There must be a reason why this film was made. I can’t see what it is. Could it be to launch two exceedingly untalented youngsters as actors? If so, Mannu Kya Karega directed by Ssanjay Tripaathy does a huge disservice to the debutants who should not waste time trying to do what they are clearly not cut out for.
What could possibly have prompted Ssanjay Tripaathi, whose earlier family film Binny & Family brimmed with genuine bonhomie, to get into this scam-like mediocrity where ever-reliable actors like Brijendra Kala, Vinay Pathak, Kumud Mishra and Rajesh Kumar embarrass themselves? It’s like watching drunken grownups soil their pants at a party that has gone horribly wrong.
Kumud Mishra, trying to play the young debutant Vyom Yadav’s Daddy Cool, makes himself into a complete fool. It’s not his fault. It is the nature of the beast. The screenplay is so ham-handed even Laurence Olivier would have been caught on the wrong foot.
The setting is Dehra Dun, which is just about the only pleasant part of this bland love story about a young chap who doesn’t know his mind, and a girl (Saachi Bindra) who can’t seem to mind her own business. They travel together on top of a bus to a college camp chatting about goals and aspirations (imagine Friends with no spark), he massages her back while she pukes (so sweet) in the bus. She tells him about her sister who marries a man of her own choice, much to her Daddyji’s dismay.
All this is supposed to get us involved with lives which are just not worth it. Director Ssanjay Tripaathy, some of whose earlier work is commendable, seems completely bored with the ingredients on the kitchen table. He cuts and chops, grinds and grills the content. But his heart is clearly not in it.
Making it worse are the intermittent breaks for songs, which are serviceable as toll booths on a highway.
The screenplay (Saurabh Gupta) swerves into some sort of satire on start-ups in the second half, with the eponymous Mannu pacifying his girlfriend by pretending to have a career target. But it all seems like ways to stall the conclusion rather than tell a story worth telling.
So the question that came up earlier: why was Mannu Kya Karega even made? A vow to the Gods, perhaps? Penance for sins committed? Why involve the audience in a fare that makes you want to just stare in disbelief.
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