Mission Majnu Review – Rediff.com movies
If you wish to make your enemy appear to be a menace, no less than make them formidable, sighs Sukanya Verma.
We have watched no love misplaced between India and Pakistan’s diplomatic equation by Bollywood’s eyes in scores of flicks.
That vitriolic tone of hyper-nationalism championed by Sunny Deol within the late Nineties makes a toned-down return in Mission Majnu‘s reproachful voiceover that paints Pakistan like a petulant youngster crying for a flowery pencil field as a result of India has one too.
After all, it is no stationery however a hush-hush nuclear energy plant that Pakistan conspires to arrange after studying about India’s profitable nuclear bomb take a look at run in Pokhran.
‘Bhooke pet so jayenge. Ghaas kha lenge. Lekin Pakistan nuclear bomb bana ke rahega,’ pledges padosi mulk‘s prime minister (Rajit Kapur).
India, ever cautious of Pakistan’s propensity for reckless impulses, vehemently protests with ‘Woh ek kattar desh hai‘ and ‘Pakistan jaise damaging desh ke paas nuclear bomb hona India ke liye tabahi hai.’
The place one nation will get busy quietly using zealous scientists to create weapons of mass destruction, one other vegetation moles to catch a whiff of their each single transfer.
The motion rapidly shifts from inside conferences in Islamabad (1974) to romance in Rawalpandi (1977) when Tariq, the tailor (Sidharth Malhotra), falls in love at first sight with a sightless lady named Nasreen (Rashmika Mandanna).
Assume Aamir Khan and Kajol in Fanaa sans the appeal, chemistry, catchy songs or tacky poetry.
Blink and they’re already married and anticipating their first child.
It is a love story no one is invested in. Least of all Tariq, who excuses himself so usually in its 129 minutes operating time and but arouses no one’s suspicion.
Conveniently for him, Nasreen is blind to his clandestine pursuits.
She’s blind, interval.
Carrying a nostril ring and smiling in response to every thing is Rashmika’s function in a nutshell.
Mission Majnu can be a breezy title for a Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge type up to date romance but it surely by no means finds an acceptable context as it’s in Shantanu Bagchi’s espionage drama.
Bagchi and his band of writers — Parveez Sheikh, Aseem Arrora and Sumit Batheja are so preoccupied portraying Pakistanis as caricatures, they neglect the intelligence bit in RA&W brokers too. If you wish to make your enemy appear to be a menace, no less than make them formidable.
What you see is Ashwath Bhatt’s bug-eyed President Zia-ul Haq growling like a Wasseypur gangster.
Actual life personalities like then Indian prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai present up too, however its potential for casual tete-e-tete between nationwide leaders isn’t actually exploited.
As a substitute, Mission Majnu‘s foolhardy religion in small discuss performs out as Tariq’s sole power.
All he has to do is innocently ask and all of Pakistan — commode salesmen, college youngsters, bored grandmas, tattle-tale Brigadiers — sweetly naked their souls and secrets and techniques to him.
Sidharth has a face you may need to gawk at, however not the slyness the function calls for to well scoop out info.
The writing would not ever ask that of him both. Or Kumud Mishra and Sharab Hashmi, his partner-in-espionage.
The troika makes themselves and their curiosity so apparent wherever they go, however Mission Majnu insists Pakistan can not see it.
If something, it makes the latter’s final minute retaliation forcefully dramatic and phony.
One other supply of fixed exasperation is how Tariq is berated by a grump (Zakir Hussain) he experiences to on the opposite aspect of the landline for being a traitor’s son.
It is just like the veteran actor was charging for saying ‘gaddaar‘ per phrase foundation.
The identical goes for Bollywood’s depiction of Pakistan.
Get everybody to say ‘ji janab‘ in each second, each sentence, each scene, there, you might have Pakistan.
After reducing down Pakistan to measurement in each conceivable manner by three fourths of the film, Mission Majnu puffs up its chest in pleasure, ‘Hum India hai. Hum nafrat pe nahi hum pyaar pe palte hain.’
That is wealthy coming from a film about international locations wrestling for nuclear supremacy.
Mission Majnu streams on Netflix.
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