Review: 'MLA- An Inside Intruder'

Film: MLA- An Inside Intruder
Cast: Chaitanya Naidu, Ana Kalandadze, Mukesh Tiwari, Omkar Das Manikpuri, Pankaj Tripathi, Puneet Kumar
Director: Shiv Dube
Rating: *1/2

I had hopes from this film. Even though the main cast was unknown to me and the plot didn’t seem too strong, I had some hopes. My hopes were pegged on Omkar Das Manikpuri, who played the role of Nattha in Peepli Live! But alas...

Set in a village called Bhaglipur, MLA is the story of Kamal Khushwaha (Chaitanya Naidu), a kind-hearted and honest man who rose from the ashes of poverty to become a successful industrialist and businessman. Now, along with his brother Anuj (Puneet Kumar) he plans to build a milk factory on the outskirts of the village, which pisses off the MLA, sure.

The MLA of the area Pratap Singh (Mukesh Tiwari) is your typical politician sleazeball who is least interested in people’s welfare and cares only about power. Now, with the help of his faithful and equally sleazy (but less powerful) sidekick, Sukhram (Pratap Singh), he seeks to eliminate KK altogether.

Enter Shankar (Omkar Das Manikpuri), a simple village dweller burdened with poverty but a brave heart nevertheless. He decides to fight against the corrupt MLA and manages to convince the good guy, KK sahib to run for MLA.

What happens? Who wins? I won’t tell you for two reasons:

1. I don’t want to ruin the oh-so-awesome suspense

2. You won’t really care after a point because there is no way you will make it till the end of the film. If you can, then more power to you.

The plot is not exactly genius but that can be forgiven. The rest, however, cannot.

First of all, the songs (all of them) should be slashed. They don’t provide relief from the all-serious plot, they just enhance the torture the audience is going through. The song where KK sahib and his Georgian girlfriend Ana (Ana Kalandadze) spend an entire week staring into each other’s eyes and rubbing noses should go first and the item numbers should follow.

As far as performances are concerned, the good guys are bad and the bad guys are good, the biggest disappointment being Omkar Das Manikpuri. His acting can only be described as flat and uninspired. The lead couple could take any money they make from this film and use it to pay for acting classes. The only two actors who deserve praise for their performances are Pankaj Tripathi and Mukesh Tiwari. Tripathi does brilliantly as Sukhram and is probably the only character who provides any entertainment. But those two aren’t enough to save the film or make it even remotely okay to watch.

Anything is better than this one. Skip it… seriously.