Madgaon Express movie review: A unfunny, unfulfilling Dil Chahta Hai wannabe

Whooping it up in Goa has been goals for Dodo (Divyenndu), Pinku (Pratik Gandhi) and Ayush (Avinash Tiwary). Once there, of course, the pals are plunged into a cocktail of drugs, gangs, goons, gals. A bed full of cocaine. A good-time party girl (Nora Fatehi) who wants to know where the threesome got it from. Former sweethearts turned rivals, Mendoza Bhai (Upendra Limaye) and Kanchan Kumbdi (Chhaya Kadam) accessorised in shiny silk saris and revolvers, are after the ‘maal’ (note to the writers, please don’t address the women as ‘maal’; it isn’t cool).

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This is a threesome which can lift any scene, but the lacklustre writing lets them down. Divyenndu as the no-account fellow out to impress his old friends, both of whom who’ve done well for themselves — Gandhi who lives with his mother in Cape Town, and Tiwary as a bachelor in New York — shine only sporadically. The one who does best is Gandhi: letting it all hang out under the influence of the white powder, he cracks you up.

Too many of the jokes settle with a clunk. A line in a song which tries to liven up a situation where the bad guys snooze and the good guys try and escape, talks about having no fun. It could have been a descriptor for the film as a whole.

Madgaon Express movie cast: Divyenndu, Avinash Tiwary, Pratik Gandhi, Chhaya Kadam, Upendra Limaye, Nora Fatehi
Madgaon Express movie director: Kunal Kemmu
Madgaon Express movie rating: 1.5 stars