbuster? Wait there is more. Amidst all the bizarre characters on wheels in the midst of the desert, our Max (Tom Hardy) is the last surviving male. Tied to the front of the vehicle, he is used as a blood bank by the diseased army of Joe. As the chase heats up, he sides with Imperator to free the women and himself.
Relentlessly violent, the film, ironically, makes a strong case for saving the ecology of the world and the seeds are in the hands of women. The film’s motto ‘we are not things’ is literally written on the wall. Miller’s team of writers deserve credit for handling the role of women in a war with a touch of sensitivity without getting preachy as the action sequences literally grow on you. The film doesn’t open its cards easily. Miller is as miser with the details as Joe is with water. Like the boulders dropping unannounced on Furiosa’s humungous rig, Miller drops surprises at every turn.
The best part is he doesn’t makes his characters pause to make these statements. The ironies are inherent in the crazy chase that he has put together. Like the scene where Nux, a warrior who switches sides, calls a leafless tree a thing for he has seen one before. Furiosa talks through her silences. When she puts the axle grease on her forehead you know what she is made of. Hardy, thankfully doesn’t get a chance to emote giving Furiosa the space to take over as the unexpected hero of the franchise. Its retro vehicles outsmart all the shiny vehicles that call themselves “Fast & Furious”.
Bottomline : A visceral reboot of a franchise that tries to rise above the fun and frivolity of a summer blockbuster and largely succeeds.