Mission Majnu is gender-flipped Raazi & much more fun

Debutant director Shantanu Bagchi’s Mission Majnu is a whole lot of adventurous fun, when it is not busy getting all worked up about seeming suitably patriotic. The climax for example, is way too somber for a film that tells us how the Indo-Pak espionage crisis could be engaging without being excessively ponderous, provided we don’t take politics too seriously.

And this one doesn’t for most of its playing time, thereby giving the whole done-to-death theme of cross-border politics a comicbook spin. Sidharth Malhotra in one his best performances before or after Shershaah, plays Tariq, an Indian RAW agent moonlighting as a tailor in Pakistan.

Malhotra brings a sense of mischief to his body language as the twinkled tailor ‘soldered’ spy. He is supposed to play a Hindu Indian soldier masquerading as a Muslim tailor in Pakistani, hence the body language suggests a certain amount of artificial posturing. I don’t know if Malhotra’s gawkiness is conscious. But it suits the plot and the character’s purposes.

Some of the supporting actors playing Pakistanis, especially Sharib Hashmi, Shishir Sharma, and Rajit Kapur are interesting. But the talented Kumud Mishra is wasted. There is a sparkling episode where the entire Pakistani cabinet is seen nibbling daintily on slices of a cake meant for the army chief’s granddaughter’s birthday which had to be called off due to an emergency meeting after India goes nuclear.

Pakistan, it seems, tried to do a me-too with nuclear technology purchased from the black market. These rogue countries, I tell you. They will never learn.

When it is good, the writing (Parveez Sheikh, Aseem Arora, Sumeeth Bhatija) is very very good. But when it is bad…. There is an entire labored section of sloppy sleuthing when Tariq finds out the identity of the scientist Pakistan has hired to go nuclear. Outwardly smart, the sly snooping involving a toilet commode, just seems overly cocky and inconclusive.

That said, Mission Majnu keeps us involved till the end. The central romance between an Indian spy and a blind Pakistani girl (Rashmika Mandanna, charming) seems like Raazi in reverse with Sidharth Malhotra doing a gender-flipped Alia Bhatt. There are some charming tender moments between the two. But the screenwriters needed to work more on the excruciating dilemma of a spy who is not supposed to fall in love with the woman he marries for cover.

Budgetary constraints too come in the way of making Mission Majnu a heart-in-the-mouth thriller.The dramatic climax is shot in a cheat airport, but is nonetheless effective. With better production values this could have been our own version of Ben Affleck’s Argo. A potent starcast especially those playing characters on the other side of the border, ensure we remain invested till the dramatic finale.

Mission Majnu must be commended for nailing several details regarding its timeline. The film is set in the 1970s. Malhotra and Mandana are shown to be huge Dharmendra fans. In a well executed train-top action sequence Malhotra even pays a tribute to Dharmendra’s Yaadon Ki Baraat derring-do.

Never short of breath, Mission Majnu is an intelligent well-executed espionage excursion which could have done with better-quality production values, maybe some more chutzpah.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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