What Is The Story About?
ZEE5’s latest original film ‘Mrs Undercover’ centres on a special agent turned housewife, Durga (Radhika Apte), who’s been off the radar since twelve years, when Special Task Force Chief Rangeela (Rajesh Sharma) contacts her again. A spate of brutal killings of innocent women by cold-blooded serial killer ‘Common Man’ (Sumeet Vyas) compels her to return to the field and take on the killer.
Mrs Undercover is written and directed by Anushree Mehta.
Performances?
Radhika Apte is easily the best thing about Mrs Undercover. Her fervent performance as naive housewife cum impassioned spy makes an otherwise humdrum film decently watchable. Her evocative expressions are a treat to watch, and her delivery of dialogue elevates her performance and character by notches.
Sumeet Vyas is quietly menacing as the chilling serial killer Ajay. He’s effective enough in his role, so much so that his performance compels the viewer to hate him, soft-spoken and twinkle-eyed though he may be. And no, us revealing his identity as the serial killer is not a spoiler coz the film opens with him killing a vulnerable female in brutal cold blood.
Rajesh Sharma is adorable as Chief Rangeela of the Special Task Force. His effortless humour is fun to watch, and quite refreshing. The rest of the cast lends good support.
Analysis?
Mrs Undercover is not your regular serial killer murder mystery or police procedural movie. In fact, there’s no mystery at all, coz the opening few scenes of the movie itself establish Sumeet Vyas’ Ajay as the serial killer, labelled ‘Common Man’. He’s already murdered sixteen women when we meet him. And then we watch him murdering his seventeenth victim in cold blood. The murder sequence is quite gruesome to watch, despite us never having to see the girl actually being murdered. The sound effects are enough to make our hair stand on end.
From there on, the focus of the narrative shifts to timid housewife Durga, who spends her days taking care of her ungrateful, unappreciative family. She’s often derided by her husband as “just a housewife”. Unbeknownst to her family, she’s a fully trained special agent, who’s never got the chance to test her skills — until now.
The fundamental premise of ‘Mrs Undercover’ is fine – it’s the script and its execution that is the main problem. The screenplay is half-baked most times. The biggest drawback in the script is the lack of important elements of a good script – a riveting opening act, a gripping midpoint, or clear and compelling second and third acts. The story just ambles along messily, with nothing to keep the viewer hooked.
Another thing that the screenplay of Mrs Undercover lacks is a solid reason or motivating factor for the Common Man’s compulsion to murder young, empowered women. Every serial killer has some kind of past trauma in his life that drives him over the edge and turns him into a bloodthirsty monster. The Common Man has none.
Even more nonsensical is the deliberate and silly addition of an extra-marital affair into the narrative. Its cause and effect is even sillier, to say the least. We can count several more subplots in the narrative that are meaningless and inconsequential to the main storyline. It is quite clear that they’ve been added to elongate the runtime of the movie and for no other reason whatsoever.
After the mundane and mediocre goings-on in the second half of the story, the least we can expect is a smashing climax, with an explosive face-off between protagonist and antagonist. Alas, those hopes are dashed too, coz the climax is more of an anticlimax, with the tamest ending conceivable for a spy and serial killer drama – quite disappointing!
Writer-director Anushree Mehta bats for women’s empowerment via the frequent “she’s just a housewife” jibes thrown at Durga. One such jibe gives a character the opportunity to launch into an extended monologue into why a housewife is never “just a housewife”, spouting usual, done-to-death dialogues, variations of which have been used in countless other movies or series where females take centrestage.
Radhika Apte is the only part of Mrs Undercover that makes the film watchable to a certain extent. Her neglected-spy-full-of-righteous-indignation act evokes a smile on the viewer’s face, and keeps you watching the otherwise humdrum movie.
Music And Other Departments?
A couple of songs in Mrs Undercover are eminently listenable – Shaani Rani and Saanson Se Judi, to be specific. Amit Sawant has composed the former while he’s joined by Ankit Shah as music composer for the latter song. Abhimanyu Sengupta’s cinematography is good, with effective use of light and shadow play. Sandeep Kurup’s editing does its job.
Highlights?
Performances of Radhika Apte and Rajesh Sharma
Drawbacks?
Messy script
Poor writing
Nonsensical subplots
Tame climax
Did I like it?
Not as much as I would have liked to
Do I recommend it?
As a one-time watch, only for Radhika Apte
Mrs Undercover Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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