Film: Made In China

Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Mouni Roy, Boman Irani, Sumeet Vyas, Amyra Dastur, Paresh Rawal, Gajraj Rao

Director: Mikhil Musale

Raghuvir Mehta (Rajkummar Rao) is a small entrepreneur from Gujarat who is down on luck. He has a supportive wife in Rukmini (Mouni Roy) but she’s tired of his innovative ideas and their hand-to-mouth existence. Raghu’s daily motivational mantras come from YouTube videos by Abhay Chopra (Gajraj Rao) who belts out gems like, “Dimag ideas ka gamla hain.” But sadly, none of Raghu’s business ideas take flight.

Things take a U-turn when Raghu goes to China with his cousin Devraj (Sumeet Vyas). There he meets a successful businessman and potential investor in Tanmay Shah (Paresh Rawal) and a Chinese woman who plants the idea of ‘Magic Soup’ (that boosts male libido) into his head. With the help of an eccentric sexologist Dr. Vardhi (Boman Irani), who agrees to endorse Raghu’s product to create awareness about sex-related issues, the latter sets up this venture and his aphrodisiac soon becomes a hit. However, Raghu finds himself in a legal soup when he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a Chinese General who helps himself to a cup of Chinese ‘Magic Soup’. What follows is the unraveling of Raghu’s secrets, bit by bit.

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Sadly, the film takes 168 minutes to reach a conclusive point. The concept holds potential – addressing sex with tongue-in-cheek humour. This to a nation that is practically sex-deprived and where talking or endorsing the idea of healthy sex or related queries are considered taboo. There’s a scene where Dr. Vardhi mistakenly walks into a parent-teacher meet, assuming it to be a forum to discuss sex education. In this comedy of error situation, the sexologist invites discussion on what he knows best with an audience there to discuss issues related to their ‘bachchas’. You cannot help but laugh at the situation, but these moments are only a few.

Dialogues by Karan Vyas are neither cheap nor OTT but somehow fail to tickle your funny bone. Anuj Rakesh Dhawan’s camerawork is a bleak colour palette and hit songs like Odhani or Sanedo do nothing to accelerate the pace of the film. The narrative takes forever to build up and while the climax saves Made In China, it leaves many questions unanswered.

What lifts the film are Rajkummar’s and Boman’s performances. As a sincere, determined and smalltime businessman, Rajkummar is honest and endearing. But straight-faced Boman as the ‘sexpert’ lays the foundation of the film. Gajraj and Paresh barely have few scenes and more screen space to the two veterans would have certainly helped the film. Mouni has a brief role which suits her fine, given that there is no graph to her character.

It’s surprising that director Mikhil Musale, who won National Award for his debut film Wrong Side Raju, misses the comic beat in this project. The story falters with stretched scenes and a snail’s pace narrative which picks up only in the last 15 minutes. Made In China boasts of a subject which exposes the hypocrisy of sex and the conversations surrounding it. And the performances in the film definitely have a more lasting effect than the Chinese products Raghu tries to sell!

PeepingMoon.com gives Made In China 3 Moons

(Source: PeepingMoon)