Mrs Undercover movie review: Jerky spy-comedy gives a tired lesson on feminism

If only women could be empowered in films without summoning Goddess Durga with a conch shell. Debutant director Anushree Mehta’s Mrs Undercover is a tedious harangue on feminism, covering up as a preposterous spy-comedy. Now here’s the thing with doing a parody, if the makers are uninformed about the subject they are spoofing, it shows.

Starring: Radhika Apte, Rajesh Sharma, Sumeet Vyas Shaheb Chattopadhyay, Laboni Sarkar

Directed by: Anushree Mehta

Streaming on: ZEE5

Kolkata is under the grip of a serial killer, who probably watches reruns of A Wednesday (2008) and calls himself ‘The Common Man’. Played by Sumeet Vyas, Ajay aka Common Man murders ‘strong, independent women’ or women who aid other women in becoming strong and independent. So, all women. He isn’t that discriminatory and kills men too, but only if they are agents of the ‘Special Force’. He is also part of the ‘Common Man Organisation’, an international incel group. It gets better.

Special Force head Chief Rangeela (a delightful Rajesh Sharma), who probably describes all his dead agents as “he was one of our best”, is on the lookout for any surviving subordinate to take on the serial killer. They find one, conveniently in Kolkata where Common Man is wreaking havoc. Durga (Radhika Apte), now a clumsy homemaker, was once upon a time trained as a Special Force agent. But after her handler died and her digital records got destroyed in an office fire, she was forgotten by her employers. Special Force: typical government office.

The only tickling bits in Mrs Undercover are when Rangeela, camouflaged as a priest or a rickshaw-puller or a fish-seller, is trying to convince Durga to take up the mission. She is now comfortable in her cover-life and gives hilarious excuses like “I can’t do it, my kid has a unit test next week.” Although the humour could have been sharper, Mrs Undercover fares decently when it is trying to be a spy comedy. But even at that, it leaves a lingering question: Are the makers being knowingly clueless or they actually don’t know better?

Tonally, Mrs Undercover fluctuates rapidly. It takes a dark shade in the beginning with Vyas’s Common Man running a woman over with his car multiple times. Then it becomes a domestic drama with Apte’s Durga juggling household chores. On the way it gets entangled in unwarranted gags and is topped with sermons on what a ‘simple housewife’ can achieve if she sets her mind to it. Durga’s patriarchal husband Deb’s (Shaheb Chattopadhyay) disdain for her seems half-baked. An affair to amplify the drama in their relationship accounts for lousy writing.

As it progressed, the plot of Mrs Undercover became more and more ludicrous and made me nitpick on unnerving details, like why the Special Force holds its meeting in a brothel, surrounded by TV sets displaying static? Are serial killings investigated by covert agencies? And why is every woman in the film, engaging in action, wearing black overalls with high-heeled boots? I guess I am asking the wrong questions.