MSG The Messenger Review {1.5/5} & Review Rating
Bollywood, as we all know that, is one contradictory place, wherein one film contradicts the other. While there are films like PK, OMG OH MY GOD which preach the moral that one shouldn't blindly follow the saints and preachers, there are other films which are based on the preachers themselves! This week's release MSG: THE MESSENGER is about one such preacher. Will this film be able to attain the cult status as the aforementioned other films, lets analyze.
The film starts off with a 'sparkling' introductory song of Guruji aka Pitaji (Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan) and old footage of Indian political leaders. Guruji is an all rounder who, besides being a 'Pitaji' to everyone, is also an ace footballer, miracle worker, patriot, rapper and above all... a 'farishta'. He has many firsts to his credits. Be it the organising 'theme nights' like 'Ruhaani Jaam' (renouncement of liquor), 'Ru-Ba-Ru' nights or even the introduction of a game called 'Gurstick' (a refined form of gilli daanda), Guruji spearheads everything with utmost ease and a never fading smile. Because of his 'increasing-by-the second' popularity, his detractor Khuraana hires a hitman Mike (Daniel Kaleb) in order to eliminate him, at the behest of 'Don'. Additionally, the 'Don' also sends his suicide bomber to be a part of his Guruji's 'beti' gang, which includes Kasam (Jayshree Soni), Alice (Olexandra Semen), a foreign media student wanting to make a documentary on Guruji and Muskaan (Flora Saini). On one fateful day, an inconsolable Kasam, on the eve of her wedding, reveals a stark reality about Guruji to Alice and Muskaan, which stuns and shocks them both. Around the same time, Guruji's life also gets endangered under mysterious circumstances. Simultaneously, around the same time, Guruji's girl gang discovers the real suicide bomber.
Who is the suicide bomber in Guruji's beti gang, what is the actual motive to kill Guruji, what is the stunning truth that Kasam reveals to others about Guruji which stuns the rest and what ultimately happens of Guruji... is what forms the rest of the film.
As far as the film is concerned, there is just one man who helms the show, right from the word go. Your guess is as good as ours. We are indeed talking about the multi faceted and the all rounder man himself Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan. As far as his direction and the story writing is concerned, the irony of the situation is that, even though he seems to clearly know as to what he wants to covey through the film, his sense of direction is not in the same alignment with the story. As a result of poor and amateurish direction, the film tends to suffer big time, and starts looking and behaving as a propaganda documentary of Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan. If MSG: THE MESSENGER is anything to go by, then, (with his noble intentions notwithstanding), Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan has miles to go in the department of direction and storytelling.
As far as the performances are concerned, it's not rocket science to decipher as to who is the 'star' of the film. It seems that, seeing Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan on screen makes you feel that he is just enacting any other normal day from his real life. One may simply term it as 'method acting' or 'getting into the character'. All said and done, he does a very 'believable' job at that, if not remarkable one. As they say, 'You may love him, or hate him... but cant ignore him'! As far as the other actors are concerned, Flora Saini manages to make her presence in the film, which otherwise is dominated by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan. While Jayshree Soni does show sparks, other actors like Daniel Kaleb and Olexandra Semen are very average. One wonders as to what made a seasoned actor like Gaurav Gera say yes to the role in the film. He is totally wasted in the film.
The film's music (Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan) is just about passable, but the heavy duty hammering of the music and lyrics does make it resonate in your system even after the film is over. The film's background music (Amar Mohile) is the one which holds the film in its elements. The film's editing (Sanjay Kumar Singh) is very bad and it shows in the uneven lip syncing of the characters in many places. Had the editing been crispy (fight sequence between Mike and Guruji and the 'introduction' of the reformed characters could have been chopped), the film definitely could have looked better. The film's cinematography (Jagtar Singh Mangal) is strictly average.
On the whole, MSG: THE MESSENGER is a film that can be watched once... purely for the dynamics and the histrionics of the endearing Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan, whose onscreen antics seem to make the onscreen antics of Rajnikanth look like a child's play!
