Made In China Review: You Can Spare This Rajkummar Rao Film, Even When Talking About Issues And Solutions Pertaining To Sex

    Made In China Review: Writing Is A Let Down

    Made In China Review: You Can Spare This Rajkummar Rao Film, Even When Talking About Issues And Solutions Pertaining To Sex

    Film: Made In China

    Director: Mikhil Musale

    Actors: Rajkummar Rao, Mouni Roy, Boman Irani, Sumeet Vyas

    Rated: 2.5 Out Of 5


    Director Mikhil Musale’s Made In China is a hodgepodge of sorts! It definitely is made with good intention. The intention of driving the idea of the fact that sex isn’t a bad thing and it is a high time people should talk about it openly and not frown over it if spoken about in the open.

    Rajkummar Rao’s Raghu Mehta is a wannabe Gujarati entrepreneur and he tries his hand at a lot of businesses before he stumbles on the business of selling a Chinese soup. This proposition which was supposed to benefit his cousin played by Sumeet Vyas accidentally is passed on to him and all of this happens in China.

    Raghubir who has seen a lot of failures in life now suddenly finds another idea which seems pretty encouraging to him as far as diving into the business aspects of it is concerned. He gathers a team of people after a lot of haggling with one who would form one of the most important persons in it. Well, I am talking about actor Boman Irani’s Dr. Vardhi who runs a small sexual wellness clinic in Ahmedabad. After he agrees to be part of the team, things are a smooth sail for him. He manages to get funding by gifting a sample of the “MAGIC TIGER SOUP” to the investor. He gets a rickety makeshift place to open up his start-up and then the journey begins. After the business becomes successful, suddenly things start spiralling downwards as the family members object to it and think it is unethical to be even remotely associated with anything that has to do with sex. How the issues are resolved and what Raghu becomes with time is what the film is all about.

    Well, as I have said earlier, the film surely has a great intention. However, at the same time, it becomes impossible for me to buy the very proposition that customers are fools. Well, the thing is you cannot generalise. There are customers who are not sure about what they want for sure but then there are those as well, who do their research impeccably and sometimes it becomes really difficult for the person selling the product to handle their queries because they know exactly what they want! The direction and the entire vision of the film is oblivious of that part of the crowd!


    Made In China Review: The Film Tries To Walk The Tightrope but trips, It doesn’t fall, It Just Hangs In Between!


    There were far too many influencers in the film, some on the mobile phone delivering some sort of Ted Talk sermon, some on TV which influences Raghu’s mind as he is an avid admirer of those inspirational videos and then there is another in-person played by Paresh Rawal who influences Raghu’s mind by giving him ideas to flourish in the business. There are so many jumps in the screenplay that at times it becomes difficult to fathom what is happening and what is the sense behind it all. There are so many contradictions in the film and its characterizations. For instance, Mouni Roy who plays Raghu’s wife is an uninhibited educated lady called Rukmini Mehta who doesn’t mind smoking and drinking with her husband but at one point in time, Raghu feels the liberated woman in her is only fine till doing just that. When it comes to sexuality she might be on the prudish side of things. 

    The thing is the film can be understood from this one dialogue from the film. It tries to walk the tightrope but trips and is left hanging from it, just hangs

    Speaking about the performances, Rajkummar Rao does an impressive job. His performance is plausible and even though he is there in almost every frame in the film, his characterisation didn’t quite allow him to do much. He is just a Gujarati businessman, at the beginning of the film and he remains that till the end. The Gujarati accent that he put on in the film too was done nicely. No complaints on that front. Mouni Roy yet again is just there in the film, she doesn’t have much to in it besides that one sudden outburst scene in the end. She just looks pretty and is dancing around in sarees in tantalising moves with her husband in songs that just mar the pace of the film!


    Made In China Review: The Film Tries To Walk The Tightrope but trips, It doesn’t fall, It Just Hangs In Between!


    And Boman Irani’s character is that of a sexual wellness doctor who lives with his female goat. He has immense knowledge in his field and it is his idea to encourage the practise of speaking about reproductive organs and sex openly. The white mop hair-do is straight out of Hirani's 3 Idiots. In one particular scene when he is invited (by mistake) on stage to speak on child-counselling and speaks at length on sex, it reminded me of the scene in 3 idiots which has Chatur Ramalingam getting on to the stage and reading an outrageous piece much to the amusement of the audience! However, again in this case it was a bit far-fetched.

    Sumeet Vyas plays the role of Raghubir’s cousin who is more like a crab and wants to pull in down at every point in life. He was pretty good. He didn’t have much to do in the film though.

    All of this made me wonder that it is surely not an actor’s job to believe in a particular role he is asked to play, his job is to make the viewers believe whatever role he is playing is real. Unfortunately, in my case, it didn’t happen.

    There are many such instances in the film. Therefore, as far as the direction and the writing of the film is concerned it really lacks substance BIG TIME! Just the idea and the belief could be good for a one-liner for the film but for the entire film, it might sometimes fall short! In this case, Mikhil Musale who directed the film had earlier helmed a national award-winning Gujarati film Wrong Side Raju but with this one, he just couldn’t do any good! The film starts off on a good note but then by the end it becomes so preachy. It is like Boman’s character is delivering a 10-minute sermon to the audiences watching the film as Rajkummar Rao’s Raghubir looks at him in awe!


    Made In China Review: The Film Tries To Walk The Tightrope but trips, It doesn’t fall, It Just Hangs In Between!


    The writing lacks tenacity - many characters couldn’t even justify their existence in the film. We know the characterisations and the mindset of these Gujarati people are very real and such people and mindsets do exist in Gujarat but there are other parts of the country as well and when the film is about SEX, given the fact that it is universal - the film too could have done with a little more palatability to rest of the country. Especially because of the time it comes in. It is 2019. When Manoj Joshi’s character calls up Mouni Roy and says they belong to a respectable family and selling sexual medicines is bad – it was an instant turn off! I am saying this even after I know the film is set in Gujarat!

    The edit was nothing unusual and the songs at times looked crammed in, so much so that they slowed down the pace of the film at times.

    Well, I believe in talking about SEX openly, talking about issues and solutions pertaining to sex but the film surely can be spared.