Even Radhika Apte can’t save the haphazardly executed Mrs Undercover

Starring: Radhika Apte, Rajesh Sharma, Sumeet Vyas, Laboni Sarkar, Roshni Bhattacharya 

You’d think a spy comedy starring critics’ favourite Radhika Apte and web series veteran Sumeet Vyas would have a compelling story and jokes that land but Mrs Undercover is a forgettable one-time watch at best. Released on Zee5, it initially held promise with an interesting premise. But a shoddy execution further made trivial by convenient writing with little conviction, the movie seems to be riding solely on the talented cast. 

Mrs Undercover follows Special Forces Agent Durga Das (Apte), who is—as the name suggests—undercover as a housewife in Kolkata. She manages a hectic home with a father-in-law, a mother-in-law prone to forgetfulness but it’s never clear if she has a health condition, a young son, and a typically ungrateful husband who considers Durga ‘useless’. 

The focus is on a serial killer labelled Common Man who is on the loose. Played by Vyas, Common Man violently assaults and kills women who aspire to do more or who have helped other women. These crimes are violent—he records them on video and ‘punishes’ them with the ultimate weapon: death. Like almost everything else in this film, it’s never very evident as to what makes him kill so many women with so much efficiency that police forces across India can’t get a hold of him.  

Under pressure, the chief of Special Forces Rangeela (Rajesh Sharma) has to find the last surviving agent of his demolished team, almost all of whom have been killed by the Common Man. And his search leads him to our protagonist, benched for 12 years due to a data entry error. 

Most of the plot of the movie revolves around Durga’s mission of hunting and trapping the Common Man in her city Along the way, her husband Jeet (Rudrashish Majumdar) makes errors of judgement and reduces her to ‘just a housewife’ even as his mother (Laboni Sarkar) subtly corrects him and tacitly supports Durga. Typical of most good versus evil stories, Durga finds her feet in the investigation and emerges victorious in the end, all tied up with a nice speech and some crackling action. 

One can’t help but feel the shadow of Sujoy Ghosh’s brilliant Vidya Balan-starrer Kahaani (2012) hovering over this film. But a Bengali housewife jet setting across Kolkata in a fast-paced setting is where the resemblance ends. With run-of-the-mill cinematography, action choreography and predictable dialogue, its cast has limited scope to show their acting prowess. Kolkata’s historic and unique landscape, busy as it is, can create space for creative engagement with characters and stories but not leveraging it effectively was a definite missed opportunity here. 

Mrs Undercover has been written with minimal emphasis on coherent storytelling. Falling back on coincidences, chance spottings, and convenient narrative tools like a course for housewives at the same college where a ‘big’ move is being planned by the Common Man, it does everything to reduce effort and doesn’t keep the viewer guessing.      

During interviews, director Anushree Mehta spoke about completing filming within 30 days. This is commendable but the acute lack of finesse in all aspects of the project makes one wish the team had worked perhaps just a little longer. While Apte and Sharma make their zany encounters fun to watch, and the moments featuring the mother-in-law bring out a goofy, humorous side to Sarkar’s performance, everything else feels skin deep.      

Vyas does his best to remain subtle but there is absolutely no menace to his character. In terms of a kill rate, the body count he rakes up would be massive. Yet one never feels any fear even when he commits these heinous acts. Similarly, Durga coming on her own is replete with random scenes and intercuts that barely leave room for her emotions to emerge, making it difficult for the audience to connect with her story and struggles. There are a couple of enjoyable scenes, like the one where she confronts her husband at gunpoint over his tendency to blame her for everything. “A man could die but his ego won’t,” she says. 

At this point, the intention of this film surfaces. A woman is worth every bit of the respect that a man gets. But the reductionist, rapid approach to its narrative minimises its point. Even when a fitting finale delivers justice to the Common Man’s crimes, it has little impact despite Apte pouring her heart into the scene. 

If you are a die-hard fan of Apte, you can definitely queue it up for a one-time watch. For the rest, there’s plenty more to choose from. 

Rating: 3/5