Marjaavaan
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Tara Sutaria, Riteish Deshmukh, Rakul Preet Singh
Director: Milap Zaveri
Raghu (Sidharth Malhotra) and Vishnu (Riteish Deshmukh) are the top contenders of Mumbai don Narayan Anna’s (Nassar) seat. While Anna adopted Raghu, Vishnu is his biological son. From illegal water tankers to prostitution racket, the gang is into all sorts of business, but wait till our lead boy falls in love with a mute girl Zoya (Tara Sutaria).
There onwards, it’s a typical ‘80s revenge drama packaged in the same old way, which essentially means a couple of dance bar songs, cheesy dialogues and a lot of bloodshed. Be ready for some mythological references on your way to the Ramleela-inspired climax.
So, the self-fed, self-made orphan strongman Raghu, who likes to pray to gods of all religions, has a couple of pretty interesting traits: The colours of his bandana keeps changing and he likes to keep a matchstick under his tongue that comes out whenever he is angry. Zoya’s love is supposed to change him because the local ACP Ravi Yadav (Ravi Kishan) believes so. Who says the police doesn’t believe in reforms! It’s a different matter that Raghu has already killed like 500 people in broad daylight by then.
You’ll also meet a couple of hero’s friends whose sole duty is to maintain hype around the main guy’s entry. Then there is a special appearance by a bar dancer Aarzoo (Rakul Preet), whose role appears longer than Sutaria’s. We can live with that though. At least, there would be songs for distraction.
Both, Raghu and Vishnu like to talk in couplets. Consider these dialogues:
“Maarunga kanpati pe, dard mitega Ganpati pe."
Or, this one:
“Guzrega desh ki jis bhi gali se, madad milegi, mango chaho Ya Ali se ya Bajrang Bali Se."
There are bizarre jokes too. A mute girl is identified as ‘lady barfi.’ I agree, some of us might have laughed on it, but what about this one: Harmonica, oh my darling! Really! I thought films are different than stand-up comedy.
Marjaavaan also gives Ek Villain vibes, maybe because Milap Zaveri has written both. While Riteish Deshmukh was the highlight of the previous film, he has been reduced to a caricature-like character this time. It must have looked a formidable character on paper. Alas, Deshmukh was asked to not go so overboard.
Not that Ek Villain was a great film but it had moments. Marjaavaan is punctured right from the beginning.
Blame it on our perception but it seems Malhotra needs more time to come out of his decent boy next door image. After Jabariya Jodi, he has once again tried to look raw and rugged ‘tapori’ with a golden heart. It didn’t work then, it doesn’t work now.
There isn’t anything for Sutaria and Rakul Preet either as they have been reduced to props. Till when would we keep showing leading women as damsels waiting for the messiah? Of course, it’s the director’s choice to present a character in a certain way but the understanding and milieu should change as per the time.
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But it’s too much to ask for in a film that shows a small boy eve teasing small girls with a song and the ‘hero’ identifying a singer in him. Here, people meet to bombard each other with heavy-duty dialogues and then to get drunk and dance in bars. Otherwise, how would you pave the way for Nora Fatehi, who announces, ‘Kal meri shaadi hai, aaj aazaadi hai,’ before breaking into her now-famous dance club steps.
Don’t put your life at risk for just one film. Who knows if it’s named Marjaavaan on purpose!
Rating: 0.5/5
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