MALANG

Director- Mohit Suri

Writers- Aseem Arrora, Aniruddha Guha

Cast- Anil Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Disha Patani, Kunal Khemu, Elli Avram, Keith Sequeira, Amruta Khanvilkar, Vatsal Sheth, Makrand Deshpande

In a nutshell :

This revenge story has all the right ingredients like romance, pace ,style, suspense and thrills that qualify it as a great romantic thriller.

Plot :

The impressive opening introduces us to a well-built, hulk-y Advait( Aditya) indulging in some smashing action with fellow prisoners and beating them to pulp in jail premises.

We see a bad ass coke snorting crime branch inspector Agashe( Anil Kapoor) indulging in a shocking encounter killing.

And then we see Advait indulging in a series of heartless killings and challenging Agashe each time before the murders.

Senior police official Michael ( Kunal Kemmu), a stickler for proper procedures is at loggerheads with Agashe about the handling of cases and has his own personal problems with his wife.

Somewhere in between these murders , we get glimpses of flashback through Advait’s memories ; his chance meeting with beautiful carefree Sarah and their blossoming love.

We obviously know that Advait has an axe to grind , has deep scars in memories and won’t stop till he seeks revenge.But the back and forth narrative style keeps us engaged and ensures that it has a tight grip on the audience. The hide and seek that the narrative plays with us and the cat and mouse game he plays with the police is thrilling.

The rest of the story goes on to reveal , bit by bit, what actually went wrong 5 yrs back and this narrative goes simultaneously with his revenge killings in present.Its only till the climax that he gets his peace and you get your answers after some great twists and turns.

Crew:

The team of director ( MOHIT SURI), writer (ASEEM ARRORA)and screenplay (ANIRUDH GUHA) deserve combined credit for the supreme execution.

Even though it was a typical revenge story but the narrative style they chose , the pace they achieved, the twists and slight suspense they induced, and the glamorous treatment they gave made all the difference.

Music by VED SHARMA who gave the groovy title track and “ Hui Malang” was elemental in creating the atmospherics.

Locations and sequences of Goa were captured in full glory by VIKAS SIVARAMAN’s cinematography.

DEVENDER MURDERSHWAR’s editing deserves a mention for the relentless place.

Analysis:

The balance or rather contrast of love and hate that the story achieved was something noticeable. Every time, we saw glimpses of Advait Sarah’s love life, it infused happiness and smiles.And every time , we were jerked back to present time of hateful killings , we were pulled into darkness.This layered narrative made the whole film very gripping.

While the film showed the glamorous side of Goa’a life with drugs , parties et all and the free life the youngsters crave for, it did manage to show the dark side to it as well. Well balanced I must say.

The apt choice of cast deserves a credit too. Disha’s beauty and innocence,Aditya’s boyish charm and rugged looks later , Anil Kapoor’s wildness and Kunal Kemmu’s propriety , were visualised and aptly selected.

Performances:

Anil Kapoor is mind blowing in the portrayal of doping trigger happy policeman. His maverick dark humour , his keen investigating sense was well portrayed. It’s been his meatiest and best in quite some time now.

Disha looked superb. She could infuse the beauty , innocence , effervescence and mystery to her character that was required. She looked real , subtle and adorable.

Aditya looked great in both his avatars; as the charming lover boy and the revenge seeking dark and bitter man.

Kunal Kemmu was great with his restrained performance with the right percentage of what was required.

Elli Avram was good in her small role.

Recommendation :

Th film ticks all the right boxes. The music , performances, ultra-glam look of the story, its layered narrative, the twists and the absolutely gripping quality right until the very climax making it a thrilling watch.

Score 8 on 10.