'Monica, O My Darling' review: Not a dark comedy, just a passable thriller

Monica, O my darling, the latest big Bollywood outing to premiere on Netflix this weekend, is billed as a ‘neo-noir’, a dark comedy, which pays an ode to old blockbuster movies like the 1971 Nasir Hussain thriller Caravan. It tips its hat at Hindi movie’s legendary vamps – the ‘bad’, wicked women of Indian celluloid who actually have a heart of gold – and to old Hindi film thrillers.

Vasan Bala’s Monica, O My Darling, a thriller revolving around a small town guy’s ambitions to hang on to his success in the corporate world even if it means faking love for his boss’ silly daughter, works as long as it pays tribute to the films of yore.

But, the film fails as a dark comedy. As the hero’s life turns into a diabolical snakes and ladder game, full of slithery surprises and hard bumps, the film skids out of control and the viewer ends up sliding to the bottom dissatisfied with the ride wondering what just happened here?

If director Vasan Bala, (known for his directorial venture Mard ko Dard Nahi Hota, and having co-written neo-noir Psycho Raman 2.0, cricket drama ’83 etc), hoped to replicate the success of Sriram Raghavan’s hugely acclaimed and hit black comedy, the 2018 Andhadhun, he doesn’t quite succeed.

Andhadhun, which had manic energy quality about it, always had a tight grip on the plot, even as events, spurred by people looking out for the best deal for themselves spirals out of control. Monica, oh my darling, incidentally, has been written by Yogeshwar, who was on Andhadhun‘s writing team. Unfortunately, here, he is not able to cleverly weave in the terrible twists of chance, the stunning lack of human morality and dark humour into the story.

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Monica, O my darling, which happens to be an adaptation of Burutasu na shinzou, a novel by reputed Japanese author, Keigo Hagioshimo (his more famous book Devotion of Suspect X is also being made by Netflix into a movie with Kareena Kapoor), somehow sags half-way after creating the setting for the perfect murder.

Also, the droll sarcastic humour falls flat. This is specially the case with the cop character played by Radhika Apte, who just laughs raucously each time she sashays into the frame and encounters her prime suspect, Jayant Arkhedkar (Rajkummar Rao), the robotics expert and the blue-eyed boy of a tech firm called Unicorn. There is not enough for her to chew on.

Neo-noir films teem with characters who are conflicted anti-heroes, who have no sense of right or wrong, or good or bad. There’s something so repugnant and at the same time, compelling about these characters and that’s the fascination of this genre. How low can you stoop to cover up your muddy, bloody tracks?

Interestingly, it seems Tamil movie directors are more in sync with this genre going by the success of a stream of films at the box-office like Jigarthanda, Nelson’s Kolamavu Kokila and Doctor, and Kumararaja’s stunning black comedy Super Deluxe etc.

Monica, Oh, My Darling starts off quite promisingly, with a murder, and the entry of the office femme fatale in the form of Huma Qureshi (Monica Machado) with a scintillating cabaret song Yeh Ek Zindagi, which is a mix of elements from yesteryear actor Helen’s frenzied number Piya tu ab tu aaja (from which the title of Monica, O my darling has been taken) and a smattering of tunes from Sridevi’s peppy Na Jaane Kahan Se Aaye song from Chaalbaaz. This song is a treat to watch.

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Though, Huma has none of Sri Devi’s oomph nor Helen’s sultriness, she convincingly manages to rise like a phoenix in the film as the office seductress, who seems to be merrily sleeping with key officials in the firm. Her reasoning being that she wants to squeeze out all she can from obviously weak, spineless men to pay off her GST and tax (!).

Our small-town hero Jayant, a wizard in robotics from ITT (Rajkummar Rao to his credit stays the course and is the one left to do the heavy lifting in the film) has just been made a board member in Unicorn. The founder’s daughter Niki Adhikari ( Akansha Ranjan Kapoor), who is a bimbo loves him and he is unofficially recognised as the heir to the Unicorn’s fortunes. Though, he strings Niki along, he is also sleeping with the office bomb Monica, and this affair is all set to explode around him.

He is watched enviously from the sidelines by Nishikant Adhikari (Sikander Kher, who is effective in a special appearance), the founder’s own son, who hates Jayant and calls him a “scum from Angola” (a fictional small town near Pune). But, Nishikant and Jayant are forced to team up, along with the company accountant, Arvind Swamy (played by Tamil actor Bhagavathy Perumal) to fight off the bigger evil of Monica, who is threatening to spill the beans about her pregnancy. Any one of them could be the father.

They decide to kill her and how their perfectly hatched plan goes completely awry and the subsequent, surprising turn of events form the rest of the film. There is also an oily employee, Gaurav More (Sukant Gore), who nurses bitterness at being “invisible” to his colleagues and who cannot think beyond his love for the office sweetheart, Shalu Vartak (Zayn Marie Khan).

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It is Rajkummar Rao, who manages to keep the viewer invested in the film, in the midst of the bizarre cranks in the plot, the oddballs who don’t seem crazy enough and the final turning of the screw in the end, which seems to have been added on to nail the macabre effect. Rao is perfect as he plays dirty to cling on to his good fortunes even as people around him get bumped off and evidence is mounting against him. Once in a while, he is weighed down by guilt and shame at the depths he has descended to. Maybe, the other actors don’t quite rise to the level of his calibre in this ordinary, thriller drama, which brazenly dons a dark comedy hat.

There is also a reference to how Jayant has no control over the robot he has built. Maybe a nod to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner probably?

The music, other than the opening track, is passable. Piya tu ab tu aa jaa plays as a background score to add some edge to the tense scenes.The editing is crisp, and the cinematography is visually rich and has plenty of interplay of light and shadow. Maybe, if the film had not tried so hard to walk on the wacky side, it may have struck the right chords.