‘Mona Darling’ movie review: A perfect example of a good concept gone bad

Directed By: Shashi Sudigala
Produced By: First Ray Films
Cast: Anshuman Jha, Divya Menon, Suzanna Mukherjee, Sanjay Suri
Duration: 1 hours 59 minutes
Bollywood Bubble Rating: 1.5/5

Bollywood has explored mostly all the genres, but we are now all set to be introduced to a new genre of films, ‘Social Media-Thriller’. Yes, India’s first social media-thriller, a film named ‘Mona Darling’ is all set to hit the theatres. After watching the trailer, the first word that came to our mind was ‘wow’ because it was damn interesting and promised to offer us something new. The trailer was very well edited to make us curious to watch the film. But, does the film live up to the curiosity level we had for it? Find out here in ‘Mona Darling’ movie review.

The movie starts with a couple of guys discussing about a Facebook profile named ‘Mona Darling’ which was deactivated, but is active again. They all have received a friend request from the profile, and are very happy about it. They accept the request, and, then one by one all of them get killed. Their murders are done in a gruesome manner (faint-hearted people, think twice before watching this movie).  Next morning, we see Sara (Divya Menon) asking people in a college campus about her friend Mona (Suzanna Mukherjee) who is missing. She goes to the principal of the college played by the very talented Sanjay Suri (but wasted in this film) and tells him about Mona, but he is more interested in the murders than the missing girl in his college. Sara goes to Wiki (Anshuman Jha) for help to find Mona. They start investigating about her and things start unfolding, and a connection between Mona and the murders comes to limelight. So, is this the missing Mona who is killing everyone? And if not her, who is the murderer? These things form the rest of the story…

After reading the synopsis above, we are sure you would feel that this one is going to be a great cinematic experience as the concept is so good, but unfortunately, that doesn’t happen here. The great concept is not handled well at all. The screenplay could have easily been tight. There are sequences that make you skip a heartbeat, but are very few; like maybe just one or two. In the second half the film becomes damn predictable, forget the second half, actually we predicted the culprit in the first half itself. Like we are sure everyone who is watching the film, will predict who the main culprit is. The climax of the film should be shocking but here it is quite disappointing. The director, Shashi Sudigala, fails to give us the required shock quotient in the climax. Even there are sequences which will bore you too much. A thriller should have a proper pace, but here even that doesn’t happen. Sometimes the film’s pace is fast, sometimes it goes down. Even the cinematography and editing is strictly okay. There are some moments where two parallel stories are going on, and for moviegoers it might be a bit confusing. In a thriller, you need to have a good background score, and even that is missing here.

There are very few good things in the film, and one of them is the acting done by its lead cast. Anshuman Jha is good and Divya Menon is decent. But, the surprise here is Suzanna Mukherjee as Mona. She is wonderful and has portrayed her character very well. Sanjay Suri as we said is wasted. Believe us, he was much better in the cameo he had in last year’s release ‘Nil Battey Sannata’. Other actors in the film are strictly average.

The makers have tried to attempt something new and unique, but sometimes, some experiments fail.

On the whole, ‘Mona Darling’ is a perfect example of how a good concept can be spoilt with bad execution.

Watch Trailer