Movie Review: Men Too

What Is It About?

Three Friends Aditya (Naresh Agastya), Sanju (Kaushik Ghantasala), and Munna (Mourya Siddavaram) meet at an exclusive Men’s bar for a drink every day after work. They see all sorts of troubled men by women in the bar and one day, they see Rahul (Harsha Chemudu) who gets fired due to a sexual harassment case at his workplace. What’s his story and how it changed the lives of three friends is all about MenToo.

Performances

The story of MenToo is so weak that it does not really elevate any performance much. Mourya Siddavaram who acted as Munna did well among others. Naresh Agastya is an introvert but is shown as dull and a lost guy. Sudarshan is as usual. Harsha Chemudu did a completely different role from his regular genre and he is fine. Brahmaji is routine.

Technicalities

MenToo is made not to look down on Me Too or women, but to make a point that men also need to be respected. The idea is good but is lost in execution due to powerless sub-stories and disoriented narratives. The screenplay is just alright. Men Too gives a feel of watching a short film most of the time due to the sluggish screenplay and weak emotions.

Thumbs Up

Mourya Siddavaram
Run Time

Thumbs Down

Weak Story
Unsteady Narration
Lack of character depth

Analysis

MenToo tries to narrate the stories of a few men who suffered due to pseudo-feminists in their respective lives but barely offers anything new.

The storyline is wafer-thin and is totally based on one single incident of me too. Though there is a story for each character in the movie, they hardly have substance.

The first half of the movie has the character establishments and slowly starts revealing each story. MenToo appears just like a collection of stories recreated from the Me Too movement and they lack emotion or depth. Except for a few dialogues here and there, this Men Too misses the point by miles.

The first half is sluggish with repetitive scenes in the bar. The story of NRI Sanju is bland and lacks emotion. Same with mechanic Munna, who doesn’t really have a story at all. The background of Brahmaji is even more boring and routine. The main thread of the movie revolves around Rahul played by Harsha Chemudu, and focuses on false harassment cases against men in the workplace.

The second half appears to be interesting as it starts but quickly gets back to a normal narrative as earlier. The director touches on multiple topics like live-in exploitation, workplace harassment, the normalization of gays, and men suppressing men in the name of women’s empowerment and the list goes on. Except for Aditya’s episode pointing out a fellow man’s lust in the name of empowering women, nothing else really is captivating.

MenToo was made in a concept to emphasize that men are also victims in most of the cases heard today. But it could not project the idea due to a half-baked story and artificial sequences all over. Overall, this MenToo goes aimless and disengaging with a weak story and poor narrative.

Bottomline: Lost In Execution

Rating: 2.25/5