That doesn't necessarily make 'Madharaasi' a bad film; but simply one without the ARM spirit, that made movies like 'Ghajini', 'Thalaiva' and 'Katthi' great cinematic experiences.
Sivakarthikeyan drives the movie forward. Vidyut Jamaal's understated yet action packed scenes significantly elevate the movie. Rukmini Vasanth's Malathi is crucial to the plot, but is reduced to being the hero's love interest and ends up being a damsel in distress, lacking real survival instincts.
The director did a decent job but there is nothing that's worth rewarding him for. Sivakarthikeyan was funny and relatable but failed to show genuine emotions in certain scenes. The rest of the cast including the gifted Biju Menon, are simply unrelatable and forgettable images of characters from a thousand other similar action films.
Commercial action films usually demand you to suspend your belief in physics and gravity, but this movie demands you to suspend your belief in governmental procedures and how India's most prestigious intelligence agencies work. There's barely any logic to the portrayal of confidential NIA operations in the country. If not satire, the film makes you question the film's screenplay from a logical stand point. While the action choreography is the best thing about the film, everything else is simply not up to the mark.