# Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota

Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota (Hindi pronunciation:), released internationally as The Man Who Feels No Pain, is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film written and directed by Vasan Bala and produced by Ronnie Screwvala under his banner RSVP Movies. The film stars Abhimanyu Dassani in his acting debut, alongside Radhika Madan, Gulshan Devaiah, Mahesh Manjrekar and Jimit Trivedi. In the film, a young man, who has a rare condition called congenital analgesia, strikes out on a quest to vanquish his foes.
The film premiered in the Midnight Madness section of the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness. The film was also screened at the 2018 MAMI Film Festival where it received standing ovation.
Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota was released on 21 March 2019 and received positive reviews from critics.

## Plot

Surya is diagnosed with a rare disorder named congenital analgesia, in which the person feels no physical pain. He is raised by the odd combination of his father and his mischievous maternal grandfather, Ajoba, after the death of his mother. She was killed by chain snatchers while returning home after having Surya. The film flashes back to show that she fell off the bike and died instantly, though Surya is seen not crying in pain as a baby. School life is difficult for Surya as a boy who can't feel pain. He gets bullied by everyone, but finds an unlikely ally in his neighbor named Supri.
At home, Surya learns to tend to his own wounds and binges on a whole host of martial arts films on VHS tapes thanks to his grandfather's unique tutelage. The only tape that mesmerises Surya is 100-man karate kumite fought by a mysterious one-legged man called Karate Mani. Surya's foray into vigilantism is to come to the aid of Supri against her abusive father, but that event leads to the family being evicted from the building they lived in, and Surya and Supri are estranged as children. They go their separate ways with each one finding purpose and mentorship in unusual circumstances.
Ajoba encourages Surya to pursue his passion secretly & Surya trains himself by watching VHS videos. Meanwhile, Supri is trained by Karate Mani, whom she meets when she accidentally bumps into his scooter. As a young man, Surya remains as dorky as he was in his childhood because his father will never let him leave the house. When his father finally agrees to let him outside, Surya finds a poster advertising his childhood idol Karate Mani. This poster leads him to the very building where he and Supri had been separated years ago, and it is Supri who is pasting the posters. Both of them don't recognise each other, but he is bedazzled when she fights off thugs to rescue a lady.
Later, Surya visits the address mentioned on the poster to meet Karate Mani. He finds him knocked out by his evil twin brother Jimmy, and his assistant calls Supri to help him. They take him to a hospital, where only Supri and Surya are left when the rest of them leave. Later, Supri leaves from the hospital on the insistence by her boyfriend Atul, Mani recovers consciousness, and escapes from the hospital, feeling that the hospital will bill him a bomb for trivial treatment. Surya chases him and fights off the hospital staff who had come to capture him, and Mani is impressed with his skills.
Mani reveals that he and Jimmy were trained by their father, a karate trainer, since they were kids. Mani showed his talent for martial arts and easily won the heart of his father, which made Jimmy jealous. One day, Mani saved Jimmy from a speeding truck, sacrificing his leg in the process. This further elevated Mani in the eyes of his father, and Jimmy is further estranged. After the 100-man kumite, his father gifted his locket to him, whereas Jimmy takes up the path of crime. Imprisoned for one of his crimes, Mani got cozy with Jimmy's girlfriend, and Jimmy caught them red-handed. This incident created a permanent rift between the two, putting Mani in a guilt trap.
Later, Jimmy started a security agency and bullied Mani with men and guns from his security agency, taking something from him each time he visited him, while Mani relented out of guilt. Supri later reveals that Atul won over her parents by taking care of their medical expenses, which sort of forced her to stay with him so that her mother would get adequate medical care. Atul is taking her family to Canada to treat her mother. Supri is falling into the same trap of family burden as her mother bore all her life with her abusive husband, so much so that she doesn't have time to think for herself and no clue about her career.
On his previous visit, Jimmy snatches the locket that was given by their father to Mani, and Surya vows to get it back for him. His grandfather tries to dissuade him as it is too dangerous but eventually gives in when he realises that he should not kill this very motivating factor. Surya meets Mani, who refuses to take him to Jimmy, but when Surya stops at nothing, he accompanies him to Jimmy's office. Meanwhile, at the airport just before boarding their flight to Canada, Supri's mother insists that she run away from Atul so that she doesn't go through the same fate of an overbearing husband.
Supri's mother hatches a plan wherein she covers up for the absence of Supri inside the plane and falls unconscious with a heavy dose of insulin once the plane lands in Canada, and once unconscious at the airport, she has to be admitted to hospital to be treated. Supri leaves after some pushing from her mother and goes straight to Jimmy's office, knowing Surya would create some ruckus there. At Jimmy's office, a fight ensues between his staff and the two. Surya easily thrashes most of them, and they are surprised to find that Surya doesn't experience pain, which makes him more lethal. In the ensuing fight, the fire is triggered, and the staff lock them in a room and escape from the building.
Supri enters in a nick of time and rescues them. They later take refuge at their old residential complex, where they had spent their childhood, which is deserted for reconstruction, and Ajoba gets them all the essentials like blankets and food. In the morning, they are all captured by Jimmy, who arranges a cruel game, where each one of them has to fight his staff members one-on-one. The first up is Mani, followed by Supri, Surya, and Ajoba. Supri and Mani knock down a quite a few men before going down. All of them attack Surya barring one, and Surya knocks them all out. Jimmy then sends his last remaining fighter: his best one. Just to quickly end the contest, he changes the rules: a 10-point match where a point is scored with every hit. Surya is injured when his leg is broken by his opponent.
Mani throws his crutch for help. Surya decides to break the rule and hits his opponent close to the eye with the crutch, temporarily blinding him and finishes off the match. Jimmy is enraged where he shoots and stabs him. Supri intervenes, snatches the gun and shoots Jimmy dead. Later, Surya wakes up at his home, turned hospital. Supri and Ajoba are next to him. Mani is revealed to be in prison, who owns up to Jimmy's death. Surya goes on to fulfill his father's aspiration to become a chartered accountant. Supri's mother gets treated in Canada, where Supri is now liberated from the burden of her mother's treatment and finally starts thinking of her own self and her career. However, Surya and Supri are shown heading towards their new adventure.

