Movie Review: 'Malang’

Opened: 7 February 2020
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur, Disha Patani, Kunal Khemu, Elli Avram, Amruta Khanvilkar
Director: Mohit Suri
Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Luv Ranjan, Ankur Garg
Rating: ★★½ 

Drug-fuelled hedonism, sultry bodies, chiselled abs, eye-watering camerawork and a couple of spirited performances do little to salvage this week’s big ticket release, Malang.

Director Mohit Suri (Ek Villain, Aashiqui 2) remains perhaps a little too distracted and hell-bent on rehashing elements that worked in his previous films (hooded sociopaths, lilting melodies) to work with a plot that in its defense, has a few interesting ideas up its sleeve and an original story to boot. Which is a shame because in an era where we’re consistently recycling scripts or rebooting films that have worked in the past with little success, this one really had the potential to stand out.

Anil Kapoor has a ball in Malang

Set in Goa, Malang revolves around Advait (Aditya Roy Kapur, flaunting his oh-so perfect, influencer-esque abs) and Sara’s (Disha Pattani, looking pretty as a petal) carefree sexcapades and subsequently, seemingly doomed romance, which serves as a catalyst to a sequence of events involving key members of the Goan police — a coke-snorting, corrupt, trigger-happy senior cop, Agashe (Anil Kapoor) who’s having trouble letting go of past trauma, and a noble officer, Michael (Kunal Khemu), going through a divorce from a marriage that appears perfect, at least on paper. A chance intertwining of their destinies sets in motion a chain reaction of brutal murders, that all have a common link between them, culminating in a finale that is both surprising and relatively unexpected.

Suri plants enough red herrings in Malang that are engaging enough even if a little far-fetched, and to be fair, it unravels rather quickly, which will more than likely make you overlook several of its redundant plot points. 

Kapoor is as reliable as ever and probably the best of the lot, but in hindsight, his track is a distraction and serves precious little to the overall proceedings and there are several scenes that could have been done away with entirely to keep things moving and taut. Roy Kapur on the other hand, is reliably earnest and is probably better as the lost boy with intimacy issues than he is as the lean mean killing machine, and that’s probably down to the way his character is written and for really no fault of his. Suri does little to delve into Advait’s trauma especially during the prison sequences, and if he had fleshed it out a little, we’d have probably empathised with his angst a little more. Disha Pattani looks gorgeous and for once, you notice a glimmer of potential in her — she’s particular persuasive as the doe eyed belle who’s motto is to live in the present and tick off things off of her bucket list. The scene-stealer here though is Kunal Khemu, who has the best written character of the lot — a less capable actor in his part would have hammed it up to the skies, but Khemu shows restraint and menace in equal measures, which begs the question; why aren’t filmmakers making better use of his talent, and relying instead on clowns that insist on making misogynistic film after misogynistic film and ones that keep dishing out politically incorrect quotes to stay in the news? Yes Kartik Aaryan, I’m looking at you. Anyway. We digress.

Kunal Khemu springs a surprise in Malang

Malang is engaging and a welcome change from the mediocrity churned out week on week and it had oodles of potential — it’s deliciously dark and twisted in parts, and its key players are edgy and unpredictable, but a tad too many conveniences and loopholes in its plot and contrived inconsistencies prevent it from being the gem it could and should have been. 

As such, it’s entirely watchable but remains completely forgettable despite getting full marks for originality. Two and a half stars, with a half purely for Kapur’s washboard abs — yes I really am that fickle.