Mr X Movie Review

Shekhar Kapur’s Mr. India released almost two and a half decades back and has since become a cult film and possibly India’s most famous sci-fi film ever. Mr. X, going by the promos seems to have been inspired by the same formula with a spoonful of Hollow Man for taste. So are the Bhatts able to rejuvenate the career of Emraan Hashmi in the face of lackluster music and intrepid trailers?

Story: Raghuram Rathod (Emraan) and his soon-to-be wife Sia (Amyra Dastur) work at the Anti terrorism department. And because they are able to defuse a bomb with their bare hands, we are able to assume they are great cops. Boom! But there’s always a sting in the tail and a black cloud to a silver lining. Mr. X’s Khalnayak is ACP Bharadwaj (Arunoday Singh) who is hell bent on becoming the city’s police commissioner. So he somehow schemes to make Raghuram kill the CM. All that happens and Raghuram almost dies, except for the fact that he doesn’t. Some chemical reaction occurs at a chemical factory (we are supposed to take this as a scientifically proof film) and Raghuram becomes a invisible man who can only be seen in sunlight and blue light. Anyhow, Mr. X (Raghuram (Emraan)) realises the potential of his invisibility and goes for revenge. Does he get it?

Also Read: Mr. X Critic Reviews

Screenplay and Direction: Vikram Bhatt once made a cult horror film called Raaz which made some money and made him the horror scion of India. So he kept making horror films. Then he made a horror film in 3D called Haunted 3D which was a moderate success. That made him want to be the scion of 3D movies in India considering he’s made a film like Mr. X into a 3D one. But 3D movies are not supposed to be all about some dude pointing a guy at the screen unless the average age of the audience is the less than the number of fingers Mr. X has in his hands. Vikram can’t be faulted for his vision as he goes for the full monty but the special effects are banal and unnecessary considering Indians are now used to the special effects we see in films like Avengers and Transformers. The mind is just not capable enough to adjust to such contrasting quality of visual effects. Mr. X doesn’t have any semblance of a story either and the dialogues are from another era.

Mr X Movie Review

Mr X Movie Review

The technical aspects of Mr. X are decent in the sense that the reviewer doesn’t want to be too rude considering the lowly budget of Mr. X. The cinematography is good and the editing is too weak which makes the film run for more than 2 hours. Just not done. The visual effects department deserves an applause for trying their best but it just doesn’t match the sensibility of anyone who pays upwards of 200 Rupees to watch this film. The music of every Emraan Hashmi film is supposed to be chart-busting but Mr. X terribly fails in that department. The tunes and songs conjured up by Ankit Tiwari and Jeet Ganguly seem recycled from their past hits.

Acting: Emraan Hashmi once said he doesn’t watch Indian films and he is within his jurisdiction to not watch Indian films but maybe he should rethink that decision now. None of his films over the last 2-3 years seem to be working so maybe watching his hit Indian films can give him an idea as to what he should be doing. Because he certainly shouldn’t be doing a Mr. X. Does Emraan kiss in this film? Of course he does. (That’s confusing since the target audience of Mr. X seem to be kids and families but what is a kiss doing in the film?) Amyra Dastur seems very fragile to play the part of an ATD officer. Arunoday Singh has gotten better since he started out but he still misses a beat here and there. And what was Mr. All India Bakchod Tanmay Bhat doing in this film? An impromptu roast of the Bhatt clan would have been so much more funny and entertaining.

Conclusion: Mr. X is an all round failure in the story, visual effects and most importantly in the entertainment department. It is confusing on many levels, the science is sketchy and unconvincing. The acting is banal, the dialogues feel better suited for the 1990s and the music is a huge disappointment. The makers could have had a cult classic on their hands if they had taken an unusual route but by turning Mr. X into another masala film they missed something here. Stay invisible from the theaters this week.

Positives:

  • The effort by the visual effects team

Negatives:

  • The end result of the visual effects
  • The acting and chemistry of lead pair
  • The dialogues are rotten
  • The music disappoints big time
  • The editing is too weak

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

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