'Madgaon Express' review: Partly funny, but not everything comes together
Kunal Kemmu has made his directorial debut with Madgaon Express, headlined by Pratik Gandhi, Divyenndu, and Avinash Tiwary. For a first-time director, ME is a decent affair and delivers some good laughs, but it struggles to keep itself afloat and is sucked out of most energy post the first half. Eventually, it ends up being a one-time watch with a bafflingly predictable, run-of-the-mill story.
This is what happens in 'Madgaon Express'
As is evident from the trailer, Dodo (Divyenndu), Pratik (Gandhi), and Ayush (Tiwary), finally realize their long-standing dream of visiting Goa. However, there, all hell breaks loose once they discover a large cocaine stash in their hotel room. Soon after, they realize that two local gangsters, Kanchan Komdi (Chhaya Kadam) and Mendoza (Upendra Limaye), are after this stash, and, their lives.
What works? The themes in the zany comedy
Let's begin with what works in this comedy. The gags succeed because of the camaraderie between the leads; their energy rubs off on each other and you can sense that their crackling chemistry is contributing greatly to the scenes, which might have fallen apart otherwise. They instill life into the jokes, especially Divyenndu, who does most of the heavy lifting and is consistently good.
An undercurrent of a lesser-known aspect of friendships
Dodo's life is one miserable castle of lies; Pratik and Ayush have settled abroad—their life starkly contrasts with Dodo's who lives in a chawl in Mumbai with his father. That inexplicable sense of jealousy creeps in—the feeling you get when your friends taste success much faster than you. It's hard not to feel happy for them, but harder not to feel upset for yourself.
You'll notice its technical prowess in many scenes
Like the characters, ME too, is in a constant high state—there is so much buoyant energy that sometimes you want Kemmu to rein it all in. Some of the foreshadowing and callbacks are deftly placed, the cuts and transitions are particularly strong, and the dialogues, mostly, don't seem awkward or out of place. We don't usually see that with most debut directors.
Negatives: Why it couldn't win me over
ME's problems start becoming conspicuous toward the second half—it's almost as if all writing resources were exhausted pre-intermission, leading to the film subsequently spilling all over the place. It hits a massive snag, the narrative keeps on dwindling, and the jokes overstay their welcome. It tricks itself (and you) into believing that it has many tricks up its sleeve, but it doesn't.
Tries too hard, but is it finally worth it?
ME desperately wants to be labeled quirky, edgy, and different, and in the process, a large part of its narrative takes the backseat—characters are mostly one-note and almost all songs are unnecessarily, haphazardly placed. In some ways, it reminded me of another wannabe film, Phone Bhoot, which also didn't have much going for it, so it relied on its (very few) jokes and performances.
Nora Fatehi's portrayal as the leads' friend, Tasha
Nora Fatehi seems to be going the Tiger Shroff route—all her "roles" are so similar that you cannot tell one apart from the other, and in some sort of cinematic universe, perhaps, they might merge together. Here, too, she only gets to dance and share some lovey-dovey scenes, and that's all there's to it. Her character being called "maal" didn't sit right with me.
Can skip theatrically and watch on OTT; Verdict: 2.5/5
I would have liked ME much better if it was a coming-of-age journey and the drugs and gangsters' idea was completely done away with (it's done to death). It teems with potential, sure, and delivers on some aspects, but eventually, I couldn't find myself submitting to it completely and rooting for it wholeheartedly. A praiseworthy endeavor from Kemmu, but it leaves wanting you more.
