Malang is the kind of throwaway romantic thriller that you'll forget almost immediately after watching. The non-linear revenge storyline is as 'basic' as it can get, with the only difference maker here being Goa's aesthetically pleasing (and often stylish) backdrop.
In the past, the tree-trunk hero (Aditya Roy Kapur) Advait falls in love with trite, free-spirited NRI heroine Sara after a one-night stand, and they decide to tick off some the latter's "bucket-list" nonsense together. Their romance (if you can call it that) is nothing more than a tourism ad for Goa (and parts of Mauritius, I'm guessing?) - rave parties, drugs, underwater sex, and whatnot. It's as tepid as you can imagine - I'd give marks to Kapur and Patani for managing to look so insanely gorgeous, even when their lines are corny as hell.
In the present, cops are getting murdered one after the other on Christmas eve. Anil Kapoor plays a middle-aged, encounter-loving, coke-snorting officer Agashe while Kunal Khemu appears to be his priggish counterpart Michael. They play each other off in a few badly written scenes with Kapoor faking his eccentric laugh. As is the case with Bollywood romantic thrillers, a song breaks out every other minute - don't ask me why - probably, the writer (Aseem Arora) ran out of cheap philosophy. The twist at the end is also a bummer that, in a way, retcons a good chunk of the film's initial half.
The biggest eye-roll arrives in the form of Michael's backstory. Yes, it's a relatively less explored territory in commercial cinema, but this isn't the film where it gets fully tapped into. Mohit Suri is satisfied going after cheap thrills instead. It also sucks that all the women characters in the movie exist just to get attacked and exact revenge later on. And when the revenge (for sexual violence) is served by unleashing heaps of style over substance, it doesn't help.
In the past, the tree-trunk hero (Aditya Roy Kapur) Advait falls in love with trite, free-spirited NRI heroine Sara after a one-night stand, and they decide to tick off some the latter's "bucket-list" nonsense together. Their romance (if you can call it that) is nothing more than a tourism ad for Goa (and parts of Mauritius, I'm guessing?) - rave parties, drugs, underwater sex, and whatnot. It's as tepid as you can imagine - I'd give marks to Kapur and Patani for managing to look so insanely gorgeous, even when their lines are corny as hell.
In the present, cops are getting murdered one after the other on Christmas eve. Anil Kapoor plays a middle-aged, encounter-loving, coke-snorting officer Agashe while Kunal Khemu appears to be his priggish counterpart Michael. They play each other off in a few badly written scenes with Kapoor faking his eccentric laugh. As is the case with Bollywood romantic thrillers, a song breaks out every other minute - don't ask me why - probably, the writer (Aseem Arora) ran out of cheap philosophy. The twist at the end is also a bummer that, in a way, retcons a good chunk of the film's initial half.
The biggest eye-roll arrives in the form of Michael's backstory. Yes, it's a relatively less explored territory in commercial cinema, but this isn't the film where it gets fully tapped into. Mohit Suri is satisfied going after cheap thrills instead. It also sucks that all the women characters in the movie exist just to get attacked and exact revenge later on. And when the revenge (for sexual violence) is served by unleashing heaps of style over substance, it doesn't help.