Cinemagoers respond meekly to dubbed 'MR-9: Do or Die'

'MR-9: Do or Die', starring ABM Sumon as the famous fictional spy Masud Rana, was globally released on 25 August. Directed by Bangladeshi-American director Asif Akbar. Shahidul Alam Sachchu, Jessia Islam, Anisur Rahman Milon, Sakshi Pradhan, Michael Jai White, Niko Foster, Matt Passmore, Kelly Greyson, Frank Grillo and many other international stars have acted in the movie.

Since its release, the movie has been talked about extensively on social media. Unfortunately, the movie was not very successful through the first week of its release as very few audiences gathered to watch it.

"I always imagined the character of Masud Rana in a certain way since my school days but I wasn't really happy with the visualisation I saw on the screen. In short, it was unsatisfactory," said Mazhar Rubel, a Gazipur-based businessman, stepping out of the Jamuna Future Park Blockbuster Cinema. 

"Only ABM Sumon's on screen presence felt good. I didn't see a lot of locations in the movie. Also, Bangladeshi locations shown in the movie looked like they didn't belong there, compared to the foreign locations, which seemed nice," said Ariful Islam Shihir from Uttara.

"After watching the entire movie, I was convinced with only Sumon's acting. He worked very hard to portray the Masud Rana character and that was evident from his acting. Masud Rana is a good-looking and fit man, which goes perfectly with how Sumon looks. He built his body for the role and changed his look perfectly to fit the character," said Jony Miah.

Another member of the audience had a different perspective. Aminul Islam said, "The audiences like to see a Deshi detective story portrayed in the Deshi style."

The movie was released with English dubbing in the first week. In the meantime, the Bangla version of the movie has received censor board clearance. The Bangla dubbed version will be shown at Bangladeshi theatres from 1 September. Whether the Bangla dubbed version will bring more audience is yet to be seen.