Mickey Virus ~Varun Badola New Movie TREAD~ - Page 6

Mickey Virus

RATING 3/5

In a country like India, where it takes 60 minutes and a half to download a song, it takes exactly 60 seconds for a movie like Mickey Virus' to hack into the multiple firewalls securing the website of a bank. Well, that's a typical Hindi movie for you. So if you can throw your logic in the attic and surrender to the fun ride of this comic thriller, you might sit on the edge of your seat, trim a few nails under your teeth and trip over a few popcorns.

Let me start with a confession. I expected Mickey Virus' to be a rip off of Vicky Donor'. Think a film that's based in Delhi, speaks a similar Punjabi twanged language and whose title is just a letter shift from the Ayushmann Khurrana's debut; you can't blame me for my presumptions. I confess I was surprised. Besides the setting and the language, the movie has a fresh story to tell.

Mickey Arora is a quintessential Delhi boy: talented, streetsmart yet lazy and unambitious. He sits at his mom's grocery store during the day and moonlights as a hacker. The film starts with Mickey and his gang of friends - Chutney (straight out from an MTV Splitsvilla set), Floppy (it's cool to have a Sardarji in Hindi films these days and Honey/Happy/Lucky are pass as Surdy names) and Pancho (considering Delhi-ites breathe this word in every sentence, it very believably passes off as a name). The Delhi Police seeks Mickey's help to solve a hacking case and how his life gets entangled in a web of hackers and how he manages to wriggle out pretty much sums up the story.

Manish Paul gets full marks for his comic timings. The character is an extension of his role as an anchor on dance reality shows; cool, calm, candid and cheeky and he pulls it off with ease. I remember how Manish and I hosted so many events back in Delhi. Little did we know then that he would end up doing a film and me reviewing it!

The film abounds with subtle humor. I laughed out loud to see a hacker wear a tee that read- Jab Tak Hain Trojan'. The dialogues are both as Delhi and as technical as it gets to suit the flavor of the film. You have gems like "Main kya universal charger hoon jo kahin bhi ghused doge." Or "Aaj kal ki generation kaisi hai - kapde khule rehte hain, phone pe lock laga rehta hain."

Elli Avram, the Swedish Greek actress, is almost unrecognizable as she makes a smooth shift from her sans make-up' avatar on Bigg Boss' to a face that hides behind layers of foundation and extensive make-up. I am most tempted to say she has a long way to go as an actor, but really, whom am I kidding! It's Bollywood where Katrina Kaif is the highest paid actress despite her dyslexia when it comes to phonetically articulating in Hindi. By those standards, Elli is Shabana Azmi and shows promise.

Varun Badola earns a special mention here. He plays the role of a Delhi cop to a T. His lines are funny and his delivery even funnier. It's so heartwarming to see such a great actor finally get his due. This role would win him as many accolades as Vicky Donor' did for Anu Kapoor.

Since giving stars is so main stream, here's my verdict - Let this virus enter your life, it's fun and harmless!

Hacking is a subject that has rarely been explored in Indian cinema. So, the fact that Mickey Virus tells the story of a hacker was one of the things that make one look forward to the film. While there are films like Chennai Express, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani which make it to the 100 crore club on one end, there are also films like Shahid, Kahaani etc on the other end of the spectrum. The latter films may not have big budgets but are still finding audiences as they are having stories with good content. The success of such films have made it possible for films with different subjects like Mickey Virus (telling the story of a hacker) to get made in Bollywood. So does Mickey Virus make for an engaging film? Read on to find out more.

Mickey Arora aka Mickey Virus (Manish Paul) is a brilliant but good for nothing hacker. He and his friends Floppy(Raghav Kakkar) , Chutney (Puja Gupta), Pancho (Vikesh Kakkar) indulge in watching po*n, eating chowmein and basically chilling out - which basically means doing nothing. When a number of hackers in Delhi get murdered, the high profile commissioner Siddhant (Manish Chaudhary) believes Mickey is the man for the job as he believes Mickey can easily help the cops to crack the case. In the midst of this, Mickey also falls for the stunning Kamayani (Elli Avram) who very much looks like Kung Fu Chameli; a video game character designed by Mickey.

The first half of the film has a lot of light and funny moments. Director Saurabh Varma has nicely shown the busy life of Delhi. The banter between Mickey and his friends, Mickey, the commissioner and a subordinate cop (Varun Badola) sees a lot of well written and funny dialogues. You can also spot characters wearing t-shirts with hilarious tag lines such as "Jab tak hai trojan" . Even the romantic track between Mickey and Kamayani is handled fairly well. So far so good. Though at times, it feels there is an attempt to overdo things. Especially while depicting the lingo and the lifestyle of the people living in Delhi. The fact that almost every other Hindi film wants to tell a Delhi based story is also getting tiresome.

The film gets into the thriller mode at the interval point when one of the key characters in the film gets murdered. Here onwards the film keeps you engaged and also making you feel restless in equal measures. The identity of the culprits responsible for the murder is well handled although not entirely unpredictable. This subplot also makes for some good viewing. I felt the climax of the film was unnecessarily prolonged. Had it been shorter, it would have made the film crisper.

The music and background music scored by Hanif Shaikh is ordinary. Editing by Archit Rastogi is fair, though the film drags at places.

After having a reasonably successful stint in television, Manish Paul makes a reasonably good debut with Mickey Virus. He surely has given a confident performance and displays a good sense of comic timing. Though at times, he does go overboard but largely a good debut. A funny thing to be noted is that, throughout the film Mcikey speaks in the Delhi lingo. But his lingo completely disappears in the last half hour of the film. Elli Avram has been in the news ever since she has made it to the Bigg Boss house. A thing which in fact has created buzz about her and the film. Needless to say, she looks quite stunning , though looking a bit mature compared to her lead actor. But beyond that, it is a rather lackluster performance from her. Besides the intent of using her in the film only seems to upping the oomph factor and Elli seems to be the ideal candidate for that.

Amongst the rest of the cast, all the actors do a competent job. Though Raghav Kakkar's get up of a Sardar seems a bit too fake at times. Nitesh Pandey as the mentor of Mickey has an interesting role to play and does well in his limited screen time. Manish Chaudhary (best known for his role as Ranbir Kapoor's boss in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year) once again does an efficient job as the commissioner. He has a very good screen presence with a commendable dialogue delivery. After seeing this film, you know why he is one of the better actors we have around. The best performance however comes from well known television actor Varun Badola . As the bumbling subordinate cop Badola is bestowed with some of the best scenes and lines in the film. And he uses it to his full advantage to come up with a likeable performance. One wonders why Badola, who otherwise is quite a well known name in television is not seen often in films.

To sum it up Mickey Virus despite its weaknesses is fairly enjoyable film. The kind of film which people should watch with a large group of friends and would end up having a fairly good time.

Disclaimer- Madaboutmoviez.com is an official online partner for Mickey Virus.