Quick Gun Murugun - Movie Review

Cast: Dr Rajendra Prasad, Rambha, Nasser, Vinay Pathak, Anu Menon

Rating: ***

Director: Shashanka Ghosh

Shashanka Ghosh’s first film, ‘Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II’, left us with quite a few memories. The song ‘Allah ke bande’, one of Arshad Warsi’s best performances, and above all a very novel script! It was hence quite a tragedy that he didn’t make another film for so many years. And when the ex-creative head of Channel [V] decided to go ahead with a movie on a character he had created a long ago with Rajesh Devraj for the promotion of the channel, it was only expected to be as interesting.
 
‘Quick Gun Murugun’, as obvious, is the story of an Indian cowboy. And unlike the actual cowboys of the US, here Murugun does not savour cows but is a cow saver! He believes vegetarianism is the need of the hour. He does not preach but rather fights people who are bent on turning the world into a completely non-vegetarian population. This is headed by Rice Plate Reddy who grows from a local gang lord, acquiring all vegetarian hotels and converting their menu to non-vegetarian, to a millionaire with a plan to sell non-veg Dosa around the world through his brand Mc Dosa. Murugun is not a loner. He has a brother and also a sister-in-law who makes the world’s best Dosa! He also has a girlfriend who is alive in his heart and locket but dead otherwise. There is a turn in the tale as Murugun is shot dead by Rice Plate. But he manages to turn tides by returning to earth 25 years later after continuously applying at ‘Yamlok’ to let him go so that he can save the world from a non-vegetarian enforcer.
 
‘Quick Gun’ is an absolutely whacky piece of writing. It has some phenomenal ideas like calling Yamlok the ministry of death and showing heaven in a completely new light. The dialogues are in sync with the original character.
 
However, the film does seem a little extended and at times makes you feel it was better to keep the character for small doses on TV rather than making a two-hour film! It is a hard job to keep you interested for too long with a highly improbable and larger than life character. So ‘Quick Gun Murugun’ is lax at times. At the same time the film has been shot and edited extremely well. The background music is hilarious at times and very entertaining.
 
A suggestion – maybe a hero who does not smoke or drink while he propagates vegetarianism could send a better message! But, of course, Murugun remains a cowboy and cowboys do smoke.
 
Dr Rajendra Prasad does exceedingly well making you laugh even as he gets emotional at times. Nasser as Rice Plate Reddy is good with his body language. Rambha does well enough for a limited role. Anu Menon, better known as Channel [V’s] Lola Kutty, continues to make you laugh.
 
‘Quick Gun’ is one film you would love to try. And that is regardless of whether you have experienced the craze of the original character on TV or Shah Rukh’s tribute to it in ‘Om Shanti Om’. The film is primarily in English and partly Tamil, but has been dubbed in multiple languages. ‘Quick Gun Murugun’ has all that adds up to the essential Bollywood ‘masala’ formula – right from romance, drama, revenge and even reincarnation! But even then the film with characters like a voluptuous Mango Dolly may not be able to touch base with the mango people (we mean, ‘aam janta’) because of the not-so-regular idea in the first place. It should find a place with the youth though. Mind it!