Starring: Sidharth Malhotra, Rashmika Mandanna, Sharib Hashmi, Kumud Mishra, Parmeet Sethi, Zakir Hussain, Avantika Akerkar & Mir Sarwar
Direction: Shantanu Bagchi
Siddharth Malhotra starrer ‘Mission Majnu’ on Netflix is suitable for only one purpose. Keep it playing in the background while you catch up on social networking, or perhaps get cooking. Peeling potatoes while watching this movie is not advisable, as you’d be double bored on two counts.
Just another stereo-typed spy-thriller based on India-Pakistan’s turbulent past – there is nothing much to talk about in this movie. This film banks on the inspiring accounts of RAW agents who risked their lives to foil Pakistan’s illegal nuclear-making attempts. However, it never deepens enough for the audience to connect with its narrative. It feels as if Director Shantanu Bagchi is in shallow water in handling this script, and the script, in turn, doesn’t help him very much either.
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Mission Majnu’ is set when India successfully tested its atomic bomb in Pokhran in 1974, and Pakistan, to compete and create its own atomic bomb, resorted to illegal means. RAW undercover agent Amandeep Ajitpal Singh, alias Tariq (Malhotra), poses as a tailor apprentice and goes on to marry and impregnate Nasreen (Mandanna). This part is perhaps inspired by the true story of RAW agent Ravindra Kaushik’s life. But lack-lustre acting and confusing script turned the core of ‘Mission Majnu’ as fake as fake can be.
The execution of the film is neither realistic nor dramatic. And the worst part is it plays on your ‘Shershaah’ hangover. So one goes through the entire movie hoping for that Shershaah magic to appear sometime or the other – it doesn’t. Instead, you get three Hindu undercover agents posing as devout Muslims, including a cleric (Mishra). And then they band together secretly to pray to Hindu gods as their saviour.
Life, devotion and human psychology, even on the silver screen, should not be so flat and laid out in black & white — especially the lives of espionages.
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And in my opinion, unless your life or job depends on it, there is no point of going through this boredom extravaganza. Remember, they can’t make films like ‘Raazi’ or ‘Shershaah’ twice. Formulaic films like ‘Mission Majnu’ have always failed to impress the audience, and they always will.
One of the two potentially suspenseful scenes is when Tariq and his colleague Aslam (Hashmi) almost get caught snooping around a secret Pakistani army camp. The other is when Tariq dives into the sea from a moving train to escape enemy bullets. Unfortunately, both these scenes failed miserably to create any ripples whatsoever.
As a humble digital platform audience, I’m not expecting all productions and actors with strengths and resources to go through extreme workshops. But acclaimed Indian cinemas like ‘Black’ or ‘Burfi’, which were made decades ago, can at least be studied by actors attempting to portray special-need characters on screen. Because Mandanna’s portrayal of a girl who’s blind from birth only included not making direct eye contact with other characters and the camera, and of course, being pretty all the time.
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However, credit must be given where credit is due. Avantika Alerkar’s role of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, with a detailed portrayal of Gandhi’s nuances, mannerisms, speaking, looking, et al. in a limited scope, is highly commendable.
This is Shantanu Bagchi’s first feature film, and here’s hoping to see fresher content with better execution from him.