## Cast

* Abhimanyu Dassani as Suryaanshu "Surya" Sampat
** Sartaaj Kakkar as young Surya
* Radhika Madan as Supriya "Supri" Bhatnagar
** Riva Arora as young Supri
* Gulshan Devaiah in a dual role as twin brothers; Mani and Jimmy
* Mahesh Manjrekar as Aajoba (grandpa), Surya's grandfather
* Jimit Trivedi as Jatin Sampat, Surya's father
* Shweta Basu Prasad as Surya's mother
* Elena Kazan as Nandini/Bridget Von Hammersmark

## Production

Director Vasan Bala said that in early 2016, a friend of his told him about a dentist whose patient did not ask for anaesthesia. This triggered the idea of the film to him. He then saw several documentaries and blended it with his childhood stories about martial arts. He said: "The story is about all the films that I grew up on, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan [..] all the karate classes I had to take." Bala said that the film is a tribute to "all the films that we have seen." For the preparation of the role, Dassani trained for martial arts for three months before the audition. He also practised swimming, gymnastics, yoga, freehand training, stick fighting and studied human anatomy, injuries, and first aid. Action director and martial arts consultant Prateek Parmar made his acting debut with the film, he also served as the martial arts consultant. Dassani went through one-and-a-half month of auditions with other people. Devaiah learned karate while Madan and Dassani learned mixed martial arts. All of them went through almost eight months of training.
Madan mentioned that she was auditioning for Laila Majnu (2018) when she got to know about Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota and chose the latter film because of its "uniqueness". She performed all the stunts herself and watched several classic action films for days to familiarise herself with the genre. She was also injured and bruised during the physical training; she also followed a strict diet and a daily routine of exercises.

## Marketing and release

The official theatrical poster of the film was unveiled on 11 February 2019. The film was released in theatres on 21 March 2019 by RSVP Movies in India, New Zealand, and Australia, and was also released later in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.
The film only played on 375 screens in India due to a dispute with multiplex cinema companies. Producer Ronnie Screwvala claimed that four multiplex chains were imposing unnecessary fees to Hindi films, and he filed a grievance with the Competition Commission of India; in retaliation, INOX Leisure Limited would not play Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota on any of its screens. These "Virtual Print Fees" originated in 2010 to help cinemas transition from film prints to digital, but have continued longer than they were supposed to.

### Home media

The film became available as VOD on China's iQIYI on 4 April 2019, and on Netflix on 22 May 2019.

## Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Karan Kulkarni and Dipanjan Guha while the lyrics are penned by Garima Obrah, Karan Kulkarni, Shantanu Ghatak and Hussain Haidry.

## Reception
### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has scored 94% based on 18 reviews with an average rating of 6.9/10. Rafael Motamayor of Bloody Disgusting called the film "India's highly entertaining answer to Deadpool". J. Hurtado of Screen Anarchy wrote "In this boisterous action comedy, Bala's passions and obsessions are writ large across the screen with a genuine affection that is hard to deny." He later included it in his list of 14 Favorite Indian Films of 2018.
Joe Leydon of Variety wrote "Vasan Bala's action-adventure fantasy pivots on the efforts of a young man eager to transcend his limitations to become a martial-arts hero." Nandini Ramnath of Scroll wrote "Vasan Bala's action comedy, which he has also written, plays out at the intersection of cinephilia, nostalgia and mischief." Shikhar Verma of High On Films writes, "Vasan Bala's film has endearing characters who all call for a big celebratory leap forward for conventional Hindi films; but the entire arc that comes along with the self-awareness lacks real oomph or glow."
Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter called it a "fun ride, unashamedly zany and eager to please, even if the humor is very broad and the sprawling plot too baggy for an action-driven piece." Rahul Desai of Film Companion called it "a Whimsically joyful ode to a life of movies."
Raja Sen of Hindustan Times gave 4/5 stars and described the film as the most entertaining action movie in decades. Pradeep Menon of Firstpost gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota remains watchable throughout, despite shaky foundation, precisely because it gives us an experience we rarely see in Indian cinema." Devesh Sharma of Filmfare gave 3/5 stars and wrote "All-all-all, the film's gags don't travel well outside the context. It's one of those -- ‘you’ve to be there’—kind of films. But within those two hours, you'll surely laugh your head off."

### Awards and nominations

| Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| 2018 Toronto International Film Festival | People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness | Vasan Bala | Won |
| 26th Screen Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Gulshan Devaiah | Won |
| 65th Filmfare Awards | Best Male Debut | Abhimanyu Dassani | Won |
| 65th Filmfare Awards | Best Actress (Critics) | Radhika Madan | Nominated |
| 65th Filmfare Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Gulshan Devaiah | Nominated |
| 65th Filmfare Awards | Best Film (Critics) | Vasan Bala | Nominated |
| 65th Filmfare Awards | Best Story | Vasan Bala | Nominated |
| 65th Filmfare Awards | Best Background Score | Karan Kulkarni | Nominated |
| 65th Filmfare Awards | Best Cinematography | Jay Patel | Nominated |
| 65th Filmfare Awards | Best Action | Eric Jacobus Anand Shetty | Nominated |
| 65th Filmfare Awards | Best Special Effects | Lavan Prakashan Kushan Prakashan | Nominated |