Gone Goa:
He calls himself Sanjay Rajprakash Gupta now, the director of all those gangster dramas like Kaante and Shootout At Wadala, scaling down to a bro flick on OTT (JioCinema) with football as its backdrop. Which is probably why The Miranda Brothers is set in Goa, one of the few places in India, where football is taken seriously. Although nobody in the film actually sounds Goan, they drop words like manzil and maqaam and faasle. There are enough English lines, but no charming Goan accent.
The lead actors—Harshvardhan Rane and Meezaan Jafri—must have been cast for their abs rather than acting talent. They are the Brothers of the title—the hotheaded Julio (Rane) and the gentle Regalo (Jafri), the latter abandoned outside a church and adopted by Susan Miranda (Mansi Joshi Roy). She is a helicopter mom, baker and activist, protesting a power station in Goa.
Regalo’s adopted status gives him the right to lecture a young woman against terminating her pregnancy. Later in the film, she says she wishes he were the father. “Next time,” he says. An unintentional comic moment there, in a film short on humour; also short on romance and real drama. The two romantic interests are wispy enough to be almost invisible.
For a large part of the film, Julio and Regalo just wander around singing and dancing. They also play football for a local club, and hope to play for the Goa Premier League, which, it is repeatedly said, is their way out of “here.” They live in a large house with a gazebo in the garden, not exactly starving in a slum. Besides, since when is playing football in a local team a ticket to paradise. There is the local don, Morocho (Rahul Dev), who is somehow interested in the outcome of the deciding match, because he has his fingers in everything that happens in Goa.
Then, Susan is mowed down by a car, witnessed by Regalo, who says he didn’t notice anything that could identify the driver. And Julio flies into a rage, seeking revenge. The one who looks more shattered than both the sons is their coach (Sanjay Suri), simply because he is a better actor.
In one of those coincidences that happen mostly in films, the mother’s funeral is on the same day as the final match that will decide if the Miranda Brothers will make it to the League. When offered a contract, Regalo refuses to sign unless his brother is included too.
The big day dawns, and all that drama that had been left simmering on a stove is brought out; in case anyone was wondering about how Regalo’s adoption matters to the story, there’s the aha scene–the blood-and-water moment. The real use of the famous Pele kick. Kader Khan would have written some mamta ka karz kind of dialogue here, and the actors of his time might have had audiences shedding some tears too. But those days are long gone.
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)
