Friday, August 28, 2009

Quick Gun Murugun: Bollywood Movie review

Title: Quick Gun Murugun

Director: Shashanka Ghosh

Cast:

Rajendra Prasad...... Quick Gun Murugun

Vinay Pathak...... Mr. Chitragupt

Ranvir Shorey...... Sansani Reporter

Sandhya Mridul...... Masala News Reporter

Rambha...... Mango Dolly

Ashwin Mushran...... Dr Django



Synopsis: Quick Gun Murugun is a superhero. Clad in a stylish cowboy outfit, wearing his guns, he fights for common men. The story starts in a peaceful vegetarian South Indian village where Quick Gun Murugun was a cowboy and looked after the cows. One day, the village was attacked by a group of non-veg robbers and Murugun dies while fighting them. Twenty five years later, in 2007, Murugun is reborn as a superhero, Quick Gun Murugun. He is honest, sincere and a devoted lover but torned between his first love, Locket girl and Mango Dolly, a blonde bar dancer who secretly loves Murugun. Now, there is the Rice Plate Reddy, owner of Mc Dosa Corporation. He wants to make the perfect non-veg dhosa and kidnaps all the women in town who knows how to prepare dhosas. Quick Gun Murugun, with the help of Mango Dolly, foils Rice Plate Reddy’s plan.



If you are tired of seeing Hindi movies that are third grade copies of Hollywood movies, then you should go and see this movie. It is nothing extra-ordinary but it is innovative and original. The character of Murugun was originally developed for Channel [V] in the mid 1990s by Rajesh Devraj and Shashanka Ghosh. The script of the movie was written by Rajesh Devraj and Shashanka Ghosh directed it and they deserve some praise for their work. Indiaserver.com says:

Quick Gun Murugan offers the audience something which will completely be a novel experience. The movie revolves around the fight between hero and villain. The duo is in fight for a ‘dosa’ recipe… The movie takes the audience into a really crazy and funky world where the hero, Quick Gun Murugan, essayed by veteran Telugu actor, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, is depicted as a ‘super hero’.

Quick Gun Murugun is a spoof that takes its dialogue and style from the 70s Hindi cinema. The dialogues of the hero is similar to those of the action heroes of the 70s such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra or Shatrughan Sinha. The park bench romance, running around the flower garden and camera showing the back of hero and then heroin who feels shy and runs away after kissing the hero is very much 70s Bollywood. And the fighting as you know, the hero comes out victoriously without a scratch in his body. No matter how many bullets have been fired or how many grenades have been thrown, the hero with a single pistol takes over the entire army of the villain. Quick Gun Murugun is like taking a walk in the memory lanes Hindi cinema.

SpiceZee says:

‘Quick Gun Murugan’ is nothing more than a trail of parody, which takes potshots at conventional styles and affections in the history of Indian cinema. However, pulling a 90-minute spoof is not an easy task and this proves to be the bane of ‘Quick Gun Murugan’ as with an insubstantial plot, jokes become unbearable and so does the movie!

Taran Adarsh says:

QUICK GUN MURUGAN depicts the war between good and evil and what makes it a novel experience is that the characters are straight out of 1970s. Director Shashanka Ghosh's choice of the subject as also the execution deserves credit.

Another great thing about Quick Gun Murugun is its cast. From the hero to the supporting character, all the actors did very well. Famous Telugu actor, Dr. Rajendra Prasad played the role of Quick Gun Murugun and he has done a great job. Buzz 18 says:

To give it to the actors, they have really lived up to their exaggerated characters. Dr Rajendraprasad is brilliant as Quick Gun Murugan. He doesn't laugh. He can't look at semi clad women. He winces when he sees Mango Dolly dance. Good! Raju Sundaram's portrayal of Rowdy MBA is also worth a mention. The two women Anu Menon (aka Lola Kutty of Channel V) as Locket Lover and Rambha as Mango Dolly live up to their characters as well.

Nasser, who is also another famous South Indian actor, played the role of Rice Plate Reddy, the arch villain of Murugun in this movie. He also did a brilliant job with his character. Vinay Pathak played the role of Chitragupta looking like a Gujarati manl. Other actors like Ranvir Shorey, Sandhya Mridul did justice to their character. One interesting thing is that each of the characters have their own music which is played as they enter or exit the scene. Magnamags.com says:

Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey who have salvaged several bollywood flicks at the box office, do not have bigger roles. However, they have performed their parts competently in the flick. Similarly, Sandhya Mridul ( sansani reporter), Ashwin Mushran, Gaurav Kapur, Kishori Balla and Raju Sundaram have done good jobs in their respective characters.

Now, let’s talk about the negative aspects. First of all, the songs of Quick Gun Murugun are not so enjoyable and unnecessary. The music album of QGM has twelve songs including the remixes. They are not enjoyable and has no value except increasing the movies time length.

Daily Latest News.com says:

The background music merely adds to the effects. Each personality has their exclusive melodious track which plays when they come in or way out a moive scene. The similar goes for related situations. Movie songs though are not anything value of mentioning. And we could have no problem without them.

The second problem is that the movie fails to deliver what it promises. You found the trailer interesting and funny but the movie may not be so funny. It has a poor story and poor cinematography. SpiceZee says:

‘Quick Gun Murugan’ might be whacky and original, yet, it fails to capture the very essence of a full-bodied burlesque that could be a rib-tickling affair. Apart from the weird antics of Murugan, one finds our cowboy torn between his Locket Lover (Anu Menon of Lola Kutty fame) and Mango Dolly and an overdose of hackneyed dialogues and equally pedestrian scenes… Ultimately, ‘Quick Gun Murugan’ is in a dire need of comic effect. The movie could have been a delightful watch only if it had a crisp script and characters came with an author backed role.

NDTV Movies says:

The plot, which is totally inconsequential, pits Murugan against his arch-enemy Rice Plate Reddy, played by Nasser....What’s funny for the first half starts to feel like work in the second. Beyond a point, the joke seems strained…The energy flags and the film becomes uneven. I also didn’t enjoy the excessive cartoon violence. We have close-ups of bullet holes in bodies and a plot twist about bombs in tiffin boxes. That struck me as too macabre to be amusing.

Finally, the movie uses too much Tamil elements which might not go well with the non-Tamil viewers.



In the end, Quick Gun Murugun is worth your money because of the movie makers tried to show something new and uncommon. When most of the movie makers take up stories from English movies, Quick Gun Murugun tries something praiseworthy.