Malang (2020)

[** stars / *****] 

Director Mohit "Aashiqui 2" Suri's Malang (Vagrant) could also be titled Drugs, Love, Crime & Revenge in Goa (Filmy Style). 

Two "free" wanderers, Advait (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Sara (Disha Patani) fall for each other with zero chemistry and non-existent, woefully absent acting skills in Goa over drugs, parties, more drugs, breaking into abandoned homes (nobody notices the house breaking, Goa is that tourist friendly?!), bikinis and water sports. 

Then a tragedy involving volatile cop Michael Rodriguez (Kunal Khemu) puts an end to the vacation. Meanwhile, Anjaney Agashe (Anil Kapoor), another cop, loses it to drugs and encounter killings over his killed-in-crossfire daughter. 

When your friend has one too many tequila shots in Goa...

Lover ka badla (revenge)!
A more convincing Roy Kapur gets into revenge-crazy, six-pack, back-from-prison killing machine mode and keeps killing off cops left and right, even as Michael and Anjaney close in on him. Malang is a snore until the final ten minutes, some plot elements are justified, by then its too little, too late. 

Quick! Call the Rapid Action Deodorant Squad!

Why Malang sucks? 
Advait and Sara never seem real, neither as wanderers or later. Their scenes are a headache inducing drag. The first half suffers from the non-existent vibe and poor dialogues. Where is the money coming for the extended Goa vacation is a genetic Hindi film jannjat (irritation). 

Goa as a forbidding, dark, drug-infused could have worked, but the proceedings are too dull and unbelievable for any conviction to set in. 

Malang review 
Kunal Khemu as Michael Rodriguez needed more layers in what could have been a fascinating study of masculine pride, but the makers don't get there. Khemu's undeniably superb talent is wasted here. There are bright ideas, like the climax, the devastated cop subplot, but nothing sticks. 

Only the amazing Anil Kapoor and the beautiful songs, without any lame remixes, believe it or not, (applause for composers - Mithoon, Ankit Tiwari, Ved Sharma, Azim Azhar and The Fusion Project) make Malang, the rest is like a wave of average writing, acting and directing crashing into a million pieces against the rocks of a Goa beach.