Movie Review: Mumbaikar MUMBAIKAR is a poor show

MUMBAIKAR is the story of a group of madcap characters in a crazy city. A young chap (Vikrant Massey) aspires to be a cop like his maternal uncle, Sangram Shinde (Sachin Khedekar). He’s in love with Ishita (Tanya Maniktala) and when he learns that a goon is going to harm her, he teaches him a nice lesson, without worrying about the consequences. In the process, another young chap (Hridhu Haroon), who’s just landed in Mumbai, gets into trouble. Another simpleton who has just arrived in Mumbai is Manu (Vijay Sethupathi). He aspires to be a gangster and joins a gang. He’s asked to kidnap a child named Rahul Jhunjhunwala. He enters his school but mistakenly kidnaps Rahul Patil, the son of the dreaded gangster Prabalkant Patil aka PKP (Ranvir Shorey). What happens next forms the rest of the film.

MUMBAIKAR is the official remake of the 2017 Tamil film, MAANAGARAM. Amit Joshi and Aradhana Sah's story has all the trappings of an ideal comic caper. Himanshu Singh's screenplay is weak. The film should have been funnier. However, the laughs are few and far between. Himanshu Singh's dialogues work only in some scenes.

Santosh Sivan's direction is not upto the mark. There’s not much of back stories given and hence, the characters and their conflicts seem superficial. Also, similar films with this kind of setup like LOOTCASE [2020], SHOR IN THE CITY [2011], DELHI BELLY [2011] etc have set a benchmark in terms of writing and execution. MUMBAIKAR pales behind, in comparison. Merely showing characters bumping into each other for dramatic effect doesn’t work. In fact, without a strong script, this bit looks very unconvincing.

On the positive side, a few scenes stand out. The scene where Manu kidnaps Rahul is quite funny as also the reaction of the gang members when they realize that they have kidnapped the son of a dreaded gangster. Secondly, the 123-minute-long film doesn’t bore at all.

Speaking of performances, Vikrant Massey is quite good, as expected. Vijay Sethupathi is the best part of the film. It's thanks to him that the film is likeable. Ranvir Shorey is fine at best. Tanya Maniktala is lovely and has a superb screen presence. Hridhu Haroon does well in his debut. Sachin Khedekar, Sanjay Mishra (cab driver) and Brijendra Kala (constable) are dependable. The actors playing the gang members, Rahul Jhunjhunwala and the acid attacker were okay.

All songs of the film like 'Mahi Mere', 'Chhuppan Chhuppai' and 'Hone De' are forgettable and needlessly forced. Salil Amrute's background score is nothing special either. Santosh Sivan's cinematography is first-rate. Sham Kaushal's action is unexciting. Jyoti Madnani Singh's costumes are realistic. Dilip Damodar's editing is sharp.

On the whole, MUMBAIKAR is a poor show due to its weak writing and execution.

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