Would like to begin with a mention of a full-page advertisement that came in the national newspapers on the Friday, MADE IN CHINA got released in the theaters. It had the excerpts of all 3+ and 4 star reviews given by various critics and entertainment portals before even the official release of the film.
The advert really made an impact as the film also had an unusual cast and trailer too indicating towards a fresh content and premise. But then as I watched the first show, a beeped line in its key sequence got my attention saying, “Customer toh c****ya hota hai!"…… and that immediately reminded me of the full-page advertisement seen in the morning.
In a few words, MADE IN CHINA is clearly a good opportunity missed as it had everything in its favour, that fails to work due to its poor writing and unexciting, confused narrative ruining the interesting novel premise. Taking forward from Hit films based on taboo subjects talking about sex like VICKY DONOR, SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN, VEERE DI WEDDING and even PADMAN, MADE IN CHINA falls flat exactly like the more recent KHANDAANI SHAFAKHANA and doesn’t create any interest despite having a potential plot of illegally selling a Chinese aphrodisiac in India (a kind of drug that arouses sexual feelings or is capable of enhancing sexual pleasure).
Based on the book with the same title written by Parinda Joshi, the film begins with a death, tries to be a crime-mystery-thriller in the next few minutes and then gets lost in between after a too long and repetitive first half conveying almost nothing. In fact the director never lifts up the film in its entire duration and all you get to see are a few good scenes coming at long intervals featuring Rajkumar Rao and Boman Irani (playing a sexologist) in particular besides Paresh Rawal, Mouni Roy and Sumeet Vyas. A note-worthy production design and ambience gets cruelly wasted along with the unrequired songs and a large part of the stroyline remains logically absurd and inconsistent.
Summing up, co-written and directed by Mikhil Musale, MADE IN CHINA surely could have been a lot more with a subject that had all the elements of making a great sensual-comic thriller. But in the present form, you can only try it on the online portals for the talented cast and a few scenes, but nothing more than that.
Rating : 2 + 0.5 / 5 (with the additional 0.5 for its interesting fresh plot)
Tags :
MADE IN CHINA Review by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, New Hindi Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, New Bollywood Movies Reviews by Bobby Sing, Hindi films based on Books, Hindi movies based on novels.
