Madaari Reviews by Critics

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Madaari Review by Bollywood Hungama

Rating: ★★½☆☆

The film’s director Nishikant Kamat (who had directed the action packed Rocky Handsome earlier this year) does a very average job with MADAARI. Given the fact that, hard hitting films happen to be Nishikant Kamat’s homeground, the audiences’ huge expectation that he would bring something new with MADAARI, sadly remains unmet. While the film’s first half is average with no edge-of-the-seat thrills, the film loses its remaining charm in its stretched second half. Its only the film’s last 15-20 minutes that actually have a gripping effect on the viewers.

Madaari Review by Sreeju Sudhakaran on Bollywood Life

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Madaari may have its heart in the right place, but an average direction and flawed narrative let down the movie’s honest intentions. Watch it only for a terrific Irrfan Khan! But then, the man is good even he is being shown just sitting on a bench!

Madaari Review by Manjusha Radhakrishnan on Gulfnews

Rating: ★★★½☆

Director Kamath doesn’t utilise heavy-duty action sequences or bombastic dialogues to drive the story forward. He lets the characters play out their emotions. While the second half meanders, the conclusion isn’t a let down. The face-off between a criminal and the corrupt politicians packs a punch. Madaari would have benefited hugely from a 10-minute trim (the songs underlining the father-son bond were excessive). But in all, Madaari was engaging and touched upon some deep subjects such as corruption, the power of social media and public opinion, with alacrity.

Madaari Review by Saibal Chatterjee on NDTVMovies

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Madaari, directed by Nishikant Kamat, makes the right noises about the state of the nation and its people owing to the machinations of avaricious and insensitive politicians and crony contractors. However, the methods that the film uses in order to do so are rather fanciful, if not outright harebrained. Irrfan, at the top of his game as an actor, goes all out to inject some energy into the narrative.

Review by Savera R Someshwar on Rediff

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Madaari does not make you cringe. It does not make you angry. It does make you, at least for the few hours that you are in the theatre, want to stand up and do something about the system. It is not a film that will stay with you as you, in your day to day routine, succumb to the pressure and become part of the corruption that ails our system. At the end of the day, it does not even make you applaud the protagonist or his journey. It was a film that needed defter handling. Stronger performances. Better editing.

Review by Sweta Kaushal on Hindustan Times

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Ultimately though, Madaari crumbles under its own lofty ideals and ambition. The slow pace makes the fall even more painful and enduring. And that it had two brilliant actors in Irrfan and Jimmy, who were grossly under-used, only adds to injury.

Review by Jaidev Hemmady on Movietalkies

Rating: ★½☆☆☆

Irrfan’s chemistry with the child actor is non-existent and it is tough to swallow the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ theory that the kid prattles on about simply because there are no such moments between the kidnapper and his victim, which could have justified a bond between the two. The second half of the film drags on and on, making you wonder when the film will end. We agree that the plot had potential and could have been a hard-hitting drama if it had been handled well but the loose screenplay, the uninspiring dialogues and the weak climax is bound to leave you sorely disappointed.

Review by Manisha Lakhe on Nowrunning

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Had this movie been short and succinct, the rating would have been through the roof. The child actor does a decent job and Irrfan is good too when he’s not hamming the ‘I’ve been wronged!’ part. The movie is average because there is nothing subtle and instead of coming away with any hope for change, you come away as if you have been attacked by a sledgehammer for almost three hours.

Review by Vishal Verma on Glamsham

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Director Nishikanth Kamath does well in limiting the action to minimum and staying on father son emotions for a change and it has come out well but the wait is too long. It’s disappointing to see a relevant backdrop to the story fails to make the impact and further the hackneyed and hurried climax adds to the wounds. Irrfan Khan plays with his known force of a gifted performer and is consistently brilliant throughout. The talented actor is the only reason that makes you sit through this routine affair. The kid Vishesh Bansal as Rohan Goswami is excellent. Jimmy Shergill as the investigating officer is fine in the available footage. Tushar Dalvi as the home minister is good.

Madaari Review by The Times Of India

Rating: ★★★½☆

Kudos to Irrfan and Nishikant Kamat for daring to make this poignant, provocative and politically incorrect piece of cinema, that makes its point unabashedly. Though predictable and a tad stretched, the emotional crime drama unfolds like a thriller. It tears your heart out by exposing the plight of the Middle-class citizens and their ‘aukad’ in the eyes of those in power.

Review by IANS on Zeenews

Rating: ★★★★½

Directed astutely by Kamat, the film is compact and never digresses from the core subject. It is engrossing and powerful. The screenplay is taut and the characters well-etched and real. ‘Masoom sa’ rendered powerfully by Sukhwinder Singh is emotionally disturbing. It drives home the message of the father’s irreversible loss and captures the mood of the film. The unhurried pace of the narrative, does not seem out of place and in fact gives ample time to let the plight of the father grow. The final face off, although overtly dramatic would incite and appeal to the common man. With a wide range of lenses, cinematographer Avinash Arun brilliantly captures the locales and finer nuances of the performances. Overall, ‘Madaari’ is an absolute treat both for cine-goers and every citizen of India, who is concerned about his country.

