Mustafa Mustafa Movie Review: A fun premise and a flimsy screenplay make poor friends

Mustafa Mustafa Movie Review:

Chances are high that all of us would have come across a story-peddling friend, or been one ourselves, in our school days, who narrates a story only for your eyes to widen in astonishment. A car turning into a rocket at the edge of a cliff, saving your parents from bad guys, adding a pinch of sophistication to an ordinary object, the list goes on and on. The catch is that these stories are believable only when shared between kids and are adored by grown-ups only as long as the narrator remains a kid. If you carry this habit into your adulthood, you will deliver a Mustafa Mustafa, which doesn't evoke adoration and keeps causing astonishments that die down instantly.

Mustafa Mustafa begins with Suresh Ravi's character being told at the liquor shop that beer has been sold out, and the last two cases were brought by a girls' gang to celebrate their friend's break-up. Letting out a 'ennadhu ponnungala,' he enters the bar and tries to get at least two cans for himself. In a weird deal, the girls agree when he says he will barter a 'bittu video' story for the beer. He narrates the story of his friend Karthik (Sathish), who landed in a soup ahead of his wedding.

Mustafa Mustafa looks dated, not just because of the excessive referencing of old trends. This, at least, is dated by two or three years. This aspect becomes unforgivable when the film reintroduces ideas such as expressing shock over women consuming liquor or porn and scorn over their sexual curiosity. This, perhaps, is where the makers miss the mark by a mile. While the film has a 'trendy and youthful' colour palette and its characters throw 'trending' lines, it has a mindset and sensibilities stuck decades ago. If the writer/director feels romanticisation or glorification of these habits would be seen as a sign of encouragement, they just need to understand that it works just the same for both genders. The worst part, however, is the very setup to turn this bar scene into an exposition of the protagonist's life reeked of artificiality. Dated concepts within this even dated exposition tool become a sample of how little thought has gone into the writing of the whole film.

Cast: Sathish, Suresh Ravi, Monica Chinnakotla, Pugazh, Karunakaran, Aishwarya Dutta

Director: Praveen Saravanan

Mustafa Mustafa is one such film that walks the tightrope of twists, on which its success or failure depends. It is hard to wrap your head around these bad twists, as every scene other than those is spectacularly basic. Be it the meet-cute portions, the break-up and patch-up scenes, and the drama around the hush-up money and video, are flaky. The film would have been serviceable if the twists were at least par for the course, if not brilliant. Instead of compensating, the twists and the surrounding scenes compete with each other for the Best Shoddy Writing award. According to Chekhov's Gun principle, something you first introduce in the film as insignificant initially should come in useful later. While this technique works in the setup and payoff structure, it becomes a giveaway when employed for a twist. The film commits this flaw. It is understood that animosity and ill-will in a comedy film should be lighter, but light doesn't mean senseless. The character who hatches the plot for Karthik has a trivial and childish (literally childish) reason to do so.

There are other laughable writing choices, which encompass almost the whole film. In a bizarre scene, Karthik's friend shares this video with all his friends to fundraise for the extortion money. Isn't preventing people from watching that video the actual purpose? Why collect money by showing it and make the life of the extortionist easy? Scenes like this one don't get the first thing about extortion right, nor do the laughs happen. Every actor plays a grab-the-paycheque-and-run kind of character in the film. Not a strand of sincerity in anyone's performance. Sathish's Karthik, whose mistake this time is severe and could result in his girlfriend Steffy (Monica Chinnakotla) calling the marriage off. We don't see how valuable Steffy is to Karthik. Not a scene with a trace of concern, and it doesn't evoke worry. Pugazh's John intends to do comedy, but unintentionally irritates. He does a very good job at that.

Ultimately, Mustafa Mustafa is a frustrating watch. What makes it so is the squandering of a good premise with a horribly careless screenplay. The premise had enough room for humour and drama, but gets buried under dated attitudes, artificial setups and twists that barely hold together. Like the far-fetched school fables mentioned at the start, Mustafa Mustafa comes apart with just a little thinking and a few simple questions.