Madgaon Express Review: Drugs, drama, dhamaal-drip — Kunal Kemmu hijacks you on comic trance-trip! 

Madgaon Express

Writer-director: Kunal Kemmu

Cast: Divyenndu, Avinash Tiwary, Pratik Gandhi, Nora Fatehi, Chhaya Kadam, Upendra Limaye

Release: Theatrical

Rating: 

By Chaitanya Padukone

It’s not so surprising for me that Kunal (Ravi) Kemmu, known for his perfect comic timings and his forte for whacko comedy in a string of past movies like Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke (as a child-artiste) Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal franchise, Guddu Ki Gun (2015) and even in movie Lootcase has successfully helmed a hilarious, zany comedy ‘Madgaon Express’ which has released today. In this movie, multi-tasker Kunal Kemmu (possibly even ‘on-up’ on the versatile legend Kishore Kumar) is the amazing story, screen-play and dialogue-writer, singer (of a song), has written lyrics and acted in a cute cameo role and yes debuted as a brilliant ‘director’.

A laugh-riot rollercoaster of a cocktail of an impulsive rail-road-beachside pleasure trip to Goa gone wickedly wrong with a trance-drip undercurrent of a local drugs-mafia crime-comic-drama ‘Madgaon Express’ literally uses the first three letters M-A-D’ from Madgaon (located in Goa). The maverick movie is replete with recurring scenes with less logic but oozing with comic magic which are truly rib-tickling. There are quite a few scenes (in the fish market for instance) that tend to slacken the pace or may look out of place. There are also several scenes where one feels that there is ‘boisterous hamming’ but it goes with the flow. But impactful background music and relief dance songs keep up the zestful tempo.

The movie ‘Madgaon Express may remind audiences of ‘the three-buddies misadventure’ plot that was highly appreciated in ‘Dil Chaahta Hai’ and ‘Zindagi Naa Milegi Dobara’ and these movie titles are consciously used in the crispy, naughty, witty dialogues. But all through, the ‘mad’ content is crisp and refreshingly laugh-worthy.

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Three childhood close buddies played to perfection on-screen Dodo (Divyenndu Sharma), Ayush (Avinash Tiwary), and Prateek (Pratik Gandhi) reunite after many years to fulfill their unfulfilled cherished dream of chilling out together in Goa. They have no clue of the deadly, dangerous, drug-centric obstacles that will retard their travel trip. While (‘Animal’ fame) Upendra Limaye), plays ‘Mendons’ a local bumbling eccentric Goan mafia don is frantically looking for his huge consignments of drugs-cocaine meets these three buddies. Only to realize that there are hidden secrets lurking behind them. Vivacious Tasha alias Tehreen (played convincingly by Nora Fatehi) with her scenes and seductive sex appeal and Dr. Danny (choreographer Remo D’souza) add to the madness and also come to their rescue to escape from the clumsy clutches of weirdo Saayba Mendosa.

How Ayush, Prateek, and Dodo manipulate their strategy (including masquerading as fisherwomen) to navigate over shockingly hilarious hurdles towards Mumbai safely, forms the suspense climax! Expect-the-unexpected seems to be the Hitchcockian style comical twists and turns. Like the legendary Hollywood film-maker, director Kunal also has put in a quirky cameo appearance.

The compelling performance by all the lead and supporting actors (including ‘Chhaya Kadam’ who plays the feisty fisher-woman and local don ‘Kanchan Kombdi’) is mostly realistic and relatable, especially for families and especially today’s fast-forward young Gen-Now. The 140 minutes well-executed film produced by Excel Entertainment (Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani) despite all its freak-flaws, is a great stress-buster mirth-quake Director Kumnal Kemmu’s Madgaon Express is bound to leave a hilarious hang-over with its intoxicating comedy.

Dir Kunal Kemmu (right) with sr journalist Chaitanya Padukone

By the way, Kunal’s talented star-actress wife Soha Ali Khan has supposedly ‘dubbed’ for a female artiste in the climax scenes. Check it out when you watch the movie. Do watch out for the movie ‘sequel’ – very likely to be announced in due course.

(The writer Chaitanya Padukone is a Phalke award-winning eminent senior film-journalist-author )