Bazooka Review: Mammootty’s Experiment With Gaming And Deeno Dennis Is Fresh And Promising 

In Bazooka, Mammootty embarks on one of the most conceptually daring experiments of his recent career—a psychological thriller that blends the aesthetics and logic of gaming with the texture of real-world crimes, mostly about robbery. Directed by debutant Deeno Dennis, the film positions itself as a slow burn before detonating in its final ten minutes, which arguably justify expectations surrounding a Mammootty film which rides on the hopes of freshness and experiments, when the director is a fresh face.

At first glance, Bazooka walks along familiar territory—an enigmatic protagonist, a police chase, a maze of motivations and a hero who does things only the heroes do. But as the narrative tightens, we are pulled into a meta-construct where the rules of reality begin to echo the structure of a high-level games, though a normal viewer would be thrown into a maze where some concepts would remain ambiguous.

[Spoiler Alert]

Crimes in Bazooka unfold not as spontaneous acts of violence but as orchestrated missions, complete with levels, traps, and strategic decisions. Mammootty plays dual roles (may be more) —Aryan Achary and John Caesar—with a level of poise and physical energy that belies his age (not a new thing to discuss). His performance doesn’t merely hold the film together; it elevates a structurally ambitious premise into a thoroughly watchable piece of genre cinema.

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The plot revolves around Mario, a celebrated gamer who uses his mastery over game logic to ensnare the police in a carefully designed trap, which happens as a vengeance to a personal incident. His crimes, layered in their execution and symbolic in tone, mimic the arcs of digital gameplay. Like the best of gaming narratives, Bazooka toys with ideas of control, choice, and consequence. If the film’s first two acts feel subdued or even meandering, the final act is a thematic mic drop—a swift shift that redefines the preceding events in retrospect.

Still from Bazooka

Slow execution and lag is a problem Bazooka faces till the end. However, Deeno Dennis shows remarkable maturity in both writing and direction. For a first-time filmmaker, he brings a confidence in tone and pacing that’s rare. His screenplay eschews excess exposition and trusts the viewer to fill in the gaps. The influence of gaming culture—both psychological and philosophical—is evident throughout. The film explores why people play games: not just for entertainment, but for escape, for control, for catharsis. It imagines the gamer not merely as a consumer, but as a strategist, a storyteller, a rebel sailing through a chaotic world through code and consequence.

The music by Saeed Abbas, atmospheric and often minimal, enhances Deeno’s vision. It punctuates tension without overpowering, allowing space for the eerie quietude of the game-world analogy to seep in. Technically, the film is clean, if not showy. The editing is crisp, especially in the latter half when the film picks up narrative urgency.

What Bazooka accomplishes, quite remarkably, is a conceptual elevation of the gamer figure in Indian cinema. While Bollywood has flirted with tech-savvy antiheroes—as seen in Don 2, Shivaay, or A Wednesday!—rarely has a film structured itself entirely around gaming psychology. In Hollywood, one finds distant cousins in WarGames, Gamer, or even the Nolan-esque meticulousness of The Dark Knight. But Bazooka goes further. It doesn’t just use gaming as set dressing; it builds a philosophical framework where life and game blur.

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Mammootty’s role in shaping such cinema cannot be overstated. His willingness to work with debutant directors—Deeno joins a long list, has allowed new voices to find strong creative footing. His presence brings commercial heft, but he never overshadows the director’s voice, especially since the theme is new and the ‘young’ actor is the most innovative  among his contemporaries.

Still from Bazooka

If Bazooka has a flaw, it lies in its pacing. The film takes its time to set up its ideas, and some viewers may find the payoff too dependent on the final twist. But for those patient enough, the reward is considerable. It’s a film that lingers—both in thought and structure—long after the screen fades to black.

With Bazooka, Mammootty once again proves he’s not just an actor, but a curator of new cinematic languages, and when a character calls him Jack Nicholson for shifting from one character to another, it looks like the words are justified. Mammootty’s usual masala of mixing style in thriller movies repeated here as well. Actual ‘wow’ moments for the people who love the actor and his body of work. And Deeno Dennis, with his debut, offers a fresh grammar—one where joysticks, justice, and jarring truths intersect thrillingly.