An insipid bore

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An insipid bore

Mr. X is an assault on viewers’ sensibilities and takes audiences for granted, writes Deepa Gauri.

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Published: Sat 18 Apr 2015, 8:22 PM

Last updated: Thu 25 Jun 2015, 7:24 PM

Yes, Emraan Hashmi kisses in Mr. X too, and this time, he does it even when he is invisible. That, in a nutshell, is how ridiculously plotted this film, presented by Fox Star and endorsed by the veteran Mahesh Bhatt is.

The contention is not about a kiss. It is about how Bhatt, who knows the industry and has outspoken and forthright views about everything under the sun, endorses this utter mediocrity.

Bearing all the trademark stamp of a Vikram Bhatt-directed film, Mr. X reminds you once again that entertainment for the Bhatts is warped beyond redemption. If Fox Star fell for this, Bollywood’s studio moguls need not worry about international production companies making any headway in its turf.

Had Mr. X come as just another Bollywood film, made by an amateur director who conned a producer into investing money, it wouldn’t have deserved any condemnation. But it is the tags associated with the film that make you angry and annoyed.

How else can you respond to a film that could have been this generation’s Mr. India but hardly rises above even the standards of a C-grade Bollywood movie? Every aspect of the film is convoluted and it starts from shot one, where the crack team of an anti-terrorist wing of Mumbai police is shown bringing down a militant and defusing a bomb. The execution is as lame as it can be.

Cut to the lives of this crack team of Raghu (Emraan Hashmi) and Mili (Amyra Dastur), who are in love and apparently in a live-in relationship. Tired of Mr’s daredevil antics, Miss wants to walk out. But aren’t they this great anti-terrorist fighters? Well, don’t ask. Anyway, Mr proposes to Ms and they break into a wistful love song, the sort you hear only in Bhatt films. Yes, Hashmi kisses too.

Alas, their great romance can’t last long, and Mr & Ms are called into an assignment that will eventually lead to Mr shooting the chief minister at the behest of the squad’s boss (Arunoday Singh). Mr is trapped and left to die in an explosive factory but lo, he emerges alive (here it is time for some divine intervention) and becomes Mr. X. How he goes on to win his love, clear his name and take revenge form the rest of the film. [Spoiler alert] Suffice to say that even invisible men can live happily ever after.

Forget the ludicrous plot; that is a given in science-fiction. It is how you execute such material that makes the difference. Here, the characters behave like a bunch of dimwits, their dialogues are extremely chunky and artificial, and the scenes are shot with clear lack of imagination.

Hashmi, who could have salvaged this mess, doesn’t have the charisma of a Shah Rukh Khan, who got away with a similarly lousily executed Ra.One. He labours through the film, desperate to make an impression. Dastur tries earnestly but her character’s conviction to be an honest cop appears silly and contrived. And that irritates the hapless viewer.

We will never know how and why such films get made and how they win the backing of the heavyweights. But if indeed they are going to make a sequel to this, maybe we should think of a court restraint order. Viewers should not let anyone, even the mighty Bhatts, take them for granted.


MR. X
Director: Vikram Bhatt
Cast: Emraan Hashmi and Amyra Dastur


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