‘Malaysia to Amnesia’ movie review: A dull comedy in which MS Bhaskar shines

What if a person makes his family and friends believe he is doing something and goes on to do something else, and there is an entire problem in that something else?

Sounds confusing? ‘Malaysia to Amnesia’ is a bit like that. It hinges on the age-old comedy trope: of a young businessman (Arun, played by Vaibhav) lying to his family to be with his girlfriend. This concept has been exploited many times in the film world, to varying comical effect. But this Radha Mohan-directorial fails to tap it to its potential.

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Arun, a young garments businessman, has a cushy life: a duplex apartment, a loving wife and daughter. But he has other ‘interests,’ namely a girlfriend in Bangalore (Bhavna, played by Riya Suman), and when an opportunity presents itself, he desperately wants to visit her. But there is a problem: his wife’s uncle (MS Bhaskar), who has unexpectedly come visiting them.

‘Malaysia to Amnesia’ gets off to a good enough start, with a couple of funny lines. But it slowly veers into semi-emotional territory, and once it does that, there is no salvaging the broth.

The comedy is largely situational and dialogue driven — which means that if you are one of those who laughs their heads off reading WhatsApp forward jokes, you might enjoy it.

Vaibhav’s character brief seems to be just a line: act lost and befuddled most of the time. Karunakaran plays his friend, a role he has played in multiple Tamil films, while Vani Bhojan is apt for her part. But the real scene-stealer is MS Bhaskar, whose outing here proves yet again that he is a multi-purpose actor with an ability to pull off comedy easily.

Sans Bhaskar, the film is lifeless and unexciting. There are portions that involve a lady who keeps forgetting things and a group of beggars that contributes nothing to the core storyline: they make the two-hour made-for-OTT flick seem like an eternity. There is also a scene featuring Bhavna that has minimal impact as we have been given little material to dig into that “relationship”.

Director Radha Mohan seems to have been confused whether to package this as an all-out comic flick or pack in emotional elements: had he decided to opt for the former, he might have pulled it off. I often wondered how this material would be in the hands of a Crazy Mohan and a protagonist who could be a little more convincing.

Malaysia to Amnesia is currently streaming on ZEE5