Man Who Feels No Pain, The (2018) Review

“The Man Who Feels No Pain” Theatrical Poster

AKA: Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota
Director: Vasan Bala
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Cast: Abhimanyu Dassani, Radhika Madan, Gulshan Devaiah, Mahesh Manjrekar, Jimit Trivedi
Running Time: 138 min.

By Paul Bramhall

It feels only right to start this review by stating I’ve become my own worst enemy. I have a pet peeve about certain reviews, and it’s the kind that start off with “I’m not usually into these type of movies, but thought I’d give this one a go…” It’s a line I come across more frequently than I’d like to, and never fails to put me in touch with some primitive urge to hunt down the reviewer in question, and ask them what the value is in writing a review for a genre they know they’re not going to enjoy!? With that said, I confess the world of Bollywood has never been one I’ve been able to fully embrace. I tried once before with Rocky Handsome, and it didn’t end well, and yet here I am, having just come out the other side of The Man Who Feels No Pain’s epic 135 minute runtime. 

The reason that drove me towards entering the world of Bollywood once more is likely the same as many fans of martial arts cinema. In 2017 The Stunt People co-founder Eric Jacobus (Death Grip) had started sharing photos on social media, showing him and fellow Stunt People alumni Dennis Ruel (Unlucky Stars) working in India on a new action movie. The Stunt People, Jacobus and Ruel in particular (just check out their fights in Contour and the Rope A Dope shorts), have been behind some of the most innovative action shorts of the past 20 years, so to see them lending their combined talents to any production, regardless of where it’s from, was an exciting one.

Of course The Man Who Feels No Pain isn’t the first time for a Bollywood movie to bring in foreign talent to assist with their action. Apart from Patrick Kazu Tang appearing in the aforementioned Rocky Handsome, in 2006 Ching Siu-Tung was brought on-board for Krrish, in 2011 Johnny Tri Nguyen was cast as the villain in 7am Arivu, and Yuen Woo-Ping was brought in for S. Shankar’s Enthiran and I, from 2010 and 2015 respectively. Oh, and lest we forget Bruce Le’s infamous appearance in 1981’s Katilon Ke Kaatil. There’s a key difference between these productions though and The Man Who Feels No Pain, and that’s that director Vasan Bala specifically reached out to Jacobus to create “Rope A Dope action in a Bollywood film.” If that meant all of the usual Bollywood actions clichés being cast to one side – I’m thinking the exaggerated super human capabilities, and the slower than slow motion slow-mo – then I was in. 

The Man Who Feels No Pain is Bala’s sophomore full length feature, after 2012’s crowd funded Peddlers, and he’s given the title role to newcomer Abhimanyu Dasani, here making his screen debut. As the title suggests, Dasani was born with an insensitivity to pain (which means we definitely need a Darkman cameo if there’s a sequel). After his mother dies at birth due to a run in with a pair of bag snatchers, various events culminate in Dasani’s conservative father deciding to keep him at home for the next 12 years, where he begins to consume a never ending supply of action movies via VHS. Supported by his world weary grandfather (look out for the Sam Seed poses), he eventually comes across a tape showing a one-legged karate master reigning victorious in a 100-man kumite, and makes it his mission to track this mysterious ‘Karate Man’ down and ask him to be his teacher.

It’s here that whatever plot that Bala had in mind begins to implode on itself, but before being too harsh on The Man Who Feels No Pain, it’s worth mentioning that for local audiences this may not necessarily be paramount to their enjoyment. Bala packs both the script and the screen with references to action movies of old, and for every reference there is to the likes of Armour of God, Game of Death, Die Hard, or Terminator, there’s at least 5 more referencing the macho Bollywood flicks of the 80’s and 90’s (the Indian title itself is an iconic line from 1985’s Mard). For a mostly ignorant viewer such as myself, almost all of these went over my head, however reading about the production in retrospect, it’s clear that there are plenty of homages thrown in for the discerning Bollywood cinephile to get a kick out of.

For someone that’s left to extract their enjoyment purely from the plot, characters, and action though, there are several issues. Dasani does indeed find the one-legged Karate Man, played by Gulshan Devaiah, and in one of those ‘only in the movies’ moments, his long lost childhood flame is also part of his idols ensemble. Played by TV actress Radhika Madan, apart from her Hammer Girl-esque wardrobe, she’s become someone that doesn’t know what to do with their life, and is engaged to a rich businessman who may be able to pay the bills, but doesn’t necessarily make her happy. As the Karate Man, Devaiah has also fallen on hard times, and this is where things get strange. The main villain of the piece turns out to be Devaiah’s twin brother, also played by Devaiah, whose small-time gangster has become a “stereotypical psycho” after Karate Man slept with his girlfriend.

It was at this point I was expecting some flawed character study of Karate Man, perhaps how he could never forgive himself for sleeping with his twin brother’s girlfriend and making him become a psychotic bad guy. But the fact that he indulged in this sexual faux passé, and just how wrong it was, is bizarrely never touched upon, and does zero to Dasani’s enthusiasm to emulate his hero. From this strange set of circumstances develops the main plot, which has Devaiah’s gangster relieve Karate Man of a pendant which he holds dear, and Dasani convinces Madan and Devaiah (who’s a highlight pulling double duty) that they should set out to get it back. It’s a wafer thin story, and almost feels like it’s no longer about Dasani at all, who spends his time mumbling around as the naïve and slightly goofy young adult who’s spent 12 years under house arrest. 

The problem is that the pendant isn’t important to Dasani, apart from a poor attempt to connect it to his mission to avenge his mother, so from a plot perspective the audience doesn’t care if they get it back or not. Another problem is that Madan’s character is far more interesting than Dasani. Her woes about not having a direction in life and the pressures of marrying for social status feel unnecessary, and no doubt contribute to the bloated runtime, but at the same time they’re more interesting than Dasani’s childlike perspective on always trying to do the right thing. The viewpoint of seeing life through the lens of all the action movies he’s seen is a novel one, but at no point does it feel like he has a character arc, and when the credits roll he still feels like the overly idealistic cardboard cut-out that we meet at the start. 

Which leaves us with the action. Bala may have requested for Rope A Dope style action, but it’s clear that he’s been a fan of The Stunt People for a while. The plot device from Death Grip, Jacobus’ sophomore feature length movie, which has the main character imagine how a fight is going to go down, before snapping out of it and having to face reality, is also applied here in liberal doses. Dasani is our narrator, and he’s an unreliable one, providing the audience with a view into how he perceives things. A re-telling of his birth has him comparing his mother to The Terminator, before he winds back and confesses his take was “too dramatic”. In another scene he witnesses Madan being harassed by a group of men, and proceeds to unleash on them, before it’s revealed he’s still stood there and is only imagining what he wants to do.

The fights themselves are entirely grounded, which is a welcome sight, however they haven’t escaped from the super slow-motion effect that Bollywood productions are obsessed with, with every flying kick subjected to the technique. The influence of Jacobus and Ruel is evident, with Madan’s Hapkido styled throws recalling similar moves we’re used to seeing Ruel pull off, and the visual gags within the fight scenes are of a distinctly different flavour than the humor found in the scenes that surround them. However if you’re clocking in to The Man Who Feels No Pain for the action alone, it’s worth pointing out that in such a long runtime, comparatively there’s not that much of it. Bala may have created a worthy homage to the action movies of yesteryear, but whether it stands up as a worthy action movie itself is another question. Time will tell if it’s remembered as fondly 30 years from now, as the movies it so joyously references.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10