'Mumbaikar' review: Exhausting watch has nothing going in its favor
"What did I just watch?" was my first reaction when I finished watching Santosh Sivan's Mumbaikar, starring Vijay Sethupathi, Sachin Khedekar, Vikrant Massey, and Sanjay Mishra. It is difficult to root for the merits of a film that quite literally left me exhausted, and it's truly a shame to see skilled, seasoned actors fumbling their way through a dodgy, sketchy screenplay. Here's our review.
The film focuses on intertwined stories
This is how the outdated, obsolete plot goes: Manu (Sethupathi), a "gangster in the making" comes to Mumbai to become the next Don. He kidnaps the son of Mumbai's most dangerous don (Ranvir Shorey). His paths inadvertently cross with two unnamed men (Massey and Hridhu Haroon). While the first is a small-time loafer, the latter has come to Mumbai for work.
The film starts badly and remains that way
Mumbaikar starts on an unsatisfactory, substandard note and makes next to no efforts to come out of its self-conceived rut. Rubbed clean of any life, this two-hour-long insipid film tests your patience with its patchy screenplay and a story the likes of which we have already repeatedly seen. Did the 1980s come back? Because this "thriller" belongs to that era, not this.
No sense of coherence, flow, or consistency
The worst part about Mumbaikar is that there is no sense of narrative continuity or flow. Scenes abruptly cut each other, the timelines sometimes shift, and it seems as if the characters are halfway through saying something when another scene forcefully takes over. Naturally, this leaves you befuddled, and if the makers wanted to surprise the audience through such techniques, the intention has capsized.
Perhaps the premise was better on paper only
It is difficult not to notice that the drama has been dumped—not exactly released—on JioCinema. The film does not seem to be too serious about its craft and looks like a half-baked, rather barely baked product that was released in the market even before it could be cooked properly. Scenes are staged clumsily and there is no intrigue factor. Honestly, CID offered better episodes.
The drama is full of scenes that are absolutely ridiculous
To elaborate on the above point, there is a poorly staged wink at COVID-19 and while watching it, I muttered, "They can't possibly be serious with this?!" Scenes run parallel to each other and the second one begins even before the first one ends! For instance, you would see Sethupathi enter a building, and in the next, Massey would be talking to someone.
Expect logic from characters? Please do not
In this film devoid of coherence, there exists Ishita (Tanya Maniktala) whose entire personality is being "independent." She plays Massey's girlfriend-turned-enemy-turned-girlfriend and goes from rejecting him because he is a stalker to shedding tears over him in an hour. By the time this happened, I wasn't surprised, because nothing in Mumbaikar carries any logic or rationale, so characters just do what they want to.
Saving grace: Great ensemble cast and some good metaphors
Coming to its saving grace, the ensemble is solid, which is why I had some hopes for the drama, though, of course, they were not met. Not naming the central characters and simply calling them Mumbaikars is a smart choice because it signifies how people are almost all the same in bustling metropolitan cities—looking for an identity of their own.
The film is streaming free, but your time is valuable
Mumbaikar is an extremely tiring, tasteless watch with absolutely no life at all, and the film practically offers you zero reasons to keep watching. Luckily, it ditched its theatrical outing and is streaming on OTT, so at least you can keep forwarding a lot of parts and save yourself some headaches. The actors do well, but only acting alone cannot salvage a sinking ship.
