Mission Majnu Review - A poorly planned and much worse performed movie

 

Bollywood films continue to be produced in order to amuse audiences. From beginning to end, this film is an embarrassingly directed and half-heartedly performed exercise.

Many Hindi movies have been made about a similar subject, but Mission Majnu's filmmaking is so terrible that complaining about how it brazenly wears its patriotism like a badge of honour would actually amount to giving this poorly conceived and even worse executed movie too much weight. But since this task  of Mission Majnu Review, must be completed, let's simply spend the next few words explaining why Mission Majnu is arguably one of the most sloppily produced Bollywood movies in recent memory. An uninspired experience that makes you wonder how and why creators still take for granted the audience's intelligence and our capacity to distinguish right from wrong.

Any tale of an Indian spy living as a commoner in Pakistan and being inspired by actual events is inevitably likened to Raazi. In the 2018 movie Sehmat, directed by Meghna Gulzar, Alia Bhatt's Sehmat married into a Pakistani family and made that nation her home while gathering important intelligence and sending it back home. It was because Sehmat wasn't a shrewd spy raised on years of focus-on-the-fish-eye training that some of what she did came out as gauche and unprofessional. She was only a small child, but she felt driven to fulfil her father's final obligation to the nation.

On the other hand, Mission Majnu is the exact opposite of Raazi. Pakistan is virtually mocked here rather than depicted as a powerful foe that poses a serious threat, especially given its rising desire to develop nuclear weapons. The joke is plainly on the writers because the film itself ends up being inadvertently funny, even though this may have been done to make the audience laugh in what is supposed to be a serious movie.

And it all begins with the title. The movie is named after the central mission, with Tariq, played by Sidharth Malhotra, serving as the "majnu" on the "mission." Tariq, a tailor in Rawalpindi in the 1970s, is actually Amandeep, a RAW agent who, in a Chak De! India moment, also has to put up with incessant jeers for being the son of a "gaddaar," with his late father being accused of selling crucial information to the enemy. As a result, Amandeep is on a mission to defend his nation as well as atone for his father's misdeeds.

Given that Mission Majnu begins with a love tale, it is impossible to take it seriously. The visually impaired Nasreen (Rashmika Mandanna) and Tariq are married despite the objections of Nasreen's father and in the course of one incredibly forgettable song. She becomes pregnant a few scenes later, despite Nasreen being a woman with essentially little autonomy. Despite Rashmika's radiant presence, this particular scene has no bearing at all.

Tariq is given a one-man assignment to locate Pakistan's nuclear bomb facility while also receiving repeated insults for his father's betrayal from his handler (a one-note Zakir Hussain). But Tariq doesn't have to exert any effort. He magically (and obviously conveniently) discovers top-secret information being discussed by just lurking around street corners, and he always manages to arrive at the appropriate location and time. He uses very little intelligence or ingenuity in his methods, but he always appears to come across some crucial information. The visual effects of the nuclear plant's discovery are so ridiculous to say the least.

Before a few years ago, Netflix was a dump for the kind of movies that Mission Majnu is. Mission Majnu belongs to the same class as other cheap Netflix movies like Mrs. Serial Killer and Drive.

Mission Majnu, directed by Shantanu Bagchi, drags on for well over two hours without once keeping you on the edge of your seat as one might anticipate from a movie of this nature. By the time you reach the conclusion, you will feel terribly duped as a viewer because the movie depends so much on convenience and ingenuity. The concluding scene, which is more jingoistic than emotional, is the death knell.

Nothing can save a movie that is this uninspired. Sidharth Malhotra's appalling miscasting also doesn't do anything to help. The actor is sincere, but it is obvious that he is making an effort, particularly in the sequences where he tries so hard to appear street smart. Inexplicably evoking images of "Quick Gun Murugan," Sharib Hashmi and the dependable Kumud Mishra are just, well, reliable.

Mission Majnu is the kind of movie that isn't even worth a casual, passing-the-time viewing. Take a snooze in its place. You won't have a nightmare, at least.

 Director: Shantanu Bagchi

Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Rashmika Mandanna, Kumud Mishra, Sharib Hashmi, Zakir Hussain, Parmeet Sethi

Running time: 129 minutes

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