Directed by : Shantanu Bagchi

Jung hathiyaro se nahi, intelligence se jeeti jaati hai.

Sidharth Malhotra and Rashmika Mandanna in a still from 'Mission Majnu'

Spoilers ahead..


Set in 1970s, its about an undercover Indian spy agent Amandeep Singh/Tariq (Sidharth Malhotra) who is tasked to find out the secret place where Pakistan is trying to conduct nuclear weapons program. And the name of the mission is 'Mission Majnu'. 

From the trailer itself I had the vibe of how on the face patriotism this movie will have and I wasn't proven wrong. But what was really disappointing that even the spy story was so damn silly, I mean I wasn't expecting much when it comes to how caricature portrayal of Pakistan would be but atleast don't defy logic and try to engage audience with a good thrilling narrative. 

The story has major scope to build characters and tension since its taking up a real life incident and includes some famous people of that time footage too. Check the level of stupidity - There's a brigadier who is openly sharing top secret information with a tailor (Tariq). We see the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (Rajit Kapoor) in anger saying we will do anything to win against India even if it means we starve for food, and then eats a piece of chocolate cake. That's the kind of humor in this movie.

We see Tariq time and again try to get information through gossips with woman, or a boy or shopwala, because the cue  given in script is, no one will ever get suspicious about you. There's Aslam Usmania (Sharib Hashmi), another undercover raw agent, who is hot tempered taking his gun out so easily and yet has never got caught, go figure yourself! Also, there's a mention of 'very dangerous Pakistan scientist' who works on this nuclear program, but throughout the movie I couldn't understand what they really meant by dangerous because nothing felt like so. Maybe, dangerous has a new meaning as per this movie. 

There's 2 very irritating characters, one of Raw Officer Sharma (Zakir Hussain) who constantly keeps bullying Tariq for his past related to a traitor father.. but its just too repetitive to my liking. Zakir Hussain does get one good scene later on where he suggests how sitting on other end through phone one tries to be patriotic not realizing real work is being done by other guys in the field who aren't valued enough. The other one was Tariq's wife, Nasreen Khan's (Rashmika Mandanna) father who keeps on disliking Tariq because of his low earning status. 

Sidharth Malhotra really struggles, ofcourse part of it is to do with the poor script but he still gave the  feeling of miscasted. When he says those lines in 'Shershaah' that are patriotic, they made an effect because the story was moving one. Here, in that scene where he tells Raman (Kumud Mishra, playing another undercover raw agent) and Aslam, about what he feels for India, it just comes across some street guy telling how patriotic he is. Rashmika Mandanna in her debut hindi movie is limited to a very one-note character, a reason why that climax scene doesn't invoke the emotions it should had.

Even Kumud Mishra  overacts for a change, it was tough to see him in that scene where he is pretending to be a Pakistani army officer. 

I never loved, Shershaah like most people did yet I enjoyed that film along with Sidharth performance. But, with Mission Majnu there's just nothing to like, even the songs are so dull and sleep inducing. Its just a failure of what could had been a good spy thriller if not more, like Raazi or even Romeo Akbar Walter were. Maybe Mission Majnu's target audience was only Sidharth fans or the patriotic lovers who will like anything that screams patriotism.

My Rating : 3/10