Mission Raniganj Movie Review: Akshay Kumar’s Disaster-Thriller Is More of a Disaster & Less of a Thriller

Mission Raniganj: Star Cast

Akshay Kumar, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Kumud Mishra, Jameel Khan, Ravi Kishan, Pavan Malhotra, Rajesh Sharma, Virendra Saxena, Sudhir Pandey, Shishir Sharma, Parineeti Chopra

Mission Raniganj: Director

Tinu Suresh Desai

Mission Raniganj: What’s Good?

The real-life story on which the film is based & the incidents that follow

Mission Raniganj: What’s Bad?

Everything apart from the story

Mission Raniganj: Story

It’s 1989, the year when West Bengal’s Raniganj dodged heavy rains. Still, the water stayed silent underground for months only to flood in, causing another disaster that’s heroically averted by Jaswant Singh Gill (Akshay Kumar), who’d be known as ‘Capsule Gill’ in the future. This is the story of the disasters miners faced while mining for coal.

While blasting the walls below the surface, a watergate gets smashed, allowing the harsh inflow to risk the lives of 65 miners in the mine. While they hope for a new lease of life, Jaswant gets entangled in the politics of how to treat this mission so it could benefit the political parties. How he fought with the system, making the most of whatever was available, accomplishing a mission that would’ve been impossible even for Tom Cruise, is what the crux of the story is.

Mission Raniganj: Script Analysis

Before people bash me for bashing the film, remember my criticism is for the execution: the story of Jaswant Singh Gill has always been a winner. My criticism is for Akshay Kumar’s template of making ‘limited efforts’ because if you can’t finish a film in 45 days, “laanat hai tum par!” The makers didn’t even bother to match the style of the beard because it would have required some effort to grow it naturally instead of donning an artificial one.

The green screen screams louder than Ravi Kishan, who has done nothing but burst out loud at the top of his lungs. Every scene clearly distinguishes the difference between the background & the foreground, making the green screen more visible than ever. It also looks like Akshay has shot many scenes alone, with the director stitching his scenes with others’ using some choppy editing tricks.

Yes, it’s a low-budget film; no, that’s not an excuse to serve such crappy VFX in the garb of narrating a ‘real-life, heroic’ tale! Remember 1979’s classic Kaala Patthar? The Amitabh Bachchan starrer was better in every sense (visually, too) & that was 40 years ago.

Mission Raniganj: Star Performance

We all respect Akshay Kumar’s thought process behind doing multiple projects and creating multiple job opportunities for people in the industry, but that’s clearly been hampering the quality of his projects. After Ram Setu, this is yet another example of how makers are losing good stories at the cost of finishing up early. It’s like a kid saying, “I’ll finish up three hours of homework in 30 minutes because I can write fast,” & not remembering a word when asked about anything from it.

You need a special talent to waste Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Kumud Mishra, Jameel Khan, Ravi Kishan, and Pavan Malhotra all at once, and that’s what the director possesses the best.

Mission Raniganj: Direction, Music

Tinu Suresh Desai surprised everyone with Rustom after the dud that was in 1920 London, but this one proves why the 2016 film could actually be either a fluke or ghost-directed by someone else because this one is a mess from the word go.

It says a lot about a music producer’s thought process when you rope in a singer like Satinder Sartaaj & go to B Praak for the signature song of your film. Imagine Satinder crooning Kumar Vishwas’ lines! They had all the resources but refused to use it wisely. None of the pieces click. Sandeep Shirodkar’s BGM is too loud but fails to match the decibels of the green-screen scream.

Mission Raniganj: Conclusion

All said and done, it’s not the story of this Akshay Kumar starrer that falters; it’s how the director has executed everything that is of poor quality. This deserved a better team, with Akshay Kumar leading the project.