Mishan Impossible HD Released

 

In 2019 when Swaroop RSJ debuted as a director with Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya, movie buffs were blown away. An indie film that re-introduced Naveen Polishetty to the Telugu audience, funny too the boot and backed by a social cause not many talk of – what’s not to love? Come 2022 when something like Mishan Impossible, starring Taapsee Pannu is announced, it’s only natural to expect perfection. What Swaroop offers instead is a mish-mash of a film that ebbs and falls.

Raghupathi (Harsh Roshan), Raghava (Bhanuprakash) and Rajaram (Jayateertha) are three bored children from a little village in Chittoor. Instead of being interested in school work, their aim is to find a simpler way to be famous someday. Raghupathi worships Ram Gopal Varma’s every word and hopes to be a filmmaker. Raghava wants to participate in Meelo Evaro Koteeswarudu, confident that his general knowledge (or lack thereof) will earn him the Rs 1 Cr reward. Rajaram’s bowling helps batsmen get sixers but he’s confident that in the near future he’ll be known as the fastest bowler of India. Raghupathi hatches the most inane plan to run away to Bombay and capture Dawood and of course, the other two follow. Where they end up instead is a whole other story.

Shailaja (Taapsee Pannu) is an investigative reporter who moonlights as a vigilante/activist out to stop child trafficking attempts. Vikram (Ravindra Vijay) aids her in this mission due to a past he cannot get over. While we’re told Shailaja has been successful twice before in bringing down traffickers, the plan she hatches makes you wonder if she’ll be lucky trice, because smartness clearly had nothing to do with it. The more Raghupathi, Raghava and Rajaram venture out into the world, the more adults who should know better seem to take advantage of their innocence. And irrespective of how the film tries to paint it, Shailaja is really no different. Her latest target is ‘businessman’ Ram Shetty (Hareesh Peradi) and she will do anything to stop him.

Mishan Impossible starts out well – you have these three kids who are bursting with the last vestiges of innocence right before they hit puberty. Raghupathi thinks a picture of Dawood was RGV and the trio’s strong suit isn’t spellings or geography. It’s only their undeterred confidence that clearly helps them survive. Just like Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya the film gets darker as it goes and innately sillier too. On one hand you have scenes involving children in danger that’ll leave you seething and then you have plot points that are unintentionally funny and expect you to suspend disbelief a little too much. Crime comedy is a genre that Tollywood is slowly coming to grip with but Mishan Impossible doesn’t really add much to the already existing template nor does it attempt to do what it already does better.

Roshan, Bhanuprakash and Jayateertha are the only reason you sit through it all, it also makes you believe these kids deserved better. They deliver deft performances, carrying the film on their little shoulders. Taapsee, Ravindra don’t even get a chance to shine while Hareesh gets just one scene where he oozes evil. However, the undercurrent of these children in danger is always challenged by loud, overpowering BGM by Mark K Robin that’s good but doesn’t let you fully immerse into what’s unfolding on-screen. The treatment of the film is also odd, because the pitch makes it seem like a film that’s a little realistic while the outcome makes it fall under the commercial category where anything goes. A little too many cinematic liberties are taken – which you usually wouldn’t mind in an engaging narrative.

Mishan Impossible sounds great on paper and has all the makings of a crime comedy that’ll leave you in splits but also move you. But in reality, Swaroop only manages to do that in bits and pieces. Watch it this weekend without expectations if you’re in for something light-hearted.