The Significance Of An Absurd Kung-Fu Bollywood Film

Aren’t absurd comedies the best type of comedies? Look at the latest Ludo (2020) for an example. It has all the elements of absurdity, yet it finds footing. But, today I don’t want to talk about Ludo, I want to talk about a much underrated and less familiar flick, which also happens to be a martial arts film. I am talking about Vasan Bala’s Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota (2018) and what makes it so great.

Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota revolves around Surya and his gimmicks. The film begins with Surya (Abhimanyu Dasani) in red jogging suit when a few safari suits wearing fighters run towards him in slow motion. Surya breaks the fourth wall saying “Itni kya jaldi, koi trip kar ke gir gaya toh?” One of the safari suit trips and falls, background music playing Yeh to hona hi tha! This opening shot is enough for us to know this movie is going to be a fun ride. The fight begins and Surya jumps.

This isn’t a usual Bollywood action scene, the action plays out like a Martial Arts film, in slow-motion. The scene ends in 2 minutes as Surya faints and a flashback begins. Surya narrates to us about his whole life. His narration feels like Deadpool so much that lots of critics said this film was India’s answer to Deadpool. Not only narration, but the tone of both films is quite the same. An unusual superhero trying to find his way into movies with a low-budget production.

Surya explains why and how he is a superhero. He has a strange disorder of insensitivity to pain. He physically can’t feel pain, as for Deadpool pain is immaterial due to healing factor. But, Bala doesn’t make fun of the disorder. He, in turn, shows us the issues that arise with it as well. Surya becomes an outcast. His schoolmates call him a weirdo. But his grandfather, played by Mahesh Manjrekar, explains the world to him with his witty sense of humour and bunch of movie references. Those crazy movies take Surya to Karate Man. What is Karate Man and why it gives Surya a crazy amount of motivation? You should check it out in the movie.

I took three paragraphs to explain the plot, not because it’s that complicated but because I want you guys to see how interesting the film is that you haven’t seen yet. Vasan Bala’s second feature-length directorial has lovable characters, crazy plotlines and amazing action sequences.

Bala pays homage to all the action, martial arts films he grew up watching. The old song Nakhrewaali where we see our grown-up heroine fighting some goons. Supri (Radhika Madan) is another likeable and fresh character that you will like. She is tough and furious. Supri isn’t your usual heroine, she doesn’t falter in the face of danger. She can fight her own battles. Even after having such action-packed arc, she’s the one bringing emotions into the movie. That part stumbles a little.

Further, the standout actor in all this chaos is Gulshan Devaiah. He gets to play two characters. Twin brothers. Both of those characters are amazingly written. Devaiah gets to play a Kung-Fu master, but also the maniac villain. Devaiah rules every scene he is in, the best part is you would not believe that both the characters are indeed played by one person.

MKDNH surprises us with the level of action stunts and how real they look. Mostly Bollywood action films tend to overcompensate the action. Mostly it is one guy versus a gang and he kicks ass alone, but this time we see our heroes getting hit. There’s a legit water break in between of an action scene. There’s also the Vidya Bhavan Royal Rumble as the climactic battle. The maniac Gulshan Devaiah is the referee in that match.

How to find something not to love?

Even though there are so many interesting elements, not a lot of people have seen this film. Probably because of its title or unseen actors or any other reason. But this film is a big homage by Bala to all of his favourite films. There’s Geraftaar (1985), Aaj Ka Goodaraj (1992), Shahenshah (1988) and even a Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012) reference. There must be more than these.

Bala is trying to talk about his love of cinema through these references, but the same Bollywood industry works little unfair his way. This film was released only in 375 screens across whole India out of 6780 single screens and 2100 multiplexes. Also, this film didn’t receive much of commercial success.

We keep talking about Nepotism, How studios don’t fund outsiders’ movies? And stuff like that. But, how many of us go to watch movies like these? I don’t remember films like Masaan (2015), Newton (2017) and Sonchiriya (2019) being commercially successful, they are critically acclaimed. But my question is what do we do in these cases? We hear one film is amazing and we wait for its digital release. We want to watch quality content but how could we if the studios don’t promote movies like MKDNH or any of the hashtag-underrated movies. And how can they fund that kind of movies when we don’t go to theatres to watch them. The producers get trapped in the eternal question of choosing Art or Commerce?

But, I believe tides are changing. Due to the current year Covid-19 outbreak, most of the people heavily relied on digital platforms, finding the crazy amount of underrated movies, directors and actors as well. I also like to believe that with the opening of theatres the audience will try to divert their focus on what movie they wanna watch on big screens. I hope that one day arrives when the eternal question in front of the producer get blurred and we appreciate art with commerce.

Watch Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota on Netflix.

You can watch the trailer by clicking link below.