Munna Mange Memsaab

Story: The title pretty much sums it up. A simpleton runs from pillar to post seeking a gori mem to be his bride.

Review: Naïve and jobless, Munna (Peepli Live’s Omkar Das Manikpuri), a small town guy, gets mocked for being ugly, right from his childhood. His mother consoles him by leading him on to believe that he is ‘sundar’ (good looking). She also tells him that one day he’ll marry a pretty ‘memsaab’ (by pointing to a poster of Rani Mukerji).

However, the very next minute, she explains her interpretation of ‘memsaab’ by showing his son another gori mem (tourist) passing by. ‘Someone like her’ she says. He says, “Main aisi hi memsaab se saadi karunga.”

Munna grows up but continues to nurture his dream of getting married to a gori mem, just to make his mother happy. He leaves his village and lands up in a city to fulfil his dream. With great audacity, he proposes marriage to random urban women but his requests get turned down. However, there is light at the end of every tunnel. He eventually bumps into a Katrina Kaif-like firang memsaab. Do they fall in love?

Ample Hindi films with a similar concept have been made before and they were much better if not remarkable. For instance, Govinda-Aishwarya Rai starrer Albela (2001) was a light-hearted romcom that made us smile.

While the intentions are noble here, tacky execution spoils everything. Forced humour fails to amuse and funny sounds used as background score do not compensate for the poor script. The point that the director intends to make does not come across either. His attempt at exposing the shallow-ness of our society that prefers ‘good-looking’ people fails to register.

Also, performances are forgettable. The gori mem is the best actor here! Songs have no relevance to the story. There is no ‘beauty’ in this film…literally and otherwise.