‘Malang’: A trailer that is disturbingly surreal

The trailer of Mohit Suri’s Malang is like a rollercoaster ride …on Speed. The images are deliberately done in distinctive blotchy colours to show minds on the brink. Producer Luv Ranjan says Malang is the most emotionally violent film he has produced. After seeing the trailer I have to agree.

There are no normal characters in Malang, at least none is visible in the tempestuous trailer. Each of the four protagonists played by Aditya Roy Kapoor, Disha Patani, Kunal Khemmu and (above all) Anil Kapoor is high on life. They jump off planes, they whizz past life in fast cars, they bathe themselves in bright colours.

These are characters who live in the fast and furious lane. I don’t know what motivates their ceaseless rush of surplus adrenaline, maybe the realization that any of the fearless four can end up dead on the slippery sidewalk.

Mohit Suri’s characters, be it Kunal Khemmu in Kalyug, Kangana Ranaut in WohLamhe, Emraan Hashmi in Awarapan, Aditya Roy Kapoor in Aashiqui 2, Siddharth Malhotra in Ek Villain or Rajkummar Rao in Hamari Adhuri Kahani… these are unfinished people waiting to live out their lives to the fullest.

Aaditya Roy Kapoor’s stardom began with Mohit Suri’s Aashiqui 2. After seeing the trailer I have a feeling Malang will renew Roy’s stardom. For once he seems to be having fun with his nervous anxious part.

There is a delectable unpredictability about the characters as they become locked in a karma over which they have no control. The trailer reveals a unique garish colour palate: pinks, purples, greens, red…the colours of fear and dread, none more dreadful than Anil Kapoor whose brash chilling cop-act would probably fetch him some awards nominations next year.

As for Aditya Roy Kapoor, this is his comeback film. Mercifully he doesn’t have much to say in the trailer except to ask his seductive co-star what gives her sukoon. Her answer leaves much to be desired.

If you are sold on sukoon (relief/ respite) then Malang may not be the film you would want to relax with. It is a film with a stormy countenance. The character are flawed fractured deperate, undependable. Not quite what you would expect from the director of Aashiqui 2.