Mission Raniganj Review: Akshay Kumar's rescue drama needed better VFX

For Bollywood makers, the biopic has been a tricky genre to crack. You have a larger-than-life, often overwhelming, story of goodness, virtue and valour as the overriding themes. But with a star at the center, a mainstream biopic seldom strays away from the trappings of being a fan service project. Needless to say, Akshay Kumar has become the poster boy for this brand of cinema in the last few years. And Mission Raniganj is the latest in the series of biopics to be headlined by the star. Does Mission Raniganj pass the test and set itself apart?

3 things you need to know

• Akshay Kumar walks the fine line between playing a hero and team player. He never overpowers the narrative.
• Mission Raniganj boasts an impressive ensemble cast that delivers the film’s finest, most emotional moments.
• Barring a scene or two, Mission Raniganj doesn’t have enough adrenaline for a film in this genre to work.

(Akshay Kumar in a still from Mission Raniganj | Image: IMDB)

Hot Take

Mission Raniganj is based on the real story of mining engineer Jaswant Singh Gill, who played a major role in saving lines of 65 trapped miners in Raniganj, West Bengal in 1989. The narrative treads a familiar path for most of its runtime, including the highs and lows associated with a conventional disaster drama. While there are a few moments that are genuinely thrilling, grip your interest and make you root for the underdogs, they are not enough to make the film rise above its generic execution. In all, Mission Raniganj remains a passable fare at best.

Does Mission Raniganj live up to the hype?

Mission Raniganj relies on an extraordinary story of heroism in the face of adversity. However, those small moments are engulfed by heaps of melodrama and artifice. There are plenty of good performances from the supporting cast, but that doesn’t salvage the film.

(Mission Raniganj poster | Image: Instagram)

Film has an overabundance of stereotypical characters

Jaswant Singh Gill, played by Akshay Kumar, was not a superhero. All he wanted to do was to be of help to people who really needed him, his mental faculty and courage. Some might argue that is enough to qualify them as heroes. Mission Raniganj is careful, for its longest stretches, about this and tries not to elevate its protagonist to that level. Gill remains a noble man, who stands out only because of his innate desire to help people.

However, director Tinu Suresh Desai resorts to some artificial melodrama and caricaturish negative characters in order to elevate his character to a hero figure. The credit goes to Divyendu Bhattacharya, who manages to humanise Sen despite shoddy and lazy character-etching.

(Akshay Kumar & Parineeti Chopra in a promotional still for Mission Raniganj | Image: IMDB)

There is one archetype of each kind in the miners’ team - an elderly, caring figure whose mistake has triggered the event, along with an angsty cynic who often brings the team's morale down with his cynicism. We are often reminded of the personal backstories of the miners stuck underneath - there is a wedding in the offing, someone just had a baby and other such seen-before plot points. These coupled with Desai's loud treatment make the proceedings a little too overbearing for comfort.

VFX could have been better

Mission Raniganj depends on a believable landscape of catastrophe and doom and for that to hit home, it needed better VFX. However, Mission Raniganj disappoints in this aspect. Especially in the early portions when the water blasts in the mines, the sequence remains underwhelming because of the shoddy visual effects at play.

No sense of chase against time

At one point, Sen, the film's primary antagonist says, “Samay ki keemat hai.” One of the biggest flaws of Mission Raniganj is how, in a film where people have to be rescued in a stipulated amount of time, Desai fails to create a sense of doom closing in, a time bomb that could explode any minute and take away lives.

Mission Raniganj takes extra care to mention the names of all the secondary characters and occasionally even shows the numbers of people who are trapped on a giant stopwatch, but somehow we never feel the sense of foreboding.

Mission Raniganj delivers only two genuine moments of tension and thrill. At one point, Gill desperately shouts down a tube, and we cut to the team of miners optimistically running towards the escape route. The way tension builds and diffuses in this sequence - that’s what Mission Raniganj needed more of.

The ensemble cast delivers the best moments

The biggest strength of Mission Raniganj is the wide array of seasoned performers who help this disaster drama stay afloat despite its formulaic, often wobbly moments. It’s a pleasure to see Gullak fame Jameel Khan as the empathetic miner in charge who is desperate to save lives.

Parineeti Chopra is barely visible for ten minutes onscreen, but brings value to the film in the scene where everyone is praying for Gill (Akshay). Amidst all the panic and hysteria about whether Gill will survive or not, Nirdosh (played by Chopra) keeps a smile on her face, a smile equally optimistic and vulnerable.

Ravi Kishen plays a pessimist miner, who continues to spread cynicism among his mates even as they are struggling to survive. And when he breaks down, it’s because the pessimism is deep within him - Ravi Kishen brings poignance to the narrative and reminds us of Prakash Belawade’s memorable cynic in another Akshay Kumar starrer, Airlift.

Watch it or skip it?

Mission Raniganj, thanks to its generic treatment and shoddy VFX, doesn’t really warrant a big-screen experience. It can be watched on OTT.

Bottomline

Akshay Kumar delivers a rather restrained performance, ably supported by a stellar supporting cast. However, Mission Raniganj never becomes a consistently engaging watch.

Rating - 2.5/5