Madgaon Express
Starring: Divyenndu, Pratik Gandhi, Avinash Tiwary, Nora Fatehi
Direction: Kunal Khemu
Kunal Khemu makes an interesting debut behind the camera. He deals unpretentiously with a comedy challenge. Notwithstanding a few crass jokes and crotch-attacking scenes, the film does offer many moments of laughter and engages the audience with interest on the drug war-gang war types of Bollywood, this time in Goa.
Three schoolboys, Dodo, Pinku, and Aayush, dream of going to Goa. They hail from middle class families who would have none of it. Soon they graduate and go their ways. While Pinku (Pratik Gandhi) goes to Cape Town and Aayush (Avinash Tiwari) to New York, Dodo (Divyendu) stays back in India and is prey to the constant cribbing of his dad (Sameer Patil).
Dodo dreams of matching his friends who have moved to greener pastures. He fakes his page on social media and creates a myth of prosperity. After a few abortive attempts, Dodo plans a trip to Goa when the other two decide to visit India and stay with him.
Afraid that his bluff would be called and his poverty exposed, he picks them at the airport. Pinku is a hypochondriac and has a temper that makes him fuss over details. Dodo can only afford a low-budget trip and justifies it as a part of his school dream. They head to the railway station where Pinku picks up the wrong hand luggage. His luggage of medicines is exchanged with a look-like bag of a drug peddler. So begin the adventures.
The first of the many is when they land in Goa, inadvertently consume substance and land up in a house of a drug peddler. There are claimants to the bag of cash, gun and drugs. Also the drug mafia and their inter-se war sucks in the threesome. They are suspects and thus have the police chasing them. Go on this ride to examine its twists and turns. Not exactly funny. Fast-paced, not heavy on your mind, good repartee, and one-liners.
The cast is headed with Divyendu who is very good. He is well supported by Pretik Gandhi and Avinash Tiwari. RavirajKande as Ganpath the drug peddler, Upendra Limaye as the local don Mendoza in war with his ex-wife Kanchan Komdi – played by Chhaya Kadam – all of whom have small but meaningful roles, deliver. Remo D’Souza too plays a small role.
Khemu makes an interesting debut and shows that he understands the basics. His final tongue-in-cheek appearance at the end of the film is surely worth a laugh. Every once in a while, you get to seeing a “time pass” film. It is a nothing expected, nothing lost experience. As the cricket circus has begun, you may well escape to the theatres, beat the heat and have a few laughs.
