Madgaon Express Movie Review: Excel Entertainment set a new precedent for new-age buddy films with Dil Chahta Hai and then followed it up with Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara years later. The air of uncertainty looms large over Jee Le Zaraa but don’t worry because Madgaon Express is here. But truth be told, Kunal Kemmu’s directorial debut doesn’t quite fit into this list of modern day films about friendship because it’s so much more than that. While it definitely pays an ode to friendship, it also has drug lords and the world of crime and smuggling set against a not-so-glamorous backdrop of Goa seamlessly interwoven into the narrative, which renders the story a lot of novelty.
Madgaon Express is something that we’ve never seen before and thank god for that. In fact, it’s even tough to slot it into a certain genre. The film is whacky, loud and chaotic and unapologetically revels in its own eccentricities. The characters are all oddballs and you wouldn’t want to encounter most of them in real life. It almost feels like Kunal chose to tell a tale without adhering to any set structures of storytelling and yet there’s a method to the madness. It’s so all over the place and such an incredible hodgepodge of so many things that you can’t help but burst out into peals of laughter every now and then, and that’s Madgaon Express’ biggest win.
The film revolves around childhood friends – Ayush, Pratik (fondly known as Pinku) and Dhanush (referred to as Dodo by his buddies) – who aspired to take a boys trip to Goa since their school days. But they grow up and their lives take different directions with Ayush moving to New York and Pinku to Cape Town with his family. While they build credible careers and live their best lives, Dodo is stuck in Mumbai where he works as a pizza delivery boy.