Dance on song but where’s the excitement?
Tiger Shroff’s attempt to pay homage to popicon Michael Jackson by imitating his dance moves, is a bit of a joyless one. Munna Michael basically chronicles the tale of a young lad, a dance teacher from a poor locality, Teen Batti (and you can’t afford to miss out on the fact that his real-life Dad, Jackie Shroff came from that relatively humble locality before he became a Bollywood star) forcibly commissioned at
gun-point, to teach a local gangster (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) some elaborate dance moves.
Therein lies the comedy, I suppose. And Munna also happens to have the ability to spew off killer one-liners that gets the stuttering narrative into a frenzy every once in a while. Not that the dialogues mean much, it’s just the irreverent bombast that keeps you tickled. Tiger Shroff’s fancy foot work is enviable no doubt but there’s no new ground being broken under the all too familiar, comfort-zone stewardship of Sabbir Khan-who appears happy enough to play overwhelmingly, on the young actor’s action agility and dancer’s flexibility.
Tiger is earnest, appears to be working hard on his dance and action moves but his voice throw is contradictorily timid, dialogue delivery, several shades closer to shy and facial expressions are unequal to the task assigned. His three films with Sabbir Khan may have gained him some security in this industry, but the consequent lack of ingenuity and creativity in this product is terribly galling. Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s presence (hamming to the hilt, at that), meant to lend a solid foundation to a frivolous outing, only tends to highlight the entertainment deficit in this lacklustre product. The music is fairly foot tapping but the narrative tempo is flaccid and unappealing. There’s not much of a story to tell so the only thing here that is competent is the dance- but even that’s not all that special!