Excel Entertainment’s Madgaon Express (UA) is the story of three school friends who unite after many years and make a trip to Goa, which had been their dream for years. But everything on that trip goes wrong.
Dodo (Divyendu), Pinku (Pratik Gandhi) and Ayush (Avinash Tiwary) are childhood friends who had always wanted to go to Goa on a holiday. They realise their childhood dream when they meet after many years and make a trip to Goa. However, quite unwittingly, they get involved in a drugs case. What happens thereafter?
The premise of Kunal Kemmu’s story is pretty interesting and prepares the audience for a joyride. His screenplay is interesting but the crime angle (of the drugs and drug dealers) appears stretched as it is less funny. That is not to say that there is no entertainment value in the crime track, but it does get diluted. Consequently, there are portions in the drama, which are extremely funny and there are other parts, which are not so funny. The youngsters will find the drama more entertaining than the older generation. However, the continuous laughter which one witnesses in the cinemas in a hit comedy fare will be missing. Kunal Kemmu’s dialogues are extraordinary.
Divyendu is superb in the role of Dodo. His poker-faced comedy often has the audience in splits. Pratik Gandhi is outstanding as Pinku. His comic sense of timing is also phenomenal. Avinash Tiwary does quite well as Ayush. Nora Fatehi gives a good account of herself as Tasha. Her dance is brilliant. Upendra Limaye lives the role of Mendoza. He acts with effortless ease. Chhaya Kadam is quite good as Kanchan Kombdi. But her track is weak. Remo D’Souza is lovely in a special appearance in the role of Dr. Danny. Raviraj Kande lends able support as Ganpat, whose bag mistakenly gets picked up by Pinku. Sameer Patil does fantastic acting in the role of Dodo’s father. Vipul Deshpande is effective as the police inspector in Goa. Umesh Jagtap is nice as the constable in Goa. Kunal Kemmu stands out in a tiny special appearance. Aaryan Prajapati (as young Dodo), Jewel Narigara (as young Pinku) and Yash Bhojwani (as young Ayush) are natural to the core. Sonali Desai (as Ayush’s mother), Shiv Narayan (as Ayush’s father), Alpana Buch (as Pinku’s mother), Hardik Vadhwana (as the kid playing cricket), Pallavi Wagh, Madhuri Shinde, Suntia Shirloskar, Dipti Pranav, Sarbjit Kaur, Manju Gangwane (all six as members of Kanchan Kombdi’s Kombdi gang), Vinod Jaywant, Marcel D’Souza, Pratap Thakur, Anupam Hinge, Shrikant, Digambar, Arzoo Khan (all seven as Mendoza’s goons), Monica Rae Laher (as Mendoza’s foreigner wife), Aradhana Sharma (as Mariam) and the others do as desired.
Kunal Kemmu’s direction is nice. Not only is his narration quite engaging but he has also extracted very good work from out of his actors. The actor-director knows the craft of direction and has a mature understanding of the medium. How one wishes, his script were tighter. Music (Shaarib & Toshi, Ankur Tewari & Kunal Kemmu, Sagar Desai, Sameer Uddin, and Ajay-Atul for the promotional song) is fair. The absence of hit songs is felt. Lyrics (Kalim Sheikh, D’evil, Kunal Kemmu, Sameer Uddin, Abhishek Naliwal, Srushti Tawade, and Kumaar for the promotional song) go well with the mood of the film. Vijay Ganguly’s choreography (with Remo D’Souza’s choreography for the promotional song) is very nice. Sameer Uddin’s background music is lovely. Adil Afsar’s cinematography is wonderful. Aejaz Gulab and Vikram Dahiya’s action and stunt scenes are interesting and are in synch with the comic flavour of the film. Production designing (by Prachi Deshpande) is of a fairly nice standard. Anand Subaya and Sanjay Shrirang Ingle’s editing is crisp.
On the whole, Madgaon Express is very funny in parts but it also appears too stretched at places. Its crime angle is its weak portion. It will do very ordinary business. Post-COVID, a section of the audience for small and non-star cast films like this, has been lost to the OTT space as such people prefer to consume such content when it appears on OTT after some weeks rather than watching it in cinemas.
Released on 22-3-’24 at Inox (daily 5 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: good. Opening: dull (in spite of the hardly-publicised buy-one-get-one-free-ticket scheme). …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere (again despite the buy-one-get-one-free-ticket scheme).