Mission Majnu movie review: Sidharth Malhotra & Rashmika Mandanna starrer has pace and pomp but could have used depth

In a scene from Netflix’s Mission Majnu, Tariq, played by Sidharth Malhotra, accompanies his wife to the local hospital to evaluate a suspicion she has regarding her pregnancy. While he’s there, he has his eureka moment – a nifty way to collect physical evidence that Pakistan is building a nuclear bomb. He doesn’t wait on ceremony nor does he quantify his humanism. Instead, he leaves his pregnant wife at the hands of a neighbour and rushes to share his moment of genius with his cohort of spies. This sequence, the lucidity of its pomp screams of the emotional void that Mission Majnu struggles to fill. The spy thriller is a modest, sporadically thrilling film that never quite manages to establish its most intimate stakes. Contrarily, the film is blunted by its desire to establish a patriotism so thick, it rarely seems perturbed by everyday emotional burdens, unless, demanded by the climax.

The shadow of Meghna Gulzar’s terrific _Raazi_ looms large on _Mission Majnu_. Tariq is actually Amandeep Singh, son a former traitor, now living in Pakistan as a secret, but a dormant agent of RAW. The film, rather oddly, begins with the interlude of Tariq falling in love with the blind Nasreen, played by Rashmika Mandanna. After India test fires its first nuclear bomb in Pokhran, the government in Pakistan gears into action before a military coup takes over the reins. Tariq is activated by his handler based out of India, a foul-mouthed cynic who never fails to remind him of his father, the fact that he might have inherited his traitorous tendencies via the bloodstream. Though visceral and on-the-nose, this historical bit about Tariq is established via a couple of unconvincing flashbacks.

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Because the film is set in the 70s, everything moves slower. It does add to the intrigue of a film that though it feels straightforward in a sense, becomes complicated owing to the era it is set it. Tariq finds help in fellow agents Aslam Usmaniya, played by the convincing Sharib Hashmi and the reliable Kumud Mishra playing a local Maulvi. The three join hands, but Tariq remains the anchor of the team. He has been deputed to lead the operation based on the whimsical idea that he has ‘more to prove’. You can tell why the universe of spies and intrigue around cross-border espionage never lets up because even modest concoctions like this one can at least carry the whiff of thrill and suspense. Tariq is a tailor. Quite how he is supposed to infiltrate the most guarded bastion of the Pakistani army is puzzlingly unclear. He chooses to innovate, at times working backwards from an American-style toilet. It’s ingenious but can also feel awry. In one scene he refuses to take a gun, but whether it is bullish bravado or a Gandhian entreaty, is never quite surmised nor underlined at any given point after. Again, it’s a curious character cue that simply goes missing.

The mission here is simple, to locate and confirm that the coy neighbour is up to something devious. Where the film or the script misses the point, is communicating the audacity of the task at hand. Digital maps squeeze the world for us today, but back in the 70s, locating secret facilities must have been trickier. The scale of the task is compromised, for the giddy, simplistic solutions that Tariq comes up with on the fly. To add to that, he is both brain and brawn, a combination of standout handsomeness and mental trickery that feels far too artless. Then there is the forgetful romance between Nasreen and Tariq, the political fallout of which is never quite confronted the way Raazi did. Nasreen’s blindness, in fact, is an apt metaphor for the film’s inability to confront conflict of a more personal nature. Which is strange in a story that wants to reclaim a man’s patriotism, but without addressing the woman who must serve as collateral damage.

Mission Majnu isn’t poor, in fact, it is in parts, entertaining. What it lacks in terms of deftness it more than makes up for with a rousing soundtrack and a fairly enjoyable journey towards the undoing of a devious plan. Malhotra is decent and so are the actors supporting him. The problem is that the film’s protagonists are heroes from the off, even in moments when they are accosted or questioned. The odds might be against them, but they behave with the nonchalance of people who know their day of reckoning is nearing. To a married man, expecting a child, it shouldn’t be so easy to detach yourself from fatherhood to serve the state. But in Mission Majnu, events tumble, one into the other, like a glossary of inanimate PowerPoint slides that thrill for the speed at which they shift past us than for what they actually have to say. There was great potential here, to explore with empathy, the complexity of a man’s duty pushing him against the great wall of familial despair. Of the two loves, which one would he choose? Sadly, Mission Majnu does not ask that question.

Mission Majnu is streaming on Netflix

Manik Sharma writes on art and culture, cinema, books, and everything in between.

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