“Munna quiet. I beg of you!” Michael
(Ronit Roy) begs of a wailing child Munna (Tiger Shroff) early in the film.
That could well sum up the audience plea in the collective. When as actor like
Nawazuddin Siddiqui – playing Mahindra ends up hamming in a full length role
you know there is a mess on hand. That exactly is Munna Michael. A complete
misunderstanding on what the audience ants, the film is as old as those B
Subhash – Mithunda films of the seventies and eighties. Woefully outdated. The
basic premise of the film is about an artists’ passion for his art (remember
Shankarabharanam, Tillanna Mohananamabal, Sagara Sangamam….). Unfortunately
passion for art takes the backseat. The filmmaker (Sabir Khan) loses complete
sight of his defined premise and tries hard to project the two packaged facets
of Tiger Shroff – stunts and dance. The resultant mess is when the attempt to
ride two horses comes a cropper.
Michael (Ronit Roy) is a punctured dancer who has just got the pink slip.
Drunk, as he walks home, he finds an abandoned child who he adopts. The child
inherits the passion for dance and soon becomes a magical dancer. He moves from
one pub to another flexing muscle or moving leg to make quick money. Soon, the
police call the bluff and he finds it difficult to enter a bar in Mumbai. Now,
he moves to Delhi where he runs into baddy Mahender (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who
when not wielding the gun is hoping to win his lady love by becoming a dancer.
Munna’s arrival in Delhi coincides with Mahender’s requirement. A deal is
struck. Mahender’s money will help Munna pay Papa’s medical bills and his
dancing skills will help Mahender win his lady love. Conflict comes when both
Mahender and Munna are in love with the same girl Dolly (Nidhi Agarwal). In
case you find the story thus far, is predictable, it gets worse further. You
know sooner than later that bad M will come to realise about the love of good M
and good M will walk away with the lady. Interpolating this single line story
are poorly choreographed dances and immaturely designed stunts making for an
over two hour display of poor taste and poorer talent.
You hope that with the script backing Tiger, he would carry the film on is
shoulder. He doesn’t. Great dancer he is. With limited virtues and huge
challenges, he is simply not up to the task. The best hope obviously is the
great Nawazuddin. Finally, the law of averages catches up. Like Naseeruddin
Shah in Sunayana, he just can’t paddle his canoe. Even he cannot salvage this
mess. As far as Nidhi Agarwal is concerned, it is difficult to decide as to
what is worse, her dress sense or acting skill sets.
To be fair to the Director, he allows the protagonist to clearly announce
“Munna doesn’t fight. He only hammers” Very true.
L. Ravichander