Sidharth Malhotra’s ‘Mission Majnu’ trailer draws backlash over its clichéd representation of Pakistanis

Scores of people took to Twitter to point out aesthetic and factual errors in the film, and others shared memes making fun of Bollywood’s way of depicting the stories.

Hyderabad: Ahead of its release on OTT platforms, the trailer of Sidharth Malhotra and Rashmika Mandanna’s spy-thriller ‘Mission Majnu’ has been dropped earlier this week. The film set against the backdrop of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, revolves around a RAW agent and is claimed to be based on actual events.

As soon as the trailer was released on Tuesday, netizens were furious upon the stereotypical representation of Pakistanis. Scores of people took to Twitter to point out aesthetic and factual errors in the film. Others shared memes making fun of Bollywood’s way of depicting the stories.

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Poking fun at Malhotra’s stereotypical “Pakistani” attire and mannerism, a Twitter user wrote, “It would be so easy to catch an Indian spy here in Pakistan, they would be the only one roaming around with surma, tasbi, topi, kurta shalwar saying adaab janaab to everyone (sic).”

“Stop making these Nonsense Movies about Pakistan. That Fake Aadab, Topi , Surmay wali aankhen and idiotic Story lines.. Bas kardo Bas (sic),” another wrote. “Just can’t understand obsession of Indian movie makers about Adaab… why would a Pakistani say adaab to anyone i mean why…(sic),” wrote a third user.

Seriously, Sidharth. You lot think that Pakistan is stuck in the Umrao Jaan era. Ab tau bus kar day yaar. It's fine you want to paint us terrorists but can you stop with this surma, Adaab, taweez and Shemagh around the neck? Nobody does all that simultaneously. Literally nobody. pic.twitter.com/Zs5IallkuE

— Faisal Naseer (@fnakhi) January 11, 2023

Typical Adaab, Janab, wearing namaz cap and surma. C'mon no one do this here.Bollywood needs to do a better job.

— KiranWho (@itx_kiranwho) January 10, 2023

Pakistanis in real life vs Pakistanis shown in Bollywood movies https://t.co/hEml8ZDxXi pic.twitter.com/rIgdkgskn7

— سارہ (@SendCheesecake) January 10, 2023

‘Mission Majnu’ is directed by Shantanu Bagchi and produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Amar Butala and Garima Mehta. Sidharth Malhotra was last seen in ‘Thank God’ that did not do so well at the box office.