Even before the release of Marco, the makers of the Malayalam action thriller had been pitching it as “the most violent Indian film ever”.
And true to its tag, the Unni Mukundan starrer has now earned an R21 rating (restricted to persons aged 21 or above) from Singapore’s censor board, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), with the advice of “strong violence and gore”, reported the entertainment website OTTPlay.
Fans were quick to point out that the rating was justified, as the film was also rated A (Adults Only) by India’s Censor Board of Film Certification, ahead of its theatrical release on Dec 20.
Marco has Mukundan playing the titular role and has scenes of brutal violence as well as gore, including the dismemberment of people and animals and the killing of pregnant women and children.
The action thriller, directed by Haneef Adeni and also starring Kabir Duhan and Yukti Thareja, tells the story of a feared gangster who goes on a killing spree after his adopted brother is killed in a cartel conspiracy.
IMDA justified the R21 rating by explaining that the film contains “prolonged sequences of violence with strong, graphic details of injury and bloodletting”, while detailing the sequences.
Even other violent Indian action films, such as Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal and Prashanth Neel’s Salaar: Part 1 Ceasefire, got only a Mature 18 rating from the Singapore censor board.
In the past, other Indian films such as Mani Ratnam’s Bombay, Rajkummar Rao’s Badhaai Do, Anil Kapoor’s Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga and Ayushmann Khurrana’s Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan also received the R21 rating, with the latter three for their “homosexual theme”, according to the IMDA website.
On Reddit, a user who had posted the Singapore rating for Marco, commented: “This rating is usually reserved for exploitation films like the Saw and Terrifier franchise. Never thought a mainstream Indian film will crack it.”
Another user agreed that the movie has the same level of gore as the Hollywood films, while some agreed Marco’s level of violence might be on the level of Korean films.
However, Marco has seen unprecedented success, turning it into a super hit in Malayalam.
On top of that, the film has received immense love from the Hindi audience, making it Malayalam cinema’s highest-grossing Hindi-dubbed film.
According to the Sacnilk website, the film has collected Rs37.35 crore from India in 11 days ,with Rs34.97 crore share from Malayalam and Rs2.38 crore from Hindi.
The film released in Telugu on Jan 1, and will release in Tamil today.
This immense and unexpected popularity of the film has led to Netflix acquiring the digital rights.
