Made in China Movie Review

‘Made in China’ Movie Review:

 A Hilarious Entrepreneurial Journey!

Image Courtesy: koimoi.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

"You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end” – Jessica Herrin

Made in China’s Raghuvir Mehta in short Raghu (Rajkummar Rao) is a young man who is not ready to quit even after thirteen failed endeavours until he becomes a successful businessman. He is continuously discouraged and taunted because of consistent failure in all his endeavours by his wealthy and pompous uncle Vhinde Bhai (Manoj Joshi) and his cousin (Sumeet Vyas) who is a xerox copy of his father. Raghu had tried his luck on everything from selling Nepali carpets, Eggs of Emu, Chappathi maker and to what not; as the proverb goes – “Just when the caterpillar thought, the world was over, it became a butterfly” Raghu didn’t even imagine in his wildest dream that his visit to China would turn out to be a new beginning clubbed with lots of unprecedented twists and turns.

Vhinde Bhai forcibly sent Raghu along with Devraj to China for a business presentation, thinking that he will learn some skills from his brother and make the Mehtas proud. But things don’t work as planned and his cousin is outrightly rejected by a Gujarati business genius Tanmay Shah (Paresh Rawal) in the first business meeting itself. As Devraj walks out of the meeting, the business wizard strikes a chord with Raghu and tells him that he has a bright future and invites him for a party. Raghu gets bowled over by his business acumen when he sees  Tanmay Shah selling the Gujarati delicacy Thepela to a bunch of his foreigner friends so effortlessly. Charged by his experience in China, Raghu returns with two things with him – one, a magic soup that works as an aphrodisiac to enhance virility and two, the guru mantra given to him by Mr Shah that ‘Customers are fools’.

Image Courtesy: hindustantimes.com

Raghu armed with his newfound potent product ‘The Magic Soup' does exactly what Mandy Hale has aptly pointed out – “There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others”. Raghu collaborates with Dr Vardhi (Boman Irani) a sexologist who was shunted out of Bhutan for his controversial sex awareness program he pursued there, which made him finally restrict himself to a small clinic in Ahmedabad treating patients who occasionally visited him. What follows is a team handpicked by both of them to manufacture, promote and sell 'The Magic Soup'.

The above-mentioned story is not enough to gauge what happens next because Raghu’s entrepreneurial journey is full of potholes that he needs to be careful off and pursue his journey to leave a mark as a successful businessman.  One needs to watch this movie to know whether he becomes successful in keeping the customers, his wife, his uncle, cousin and the Indian and Chinese government fools for long.  It is also interesting to know how he got allegedly linked to the murder of a Chinese General in Ahmedabad who got killed by helping himself with a bowl of 'The Magic Soup'.

Image Courtesy: indiatoday.in

Mikhil Musale, the maker of the national award-winning Gujarati film ‘Wrong Side Raju’, has co-written and directed the film Made in China. He starts off the film as a murder thriller and slowly like a  chameleon changes the story's  focuses on the journey of an overly ambitious young man’s entrepreneurial struggle and then suddenly slips into a sex awareness program where he speaks volumes on how Indians shy away from speaking the word Sex in public and how virility for many is ‘Power’. Amidst all these the filmmaker finds pleasure in spouting some below the belt humour which is very funny. The role of Gajraj Rao as Abhay Chopra, a motivational trainer is half baked and fails to do justice to such a talented actor. Mouni Roy (Rukmini) is full of Oomph and it seems that she is there unfortunately for that only. She as the better half of Raghu is in no way match to his simplicity as a Gujrati guy and even falls short of having a Gujrati accent. Her reaction to his newfound business venture is contrary to the character she portrays.  Rukmini is bold, open, ready to explore and talk without any inhibition on taboo topics like sexual satisfaction, orgasm and share a drink with her husband outside but can't take her husband selling performance enhancement products without her knowledge and feels that he has fallen from grace as a person. 

In short, Made in China is at least better than Shilpi Dasgupta’s ‘Khandaani Shafahkana, but fails to tell a story well on a serious topic humorously.   You can still watch this film but with zero expectations. Go for Rajkummar Rao and the show stealer Boman Irani as Dr Vardhi, the 70-year-old sexologist. Maybe you may walk out of the theatre realizing that you are being fooled as a customer by many every day, if so, Jaago Grahak Jaago.

Life Connoisseur Movie Rating: 2.5/5

Cast: Rajkummar Rao (Raghuvir Mehta), Mouni Roy (Rukmini Mehta), Boman Irani (Dr Vardhi), Amyra Dastur (Roopa), Paresh Rawal (Tanmay Shah), Gajraj Rao (Chopra), Sumeet Vyas (Devraj), Manj Joshi (Vhinde Bhai), Amit Bimrot (Ravi Panchal), Chittaranjan Tripathy and Abhishek Banerjee (CBI Officers)

Genre: Comedy Drama

Director: Mikhil Musale

Producers: Dinesh Vijan, Sharada Karki Jalota

Written by: Niren Bhatt, Karan Vyas (Dialogues)

Based on the book: Made in China by Parinda Joshi

Story by: Mikhil Musale, Niren Bhatt, Karan Vyas, Parinda Joshi

Music by: Sachin-Jigar

Background Score: John Stewart Eduri

Cinematography: Anuj Rakesh Dhawan

Edited by: Manan Ashwin Mehta

Production Company: Maddock Films, Jio Studios

Distributor: AA Films

Release Date: 25 October 2019

Duration: 128 Minutes

Language: Hindi