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The Miranda Brothers is short on humour, romance and real drama, observes Deepa Gahlot.
Director of all those gangster dramas like Kaante and Shootout At Wadala, Sanjay Rajprakash Gupta -- as he calls himself these days -- scales down to a bro flick on OTT with football as its backdrop.
That's probably why The Miranda Brothers is set in Goa, one of the few places in India, where football is taken seriously.
But nobody in the film actually sounds Goan; they drop words like 'manzil', 'maqaam' and 'faasle'. There are enough English lines but no charming Goan accent.
Lead actors Harshvardhan Rane and Meezaan Jafri must have been cast for their abs rather than acting talent.
They are the titular brothers: The hotheaded Julio (Rane) and the gentle Regalo (Jafri). Regalo had been 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, 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 is -- repeatedly said -- 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?
The local don Morocho (Rahul Dev) is somehow interested in the outcome of the deciding match because he has his fingers in everything that happens in Goa.
Susan gets mowed down by a car, witnessed by Regalo, who says he didn't notice anything that could identify the driver.
Julio flies into a rage, seeking revenge.
The one who looks more shattered than 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.
This is also where Regalo's adoption matters to the story.
Kader Khan would have written some mamta ka karz kind of dialogue here, and the actors of his time might have had the audiences shedding some tears too. But those days are long gone.
The Miranda Brothers streams on JioCinema.
