MLA – An Inside Intruder (2012) Review by Shivom Oza – Landslide Defeat For This MLA

1.5/5 Stars

The film is about a small town called Bhaglipur in Madhya Pradesh, where the local MLA Pratap Singh (Mukesh Tiwari) calls all the shots. He gets people killed, controls the police, scandalizes women, and rants. Alongside him, there’s always a caricaturized version of a secretary Sukhiram, who is more like a sidekick, present to get work done through a phone call and incur the wrath of his boss if and when he goofs up. The duo mouth typical lines about power/satta/khursi and what not, thus exposing the ineptness of the dialogue writers (as many as 4).

In the same town, we have a wealthy businessman Kamal Kushwaha, who is called KK throughout the film. KK wants to do something good for Bhaglipur, so decides to build a milk factory over there for the welfare of the villagers. Chaitanya Naidu, who plays KK, is expressionless through most of the film. Even his (inspirational?) speeches in the film sound laughable thanks to the limited acting acumen of the actor. You can sense that a lot of earnestness is put into the performance, but sadly it does not translate on the screen. Same goes for the girl who plays KK’s love interest Ana (Ana Kanandadze). The propensity of ham-acting displayed by the actress reduces, what were supposed to be intense and dramatic scenes to mediocre levels. Although her nationality is never revealed, she plays someone who has returned from Georgia, U.S.A. However, she can neither pull of the Hindi dialogues properly, nor English.
It’s not as if the entire cast lets the film down. The fault lies with the script and the dialogues, which probably leads to the actors performing so poorly. One would have expected actor Omkar Das Manikpuri to shine, following his stupendous performance as ‘Natha’ in ‘Peepli Live’. However, he too disappoints. He plays the villager Shankar who supports KK in his endeavours but ends up being targeted by the corrupt politicians. Onkar doesn’t have much to do in the first half of the film. His role builds up towards the end of the movie, but the actor fails to live up to his footing.

Even the music of the film (composed by Sandesh Shandilya) is forgettable. There are a couple of ‘forced’ item numbers in the film. I say forced, because there is nothing noteworthy about them, not the song, neither the picturization. The romantic number too, fails to impress. Overall, the music along with the background score was average failing to uplift the film.
There are good moments in the film, but they are too few and far in between. There is a sincere message embedded within the film, but it gets lost within the faulty script and below-par acting. Director Shiv Dube has tried to mix too many elements within the film, making it difficult for the audience to sit through for 2 hours.
The reviewer gives it 1.5 stars. You wouldn’t miss out on much if you don’t watch ‘MLA – An Inside Intruder’. The film makes the audiences seem like intruders! (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza