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Friday, February 14, 2025
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BOLLYWOOD MUNNA MICHAEL
EDITOR'S PICK
Munna Michael': Cliched and uninspiring (Review By Troy Ribeiro ;
Rating: **)
This film starts
off with a promise and holds your interest till the interval. After that the
narrative turns into a cliched Bollywood masala film that fails to impress.
The writing is good in parts. With all Bollywood liberties taken, the setup
is based on cliches. However, the surprise element is the development as the
plot navigates adroitly. The characters are more complicated than we expect, and
the end is obviously predictable.
As the film opens with a prologue, we
see Michael (Ronit Roy) grooving as a background dancer. Soon he is given the
boot because of his aging visage. Dejected, he drinks and while sauntering the
streets in a drunken stupor, on his way home, he finds an abandoned baby. He
takes the child home in a gritty neighbourhood in Mumbai and raises him as his
own. Thus, the name Munna Michael.
Munna has an affinity for music and
during his growing years becomes a good dancer, but Papa Michael disheartened
with his own career hopes that Munna (Tiger Shroff) gets into the Corporate
Sector. So he constantly discourages Munna from being a dancer.
But lack
of funds and no real qualifications for a corporate job, push Munna into
dancing. He takes up dance challenges at the local clubs. Soon he is barred from
all dancing bars in Mumbai. Nonplussed, he moves to Delhi to try his luck.
While Munna is an excellent dancer and there are lot of dance sequences in
the film, we notice something else: The film does not fall into the ancient
cliches of dance dramas or dance competitions. Instead, it turns out to be a
corny pot-boiler crammed with romance and bromance.
In Delhi, Munna
chances upon Mahinder Fauji (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) a thug and the owner of a five
star hotel. After being impressed with Munna's dance moves, he confesses to
Munna that he is a closet dancer and forces him to be his teacher.
During
the dance training process, their bromance flourishes. Mahinder later confides
in Munna about his one-sided love for a dancer called Dolly (Nidhi Agerwal) and
he makes Munna promise to unite both of them. At this point the end is obviously
foreseeable.
Tiger Shroff though talented in dancing and parkour, fails
to impress with emotions which are often mismatched with the scene. That's
because the script is perfunctorily crafted, and the discomfort on his visage is
clearly visible.
Nidhi Agerwal in her maiden oeuvre is fairly competent.
She matches Tiger, step for step. In some scenes and dances, she seems like a
clone of Deepika Padukone and that's because, the Director had probably
envisaged her role as that of Deepika's. In fact her actual name in the film is
Deepika Sharma and Dolly is only an alias she uses for the dance club.
While Nawazuddin is a brilliant actor, even the best of camera angles can't
convince you that he can fight six feet hulks. Nevertheless, he lights up the
screen. His character is definitely interesting and intriguing as he sums it up
with his dialogue, "Desi hoon, but forward thinking, cool dude hoon."
Among the supporting cast, it is Pankaj Tripathi as Mahinder's younger brother
and lackey who stands out.
The songs are mediocre but well-choreographed
in typical Hindi film fashion.
Overall, the film has good production
values and is definitely not the apt tribute to Michael Jackson as suggested by
the Director.
Veteran actor Jackie Shroff gets concerned at times about the risks that his action hero son Tiger Shroff takes for the big screen, but he says he is confident about him and his talent.Tiger has been receiving rave reviews about his action sequences in all his films like "Heropanti", "Baaghi", "Munna Michael" and "Baaghi 2"."As a father, I get worried because he does all the action by himself, risking his body. But I do not stop him, I do not discourage him to do that. I am concerned, but confident about Tiger," Jackie told IANS.Tiger joined the industry after consistent training in martial arts.Read More
Commercial film actors not taken 'seriously', says Nidhhi"Munna Michael" actress Nidhhi Agerwal says people don't take an actor seriously when he or she does "more commercial" films."The film I did last was more commercial. There was dancing and I don't think people really take you seriously as an actor when you do that kind of a film," Nidhhi told IANS."But they forget that you got the film because you auditioned for the film. So I think I would like to do all kinds of films. The serious stuff, the fun commercial movies again because I love them.Read More
