As the first Indian film to be featured in the Festival’s Midnight Madness section, writer-director Vasan Bala‘s The Man Who Feels No Pain hits all the right punches. Pun intended.
Abhimanyu Dassani makes his onscreen debut as Surya, the title character. Surya is born with ‘congenital insesitivity to pain’. As such, he grows up needing to learn how to react to pain. With the help of his grandfather (Mahesh Manjrekar), Surya learns about pain by watching martial arts films. He also starts to train in hopes to master the moves of many of his film heroes. All this in secret of his overprotective father (Jimit Trivedi), who believes Surya should not be exposed to the dangers of the big city… let alone the world.
As he grows up, Surya is set on becoming a crime fighter, super hero. On his first trip back to Mumbai, he encounters his childhood best friend Supri (Radhika Madan). In true Bollywood style, music plays and Surya becomes instantly smitten by Supri’s moves. Like Surya, Supri has been learning some martial arts; thanks to her one-legged karate master Manni (Gulshan Devaiah). In an interesting twist, Surya and Supri’s fighting skills are put to test in order to save master Manni from his evil twin-brother Jimmy.
With references and nods to classic cult films like Gymkata, Game of Death, Drunken Master with some Bollywood flavour, Bala creates an outrageously fun story. The Man Who Feels No Pain kicks a**.
- Release Date: 9/14/2018
