Film Review: ‘Malang’

By Neha Bora

Mohit Suri’s Malang is highly remenecient of his previous films ‘Ek Villan’ and ‘Ashiqui 2’. It has the same intent of conveying loss, pain, revenge and other intense emotions.

It has the same background of a slightly flawed love story that is interrupted just when it was about to be saved. It’s most major twist is actually a twist only because it wasn’t a twist in ‘Ek Villian’. Having said all of this, it is also true that the film was engaging in certain of it’s parts.

The story of ‘Malang’ is set in Goa, and revolves around the lives of two cops, a probable murderer, and his lover. All the major characters, according to the trailer are killers. The film then, is a series of murders and stories leading up to motives of these murders.

We are given an always-on-edge Agase (Anil Kapoor), a straight faced no-nonsense Michael (Kunal Khemu), a brooding, highly bulked-up Advait (Arjun Kapoor) and an adrenaline addicted, body flaunting Sara (Disha Patni).

The film tries to draw thrill and mystery by creating a world of rave parties and all the ‘bad’ things that middle-aged people associate with them. Talks of “no rok tok”, living from “one high to another”, bunjie-jumping, diving, etc all try to support this hollow world.

The contrast that the director was aiming at with screens of two chiselled bodied individuals in beautiful locations against the grimness of the murder and the immoral cops is lost because the former world rings hollow.

The first few minutes of the film introduce us to “Aaj ki raat koi aane ko hai”. The song is interspersed in pieces throughout the film and could have been very interesting in the hands of a more skilled director.

The weak storyline, held together by a series of co-incidences, is covered up by visuals of the beautiful beaches of Goa, the loud and ‘mysterious ‘ world of drugs and sex.

The predictable fight-sequences are interrupted by flashbacks of love-stories or stories of loss and this keeps the audience from falling asleep in their seats.

Aseem Arora, Aniruddha Guha and Mohit Suri have tried to make their thriller complex with concepts of masculinity, ‘abandoned childhood’, ‘broken marriages’, etc but without a ‘hint’ of subtlety.

The characters are given unexpected and unnecessary arcs and then these arcs are over explained. The entire film stays on the surface with a strong intent to convince the audience otherwise.

A lot of ideas used to build the film have no context when they occur in the film or are carelessly disregarded once they have conveyed a certain mood.

One of the characters uses the word ‘Hippie’ to describe the kind of culture the film deals with but our two leads who are apparently representations of this culture actually behave more like very rich kids out for a vacation.

The idea of ‘parenthood’ is also brought into the picture, but it isn’t used to any significance like in ‘Ye Jawaani, Hai Deewani’, instead it is a false means to invoke sympathy for our characters.

While Advait is the son of a separated couple as a plot device, Sara’s issues with her parents and the reason for her leaving her family doesn’t quiet come across to the audience.

Michael’s back story is too sudden without any foreshadowing and is immediately followed by a detailed spoken explanation.

It appears everyone in ‘Malang’ is a ‘Freud’ in his/her own right.

Like a lot of his contemporaries, Arjun Kapoor has never risen up to any acting talent. His characters are either bulked up and fun or heavily bulked up and angry.

There is seldom any other difference between various film characters. Disha Patani plays the same bright-eyed still faced doll. She too has remained predictably underwhelming in her performances. Anil Kapoor is somewhat believable.

He does come across as an uncontrolable perpetually haunted man! He has a wonderfully predictable quality to his erratic mannerism. Kunal Khemu’s character has been very suddenly developed and he tries to do with it what he can.

The story could have been set in any big city with a cosmopolitan population and it wouldnt have made a difference to the film. Filmifiles.com is a website which offers news, views and even the inside stories from the glamour world be it Bollywood or Hollywood, for those who love the world of movies, stars and the art of cinema.

The Bollywood music industry has depended on films to keep it breathing and as a result music only ever becomes supplementary to the entire film. The music in ‘Malang‘ too is just a subordinate element in the entire film.