Headlined by Siddharth Malhotra, the spy thriller Mission Majnu is set in the late 1970s and is based on an undercover Indian RAW agent's mission to find an illegal nuclear facility in Pakistan. Though the film received mostly positive reviews, it was trolled online by Pakistanis for its stereotypical depiction of India's neighbouring country in the film.
The director Shantanu Bagchi addressed these concerns in an exclusive conversation with DNA India. Elaborating on these issues, the filmmaker said, "There are two major things that people are talking about. Firstly, they are saying, 'Hey, look at us, we are not wearing skull caps or sherwanis. Your depiction is completely wrong'. That's the number one acquisition. Secondly, they are saying, 'You have shown that it is very easy-peasy-Japanesey for your agents to just stroll into Pakistan and figure out where the nuclear weapon facility is'. So, these are the two major things that they are criticising."
"For the first one, I completely agree with them that if you go to Pakistan today and walk into Starbucks, you will not see people in skull caps and sherwanis having caramel coffee. But, we are talking about a period piece that happened in the 1970s. Before making the film, we pulled out images from National Geographic from that time in Pakistan because I wanted to be as authentic as possible. And of course, there is Google here, so anybody can check it if they want. And, they will find in the 1970s, there were a lot of people wearing sherwani and skull caps on the streets, in the chai stalls, and going to mosques. It is for everybody to figure it out", he stated.
The filmmaker further added, "About the second acquisition that it never happened and it was very easy. At that point in time, the Pakistanis were not aware of the RAW agents. They were not looking for it and that is the chance one has taken. It was not easy for the Indian agents to cull out little bits and pieces of information and try to figure out what it means. Also, at the end of the film, we showed the nuclear weapon facility that they built at that point in time. There are black and white photographs and there are interviews with Zia-ul-Haq (the late Pakistani general and President) and AQ Khan (the late Pakistani nuclear physicist) so these are irrefutable proofs that what we are telling (in Mission Majnu) is true."
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The Siddharth Malhotra-starrer has also been compared to Alia Bhatt's Raazi since both the films are spy thrillers, set in Pakistan, and also are period dramas. Talking about these comparisons, Shantanu told DNA, "First of all, Raazi is a wonderful film. When people started comparing both films, I knew that our story is not like Raazi apart from the fact that it's a spy thriller. In a spy thriller, there will be certain common elements - a spy saving a lot of people or a country through his/her mission. I knew that our story is completely fresh, you have never heard of it. The wonderful thing is it's a true story. At a certain point in time, somebody did go to a barber shop, got the hair samples, got them tested, found out the uranium in those samples, and hence, whatever happens in the film actually happened."
Also starring Rashmika Mandanna, Parmeet Sethi, Zakir Hussain, Sharib Hashmi, and Kumud Mishra among others. Mission Majnu is currently streaming on Netflix.
