Masti Express Movie Review: Masti Express: Completely Derailed

In its two hour odd duration, 'Masti Express' plays out more like a feature length advertisement for Ryan International Schools and a bunch of motor oil companies than a real film. More a con job designed to keep otherwise out of work actors like Razzak Khan, Vijay Patkar and Mushtaq Sheikh busy, Vikram Pradhan's debut film is nothing more than a rather expensive indulgence for Ryan Pinto, the CEO of the national educational chain, to try out his acting skills. He has none, of course. The nonexistent story of 'Masti Express' deals with the travails of Raju, a 'rickshaw wallah' who ferries a bunch of kids to their school, Tanya, John and, which is Ryan International, of course. Raju's life revolves around his rundown 'rickshaw', Rani, his wife Seema, who gets suicidal over the smallest things, and his son, Babu, who doesn't go to school. There's also the 'rickshaw' drivers' union leader and local strongman, Veerubhai, along with his bunch of lackeys, who has frequent run ins with Raju over something or the other. When his son is denied admission into Ryan International because he's a rickshaw driver's son, Raju sees a way out in an auto rickshaw race being organised by Veeru and his men, where the top prize is ten lakh rupees. Unbeknownst to Raju, though, Veeru is planning on sabotaging everyone else to win the race and the money himself. Helping Raju are the school kids and one of their school seniors, Remo, who is apparently some sort of design and engineering genius, given the way he totes around his computer. Vikram Pradhan's screenplay makes no sense. Dialogues and plot elements are thrown around without a care or follow up. Babu is apparently the son of Raju's deceased best friend; we are informed in a single dialogue, with nothing else coming of it. Raju is also supposed to be some sort of jovial clown, but grunts and grouches his way through the movie. Where Remo fits into the picture, after not interacting with anyone for most of the first half, we have no idea. After initially establishing Veerubhai as a goofy 'bhai' of sorts, the climax takes a dark turn where he is even willing to kill to win the race. He drives another auto racer off a cliff to literally crash and burn (actually shown in the film), without any consequence. And of course, everyone breaks out into songs here at the most inopportune of times. What talented actors like Rajpal Yadav and Divya Dutta are doing here, we'll never know. The two, as 'Raju' and 'Seema', try their best to infuse some life and emotion into this mess, with Yadav delivering some great scenes, but nothing helps. Johnny Lever is more tragic than comic, here; once a comedy powerhouse, Lever is now being reduced to caricaturing himself in acts like these, dulling his razor sharp comic edge. His confused 'Veerubhai' act, with the odd Parsi accent and 'actually actually' refrain, evokes few laughs. Supporting acts like Razzak Khan, Vijay Patkar, Manoj Joshi and others ham their way through the film, as do the kids. Ryan Pinto should take some acting lessons, if his schools have it in their curriculum. For a film so tightly wound around one of the biggest school chains in the country, one would imagine 'Masti Express' would have at least bit of intelligence, if not some intellectuality. Unfortunately, the report card for Vikram Pradhan's directorial debut reads 'FAIL'. Ultimately, 'Masti Express' is a film thoroughly derailed.