Rating: 2.5/5
Madaari suffers from ‘A Wednesday’ hangover. First it steals the key-ideas of its script and then royally butchers each one of them.
It’s weak direction turns what could have been a rather strong plot movie into a stretched, overly-simple plot flick.
Nishikanth Kamat directed Madaari is about a common-man (Irrfan) who kidnaps the son of a Home Minister but, instead of asking money for a ransom, demands accountability for his son’s unnatural death.
Promising storyline, an outstanding start, a grieving on-the-run kidnapper, a fast-minded intelligent Police Officer (Jimmy Shergill) and an impertinent yet endearing brat (Vishesh Bansal) – all these at the onset, assure you of a clinching, nail-biting cat-and-mouse chase.
Madaari gets straight into business, and with the kidnapper at large, it is to be decided on who would lead the investigation?
A room hosts minister-level restless politicians, grand-looking bureaucrats, high-ranked intelligence officials, cops and decorated army men. This is where Nachiket (Shergill) is chosen to head the whole investigation. He is a cop with sharp memory and specializes in solving kidnapping cases.
Shergill’s dialogues are innovative and wittily reveal the nuances of interactions of investigation agencies, politicians and how they perceive the common man. However, as it appears, the dialogue-writer (Ritesh Shah) was only half-paid. Not much later, Shergill starts to unabashedly repeat the dialogues he said earlier. Delivered on at least handful occasions, “kidnapper panic ho jaayega aur bachche ko maar dega”, just exemplifies that.
Sadly for Madaari, it soon plunges into a spiral of predictability and fails to pick up thereafter.
Soon, Shergill’s investigation turns into a no-brainer spree. Early on, a politician, frustrated with his competency, remarks: He is not finding any leads, it’s the kidnapper that is offering him leads on the platter. That, eventually and rightly, sums up his on-field acumen.
Madaari treads on two threads, yet failing to deliver on either of them. On one, it follows Shergill’s grand but substance-less investigation, and on the other one, it showcases Irrfan’s unconvincing struggle in coping up with his loss and his desperation to achieve the goal he has set out for.
Shergill is perpetually creating a sense of urgency by walking at a brisk pace while dictating instructions to his men. He tell them that they are not allowed to sleep. Like his unclear demands from his colleagues, his threats are bizarre, too: warna tum log apna ‘resignation letter’ yahan aake ‘collect’ kar lena.
Well, you ‘offer’ your resignation and ‘collect’ your termination letter, and not vice-versa.
To complicate matters further for the viewers, periodically, in a rather abrupt and incomprehensible fashion, Shergill blurts out his obscure findings.
These are dialogues delivered in fast-forward mode. The maximum I could gather was: Shergill was zeroing-in on Irrfan and that he could be anywhere – between Hyderabad and Uttarakhand (spaced apart by about 1500kms!) – well-amalgamated with the common-man! Bite that preciseness!
Much expectedly, the game lasts till the climax of the movie, but Shergill loses his steam much earlier.
Director’s perceptions of outreach of technology and the life of a ‘technology professional’ reflect his shallow knowledge on this subject. This is witnessed both in investigation and Irrfan’s professional life. Chew this: All through the movie, police remains helpless and can’t track Irrfan’s movement because he is using something called ‘Internet phone’.
More than that Kamat blunders in understanding the power of social media. A couple of videos and the whole nation, along with media, has started passionately following the story of kidnapping of a state’s Home Minister’s son is unfathomable. These days, even for a video to go viral, it takes about a couple of weeks. The whole publicity act is unnatural and hurried-up.
Apart from the climactic revelations, Madaari gives you little chance of guesswork. Baring a few turns and twists, the story remains bland and leaves you hankering for much more than what the grueling opening promised.
How poorly-thought and badly panned out various scenes turn out to be, is aptly illustrated by a couple of examples. When Irrfan holds his new-born child, his wife, on the hospital bed in the background, doesn’t appear pale or frail. Instead, she appears fresh and rejuvenated. While single-parenting, Irrfan sleeps on the side of the bed that is along the wall and the baby sleeps on the free side of the bed!
Go further, Irrfan is a network-technician. That’s a pretty low-paying job in our country, but Irrfan carries about laptop and has the latest Apple products too.
Those are minor things. There are much bigger annoying things in Madaari.
An immense opportunity to showcase the beauty of a relationship between a single father and son has been royally squandered too. With the protracted duration that was allotted to father-and-son scenes, the viewer was supposed to fall in absolute love with the father-son duo (visualize, ‘Pursuit of Happyness’, for a moment). You don’t feel for their love or closeness.
If at all there is something that holds you till the credits roll for Madaari, it remains Irrfan and the young Vishesh Bansal, even though Madaari wouldn’t be counted as Irrfan’s best performances. He is a grieving father, a ruthless yet kind kidnapper hassled by a noisy seven-year old and a tough negotiator. The realization that he sees his own son in his victim adds to his agony. He remains gullible.
Vishesh’s reactions, on many occasions, transition flawlessly from being his natural bullish self to being scared of Irrfan. His conversations with Irrfan are natural, fresh and entertaining.
Support cast doesn’t offer much variety either. They all look consistently hassled.
Thanks to a weak script, a couple of underdeveloped relationships, even Irrfan fans are in for a huge disappointment in Madaari. Further, his sorrow is palpable at times but appears overdone, on a few other occasions. How and where he and the child-victim develop affinity and liking for each other remains inconspicuous.
The juggler (Madaari) juggles your emotions in a disjointed manner possibly presuming that you are in sleeping (Madaari..shhh desh so raha hai), and thus, would be more than satisfied with this half-baked, wasted opportunity.
It’s 2.5 out of 5 from my side.
P.S.: For the political aficionados, Madaari’s climax is a must watch.
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