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Turbo is the third Bollywood film I’ve gone to see since I started partaking in Odeon’s Limitless, and while they’re not quite Oscar-winning masterpieces, they do often tend to be better than the average Hollywood fare.
We open with the murdering of a couple, the reasons for which will become apparent later, but it’s not long before the lead, Jose (Mammootty) – nicknamed ‘Turbo’ – gets attacked by a gang, but despite the odds, he can leap and punch hard while the room spins round in the camera, as if he’s a violent Neo from The Matrix, even though he’s getting on a bit, and like me, is a bit tubby.
In fact, since I’ve not seen him before, I assumed Mammootty was around 50, but he’s actually nearly 73! So, to be fronting an action movie at that age has to be commended.
And before long, many elements will lead back to this film’s cartoon baddie, Vetrivel (Raj B Shetty).
By day, Jose’s normally a jeep driver, but after an unscheduled trip to Chennai, he gets involved in a situation with his friend, Jerry (Shabareesh Varma), and fiancee, Indu (Anjana Jayaprakash), even though Jerry has so many dating apps on his phone, he seems to be dipping his wick where he shouldn’t. Plus, the prospective nuptials seems to be breaking news to their parents!
Turbo has some daft comedy moments, such as our lead always being worried what his mum, Rosakutty (Bindu Panikkar), will think. Hang on, if he’s in his seventies, how old is she?! Well, I can answer that, since the actress is 56! He must’ve been born in a DeLorean!
There’s also an amusing moment when one character retorts to another, “Don’t you dare speak to me in English!”, but then, quite often, characters will be yammering away in Hindi, and then dropping into a whole sentence in English in the middle. Why is this?!
Also, oddly, while the characters speak a mile a minute, giving plenty of subtitles to keep up with, twice and late on in the film, there’s a scene where the f-word is used twice, yet it’s asterisked out in the subtitles, AND the word is blanked out both times. WHY?! It’s a 15-certificate!
Additionally, Jose constantly wears a lungi, which Wikipedia describes as a men’s skirt usually tied around the lower waist below the navel. However, he’s forever having to mess about with it, as it gets caught up in things or falls down, so why not just ditch it and go for regular trousers?
Overall, Turbo is cheesy, overlong and predictable – such as in the cliché of every authority figure being corrupt and taking bribes, but it’s still more fun than Furiosa… and while there’s no post-credits scene in this, it still hints at a potential sequel. And if they make it, I’ll certainly go and see it.
Turbo is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 155 minutes (plus interval)
Release date: May 24th 2024
Studio: Balaji Motion Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 6/10
Director: Vysakh
Producer: Mammootty
Screenplay: Midhun Manuel Thomas
Music: Christo Xavier
Cast:
Turbo Jose: Mammootty
Vetrivel Shanmugha Sundaram: Raj B Shetty
Auto Billa: Sunil
Indu: Anjana Jayaprakash
Vincent: Kabir Duhan Singh
Jerry: Shabareesh Varma
Sithu: Niranjana Anoop
Rosakutty: Bindu Panikkar
CI Davis: Alexander Prasanth
Vakachan: Johny Antony
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.