An official adaptation of the original Tamil film Maanagaram, Mumbaikar follows the story of different stories intertwined together with each story having a brush with crime. For those who are privy to the original source material would know that the story is outstanding. But I was more interested in the screenplay, and standing at a shade above 2 hours, it is exactly here that the screenplay falters. As they say, copying also requires skills which were terribly missing here.

The opening sequence was enough in itself to tell me that the film is absolutely trashy with its execution. If you remember the original film, the narrative allowed you time to spend with the characters as opposed to the mad rush here where an ongoing sequence is cut short, and the drama shifts elsewhere. What this ensured was that you ate never invested in the journey of the characters and you couldn’t care less even when their lives are in danger. Even the humour element is so scratchy that I had my hand on my head for most parts of the film. The sequences were unfunny and outright ridiculous.

The proceedings are surprisingly dull despite a subject which was interesting on paper. Another fundamental flaw is that while the film is titled as ‘Mumbaikar’, absolutely nothing in the screenplay made me believe that the drama was set in Mumbai. The vibe of the city was missing and there was no effort made in the writing department to even remotely tap into this issue. Just showing passing shots of Mumbai, independent to the ongoing drama was never going to be sufficient. Also, the conflicts aren’t well established here as well. For some reason, there is a mad rush throughout the film that doesn’t help its cause either.

To be fair, the second hour is slightly more organized than the first hour which is scattered to no bounds. But despite it being organized, it doesn’t quite guarantee you the excitement which was needed in the film. Shifting from one event to another while abandoning an ongoing conflict meant that the makers were never in control of the drama, which in turn made me believe on what a splendid job Lokesh Kanagaraj had done with the original. An issue that I had with the original was its slightly bland ending but even that hasn’t been changed in the Hindi adaptation. Overall, the screenplay is trashy and haphazard with zero control on the proceedings.