Made In China Movie Review, Release Date, Star Cast, Story

Made In China Movie Release Date:

25th October, 2019

Made In China Star Cast:

Rajkummar Rao as Raghuvir ‘Raghu’ Mehta

Boman Irani as Dr. Vardhi

Mouni Roy as Rukmini Mehta

Paresh Rawal as Tanmay Shah

Gajraj Rao as Chopra

Sumeet Vyas as Devraj

Amyra Dastur as Roopa

Manoj Joshi as Vhinde Bhai

Amit Bimrot as Ravi Panchal

Bijou Thaangjam as Chinese Official

Made In China Movie Review:

The residents of Gujarat are known for their entrepreneurial spirit and in recent times, films like Kai Po Che [2013], MITRON [2018] etc were partly based on this aspect. Now debutant director Mikhil Musale takes it a step further with his Diwali release, Made In China, which incidentally also stars Kai Po Che actor Rajkummar Rao as the protagonist along with many other talented names. So does Made in China manage to give viewers a good time? Or does it fail in its attempt? Let’s analyze.

Made in China is the story of a man who overcomes all odds to become an expert businessman. Raghu Mehta (Rajkumar Rao) is based in Ahmedabad and is a failed businessman. He has tried his hand in different types of professions but every time the effort has been in vain. He then heeded the advice of his deceased father and started running a clothing shop owned by his family. Here too, he tries to experiment and stock Nepali mattresses but no one is inclined to buy it. Raghu is married to Rukmini (Mouni Roy) who understands him and supports him through thick and thin. But Raghu’s father-in-law Vithal (Manoj Joshi) and Devraj (Sumeet Vyas) do not appreciate Raghu’s efforts. They advise him to sell his shop at a good price and help him to go to China and set up his own venture of providing herbal soft drinks to Devraj. Raghu reluctantly accepts China’s offer, where sadly the deal with Tanmay Shah (Paresh Rawal) fails. However, Raghu befriends a local colleague, Zooey Lee (Danny Wang). She introduces him to Hou Li (Jeffrey Ho), who claims to have created an effective aphrodisiac called Magic Soup, also from a tiger’s reproductive organs. Hou Li urges Raghu to sell it in India and earn millions for both. Influenced by this idea, Raghu returns to India, and he decides to do ground research. He meets several sex doctors, tantrik babas, etc. and realizes that most of them are only interested in financially exploiting desperate people suffering from sexual problems. Raghu then meets Dr. Tribhuvan Vardhi (Boman Irani), who is honest and has no money. Immediately, Raghu insists that Dr. Vardhi should sell Magic Soup to his patients and in return, he will get 50% share in the profit. Dr. Vardhi at first refused but after much persuasion he accepted the offer. On Tanmay Shah’s advice, Raghu turns Dr. Vardhi into an online sensation who in turn helps in the sales of Magic Soup. All is well until one day, General Zeng (Dawei Yu), a high-profile Chinese citizen, consumes magic soup and dies within minutes. As a result, Raghu and Dr. Vardhi are caught by the police. Seeing the gravity of the situation, the government sends two CBI agents, Gupta (Chittaranjan Tripathi) and Sharma (Abhishek Banerjee), to investigate. What happens next becomes the rest of the film.

The story of Mikhil Musale, Karan Vyas and Parinda Joshi is juvenile and unbelievable. There are too many characters and justice has not been done to many of them. The screenplay by Mikhil Musale, Karan Vyas and Parinda Joshi (with additional screenplay by Niren Bhatt) is a big culprit. The shoddy story still could have been made for a slightly better film. But it doesn’t because the film lacks drama, tension and even enough humour. The dialogues of Niren Bhatt and Karan Vyas could have been more unique in better words. For example, the way Dr. Vardhi’s speech goes viral, he finds it difficult to digest because he hasn’t said anything that hasn’t been said before.

Mikhil Musale’s direction is weak. He knows the technique of taking shots but his approach to storytelling is flawed. There are too many leaps in the timeline. The entire China travel episode is shocking as the audience never gets to know where Devraj disappeared and when and how Raghu returned to India. Also, the film starts off as a murder mystery, but this bit is kept unclear till the end. On the positive side, some scenes are entertaining like Raghu hanging out with Jui Lee, Tanmay Shah’s scenes and involving Raghu and Dr Vardhi in the library.

Made in China starts on a high note and the murder is shown at the very beginning. There is one hope that the story will improve as the film goes on a flashback mode. But nothing like this happens. The first half is dry and story-wise, not much happens. The gap comes suddenly. In the second part, there is some stir in the story as Raghu finally reaches the top. But here too the scattered plot spoils things. Aakash Chopra’s (Gajraj Rao) track feels forceful and doesn’t add much, especially his last scene. The finale is convenient and the film ends, leaving a lot of questions unanswered.

Talking about the performances, Rajkummar Rao tries really well but the end result is not that impressive. The scene where he really stands out is when he shows Rukmini’s picture to Shui Li in China. Mouni Roy looks sizzling but is the best. Boman Irani is far better and he is indeed the best actor in the film. He does very well especially in the twin monologues in the second half. Gajraj Rao is useless. Paresh Rawal entertains. Manoj Joshi and Sumeet Vyas did well. Danny Wang is sweet. Jeffrey Ho is over the top but it works for his character. Chittaranjan Tripathi and Abhishek Banerjee failed to woo. Sanjay Goradia (Natukaka) initially laughs. Dawei Yu is hardly there. Amyra Dastur (Roopa) gets no room.

There is no memory of Sachin-Jigar’s music. ‘Odhani’ is used for less than a minute in the film and plays in the end credits. ‘Sanedo’ is foot-tapping. ‘Valam’ has been shot well. There is no ‘Nari Nari’ in the film. Sachin-Jigar’s background score is far superior and the Chinese feel has been brought to life well.

Anuj Rakesh Dhawan’s cinematography is neat. Sheetal Sharma’s costumes are straight to life, while Mouni Roy’s costumes are as appealing as her character’s financial status. Mayur Sharma’s production design is fine. Manan Ashwin Mehta’s editing should have been smooth and the film should have been shorter.

Overall, Made in China lacks a good story and execution to make its mark. At the box office, it will have a tough time as it clashes with a film as big as Housefull 4.