Murshid Review: Gangster Overkill

Perhaps Kay Kay Menon should choose his projects carefully, instead of wasting his talent like this, observes Deepa Gahlot.

It is baffling why Mumbai's content producers continue to be fascinated by gangsters.

Murshid might as well have been soaked with déjà vu and set alight. This millionth piece of work inspired by The Godfather.

The gangster who is the protagonist -- eponymous in this case -- is practically a saint.

It is repeated several times in the show, directed by Shravan Mishra, that the entire Muslim population of Mumbai venerates him.

In the credit titles, the letter M has an onion-shaped masjid-like dome over it.

The show begins in 1993, with a young Murshid Pathan (Kay Kay Menon), killing a rival and becoming the de facto king of Mumbai.

His reach extends to the police force and the very top echelons of politics.

After the death of his older son, he gives up the life of crime, vows never to pick up a gun and gives his ill-gotten wealth to charity.

He hands over his criminal empire to his associate Farid (Zakir Hussain), who is evil and ambitious, but not as astute as Murshid.

Murshid's placid life is upended when he gets news that his younger son Junaid (Ashish Sharma) is in trouble.

He has been framed by Farid's men, who plan to hand him over to the Afghan drug dealers whom they have conned.

The Afghans -- called Talibanis -- are said to be ruthless brutes. Junaid will be butchered if Murshid cannot save him in time.

The retired don is forced to come back to the field and activate his network of loyal men in order to rescue Junaid.

Menon has been given a leonine mane of hair that frames his face to resemble a lion, and also lends him an extra dash of swagger, as he strides about, often in slow motion.

To underline how noble he is, Murshid adopted the son of a cop he 'accidentally' killed and raised him as a Hindu, Kumar Pratap Rana (Tanuj Virwani), a totally redundant character.

His drinking and marital woes just add useless padding to the seven-part show, since he does not actually have anything useful to contribute.

There is a lot of Machiavellian planning that goes into the rescue of Junaid, after which the guy is erased from the script, and it shifts to the chief minister Baburao (Anang Desai) and his thuggish son Jayendra (Rajesh Shrigarpure), who are hoping to win the forthcoming election against a popular new incumbent, Namdev Kulkarni (Karamveer Chaudhary)

Meanwhile, a thwarted Farid is stewing with rage and gnashing his teeth, ignoring orders by the police commissioner and the CM to lay low till the elections.

While Murshid is wooed by both sides for his influence over the Muslim vote bank, Farid keeps trying to plot against him.

Again, the show goes off on a tangent with the antics of a corrupt intelligence officer, and adds several extraneous scenes to bring in mercenary hitmen from Uttar Pradesh.

The pace of the show and the many twists do keep up the interest of the viewer, even if most of what goes on is implausible.

Everything is simply designed to prove what an indestructible force Murshid is, probably in the hope of a Season 2.

Parvez Pathan's camera goes into the dank alleys, chawls and dusty factories, that show that Mumbai is not just the glamour of glitzy towers, but has pockets of squalor no tourist brochure displays. Though slum walks are now a part of the city experience offered to foreigners.

Kay Key Menon is always watchable, and manages to bring an element of freshness even to the most hackneyed of roles.

Zakir Hussain and Rajesh Shringarpure pass muster in their portrayal of villains though for the viewer there is a choice between good and bad gangsters.

There are a few interesting faces among the goons that surround Murshid and Farid but hardly anyone else is called upon to act. Perhaps Menon should choose his projects carefully, instead of wasting his talent like this.

Murshid streams on ZEE5.