The Man Who Feels No Pain  ★★½

INDIAN films are certainly unique.

Regardless of the genre – comedy, action, drama, horror, musical – more often than not you get a mash-up of elements from all. Usually it works and the end result is fairly entertaining, if nearly always too long.

In the case of Vasan Bala’s action/comedy The Man Who Feels No Pain, it’s more problematic.

This film achieved good festival buzz during 2018 from both critics and audiences, but my watch was a pretty frustrating experience.

The main problems are the lead actor’s sub-par performance, a lack of genuine laughs, gaps in story continuity and the padded running time.

The film starts extremely well with an opening sequence that explains how lead character Surya is injured as a newborn and raised by an over-protective father and eccentric grandfather.

A quick-fire succession of scenes shows how Surya is bullied at school but fights back thanks to an ability to absorb  physical pain and the support of tough neighbor and schoolmate Supri.

Surya is eventually diagnosed by doctors as having a congenital disorder that caused his permanent insensitivity to pain. At the same time he becomes obsessed with martial arts via Bruce Lee videos and decides to become a super-hero of sorts.

His mis-guided attempt to save Supri from her abusive father results in her being taken away and his ongoing confiement to home throughout his teenage life. When he eventually emerges into the real world, he goes in search of Supri and, along with a one-legged drunk, they end up facing off against an evil gangster Jimmy, and his henchmen.

Some of this is humorous, but for the most part the characters stumble around the screen with very little to do in the way of a coherent story. The action sequences are also nowhere near the standard I was expecting.

In his debut feature, Abhimanya Dasani is pretty poor, especially in comparison to another relative newcomer, Radhika Madan, who is eye-catching and enigmatic as Supri.

Full discolsure here: my experience was marred by poor and incomplete sub-titles throughout the film. You still got the gist of the story, but it was very distracting.