Kunal Kemmu’s debut directorial is a fun, freewheeling ride, occasionally hobbled by slapstick excess
Cast: Pratik Gandhi, Divyenndu, Avinash Tiwary, Nora Fatehi, Remo D’Souza, Upendra Limaye
Storyline: Three 30-somethings embark on a long-deferred Goa trip and get caught in a crime plot his welltodo friends. His photoshopaided charades stand to be exposed when Pinku and Ayush announce they are coming to Mumbai. Scared, Dodo suggests their longdeferred Goa trip as an alternative.
At the railway station — Dodo, who could not afford flights, tries to dress it up as the ‘real deal’ — there’s an accidental swapping of bags. It signals the barrage of comic hijinks to come: binges, cocaine, guns, criminals, cops. Marathi stalwarts Upendra Limaye and Chhaya Kadam are hilarious as a pair of rival gangsters with a past. It’s standard crimecomedy fare, but Kemmu — who has also written the screenplay and dialogue — keeps an eye out for mundane details, like exorbitant carfare in the coastal tourist state. My favourite scene is Pinku, jacked up on coke, pouring his heart out to Ayush, telling him about his interfaith relationship; it’s just two friends sitting on nondescript chairs on a heathazed beach, the kind of scene that would end up on the cutting room floor of a more expensive film.
There are times when the easygoing rhythm of Madgaon Express is derailed by slapstick excess. A belated gunfight followed by a climactic standoff needed the wit and precision of early Priyadarshan. Kemmu, a sworn cinephile, pays homage to every corner of popular cinema, from his own cult zomcom Go Goa Gone to The Hangover movies and The Godfather Part I. Like many firsttime directors, he succumbs to the need to accentuate every moment. Some of the visual ideas fall flat — the atrociously choreographed fantasy numbers come to mind.
It is tempting to hail Madgaon Express as a revisionist, drugaddled Dil Chahta Hai. But it’s .... not. Farhan Akhtar’s film was a beautifully calibrated drama, steadfast in its exploration of male adult friendships over a long period of time. Madgaon, despite its pockets of genuine pathos and heart, is largely a frisky comedy in the Todd Phillips mould. Its characters are funnily drawn and Gandhi, Sharma and Tiwary strike a suitably spiky bonhomie, but emotional engagement is perhaps a bridge too far. This film is a party, not a trip. is currently