Review by Suhani Singh on India Today

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Irrfan juggles between being the emotionally manipulative and impatient kidnapper to a father struggling to cope with the tragedy. There are moments of vulnerability too which he handles well to draw viewers’ sympathy – especially in one striking scene in the hospital in which he breaks down. But Madaari’s preaching for a better world doesn’t always inspire, it more often bogs you down. Is Nirmal’s outrage enough to change the system? For a film which makes a call for cleaning up the system, its last scene is rather off putting. Kamath’s second release of the year is better than his earlier effort, Rocky Handsome. Here the saving grace is Irrfan’s act. He truly is the Madaari here.

Review by Rohit Bhatnagar on Deccan Chronicle

Rating: ★★★☆☆

It seems like Nishikant Kamat has a special affinity to kids being a huge part of his movies. His previous two outings had emotional trips with the kids along with the protagonists of his movies. The director has managed to encapsulate beautifully the father-son relationship throughout the film. While the backdrop of the film bears striking resemblance to Neeraj Pandey’s ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Madaari’ has an emotional journey attached to it apart form the critical take on the political system. The movie clocks in at about two and a half hours and will keep you glued to the screen till the very last frame. The film also showcases shades of Stockholm Syndrome, which will remind you heavily of Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Highway’. The director, however, manages to make ‘Madaari’ stand out in every possible manner.

Madaari Review by Indiaglitz

Rating: ★★★½☆

The story has lots of similarities with several films like ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Andha Yudh’, ‘Gabbar’, ‘Te3n’ and many more. It’s something which we have seen several times, making it highly predictable. The second half has been stretched a bit along with bit unconvincing climax part. If the finale part would have not been so predictable, it would have managed to leave a hard-hitting impact on its viewers mind.The movie also needed bit trimming in both the parts of the film. Some of the positive merits of this movie gets diluted due to the predictable tale and less amount of freshness attached to it. ‘Madaari’ narrates you a gripping tale with mind-blowing performance by Irrfan Khan along with a good dosage of emotions. The lack of freshness hampers the film in a big way, but nevertheless it’s a decent film for all those who love good cinema.

Review by Bryan Durham on DNA India

Rating: ★★★☆☆

The film’s a little too long at two hours-plus. One feels that shaving off at least half an hour, would’ve kept one more invested in the story (apart from the performances). There are truly beautiful scenes that come too few and far between to really let it sit with you. The music is very middling. This film needed a strong supporting cast, and that only comes from Bansal and Sheirgill and that really doesn’t say much. While one agrees that we need a mirror to our lives and that this follow-up to A Wednesday (it follows the same idea – a common man righting wrongs) played its part, it needed to make us more a part of its supposed movement than just treat this as another film. But it doesn’t and that’s really sad.

Review by Shubhra Gupta on Indian Express

Rating: ★½☆☆☆

Big words, these. And big concepts. Their utilization in the film’s plot is too literal, first in the way Nirmal tries to avenge a personal tragedy by targeting a top politician through his son, and then in all the oratory. In between the speechifying is the action which involves Nirmal being on the run with a little boy (Bansal), a cop (Shergill) hot on their heels, a teary mum, and a bunch of fat cat ‘netas’ and contractors who are all part of the corruption that has eaten into our nation.

Review by Rajeev Masand on News 18

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Madaari sticks to a template similar to Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday, but doesn’t drum up the same urgency. The cops, led by a solemn-faced Jimmy Shergill, find themselves engaged in a wild goose chase for Nirmal, but there’s very little tension to this battle of wits.

Review by Shaheen Parkar on Mid-Day India

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Jimmy Sheirgill as the cop sleepwalks through the role. He has done similar stuff umpteen times. It is sad to see him typecast. Towards the end, when you feel for Nirmal and his loss, comes a pretty dramatic and filmy end — when the protagonist brings everyone associated with the bridge collapse down to their knees begging forgiveness. This is coupled with a lot of dialogue-baazi about corruption, inefficiency, accountability and red tape. Pretty much as expected, the film concludes with victory of the common man’s voice. Watch it only for Irrfan and to know why he is top of the heap when it comes to histrionics.

Review by Kunal Guha on Mumbai Mirror

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Madaari is saved to large extent by its eponymous lead Irrfan Khan, who manages a striking performance, despite the predictable storyline. Child actor Vishesh Bansal has a fair share of screen space and delivers on the job. Jimmy Shergill, though largely marginalised after an elaborate introduction, is unobjectionable. Returning to the big screen after long, Tushar Dalvi is as dependable as ever. The film’s tagline, “Sshhh… desh so raha hai” is apt as it truly depicts the audience watching this film.

Review by meeta on Wogma

Rating: ★★★½☆

In fact, there are times in movies with a social message make you wish even adults didn’t speak like adults. Madaari doesn’t have too much of it but it does fall into the preachy category towards the end, in a very, “you can’t handle the truth” manner. That aside, use of daydreams is another element that was quiet annoying. It’s alright for the first couple of times because they are small sections. But playing with the audience using longer sequences of such gimmickry is almost like cheating, like saying it out loud that they aren’t confident of the real drama, the real story. Also, it breaks the rhythm of the film. Though the pace of the film slackens because there is nothing new happening in one section of the film, it had a tone. This tone becomes uneven and distracting.

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