Welcome to the world of hackers and Trojans – with enough idiosyncrasy and meticulousness, writer/director Saurabh Varma narrates a story which is seldom witnessed on the silver screen. With its titular resemblance to the sleeper hit of 2012,Vicky Donor , Mickey Virus is a complete departure in its theme and subject which delves into the murky world of cyber-crime and hacking keeping the humor quotient intact.
Set in New Delhi, the plot is centered around a lazy mastermind , a genius hacker Mickey Arora (Manish Paul ) who is hired by the Delhi Police led by ACP Sidhant (Manish Chaudhary) and his assistant Bhalla(Varun Badola) to crack the racket of the cyber gangsters who have created ruckus in the city through serial murders. Mickey is a slacker , hangs out with his gang – Chutney, Floppy and Panjo who are whiz-kids in their own admissions and is smitten by the sexy lady, Kamayani(Elli Avram). After a lot of resistance due to his work-phobic attitude, he succumbs to the demands of the ACP who is hell-bent on this 'Hacking ki duniya ka Sehwag' but little does Mickey know that he is sucked into the whirlpool of dangerous nexus with life-threatening ramifications. What happens next !
Varma picks the nuances of Saddi Dilli with flourish – the grey marketplace of Nehru place where people even sell 'W' alphabet of the keyboard as 'M' (After all , its oolta M !)are captured with great details. He has done his research on the subject well and this becomes more apparent from the plethora of information bombarded on the average viewer related to internet and software lingoes(server crash, firewall, buffering..).After a few funny sequences in the beginning, he throws us altogether into a different orbit of intrigue and mystery and keeps us riveted till the climactic revelation. There are particularly no glaring flaws but I wish Varma could have been more innovative while dealing with the serious portions and the romantic angle involving Manish and Elli. He appears myopic while handling the cat-and-mouse game where every tick of the clock matters.
Manish Paul is a delight to watch ! As a débutant (with a passable cameo in Farah Khan's disastrous TMK as Master India), he exudes charm and confidence with his impeccable comic timing.His vocal rendering(Pyar China ka maal hai ) is equally quirky !Elli Avram looks jaw-dropping gorgeous and is sincere in her part. Mickey's hack-gang comprising of Raghav Kakkar, Puja Gupta and others give him a credible support.Manish Chaudhry is very convincing as the stern cop, but the real combat machine here is Varun Badola who triumphs with his ingenious straight- faced humor and mouths crackling dialogues with typical Haryanwi accent.
If suspense thrillers are your cup of cake, then go for it – You will have a good time ! And that's not all, there is a scope for its sequel too !
My Rating : 3/5
