Scenario - 1
Long time back there were Jameendar or Gaon ke Thakur, Patil, Lala who used to grab the land of villagers. The actual land owner under the heavy burden of never ending loan & more than credit card interest used to work as laborer in his own land. Saahukaari was at its peak and bonded labor was a common thing in rural part of India. In some places rebellion movement started and Dakus, naxalites, leftists, Maoists were born or made, some of them fought for good cause and some just for violence.
A good governance & administration was required to abolish the then land owning structure, police was required to curb the menace & violence of Dacoity and Naxalite movement, Banks were essential to provide loans and finance for farmers and good government was required to represent all these people & get all these things implemented.
Government, Administration, Police and Financial assistance were key pillars to have a happy, calm & flourishing rural India. Lot of leaders tried in this direction. Government - tick. To counter Saahukaari; we started cooperative movements, small savings & investment groups, cooperative banks & Government aid. Financial assistance – tick. Police forces made sure that dacoity & crime is under control. Police – Tick. Administration took care of government schemes, supply of seeds, fertilisers etc. Administration – Tick. All pillars working together and it’s a happy situation. Saahukari, bonded labour, Jameendari didn’t finish overnight but was not out of control.
Scenario - 2
But imagine current situation, the bad Jameendar is replaced by an Industrialist who is now eyeing your land for his industries and luxurious townships. Leaders, your own representatives, are acting for industrialist for their personal gains. Administration is not functioning for your benefit but to stop your progress, Banks are giving loans so that they can lay hands on your land; Police is not stopping crime but a partner in crime. And unfortunately, this is the situation in India at some places.
Now one can make a very intense, violent, full of bloodshed, serious, full of melodrama, heavy dialogues movie out of these 2 scenarios. In fact, there were some successful, genuine & not so genuine attempts which are known as Mother India (Mehboob Khan), Gulami (JP Dutta), Daata (Sultan Ahmed), Aaj Ka Arjun (K C Bokadia).
But the versatile Vishal Bhardwaj has different plans. He shows the scenario 2; but not in a conventional filmy manner, but blends cinema and street play. The fluid nature of a street play merges with the reach and technology of cinema. He utilities the advantages of cinema like taking cinematic liberty of showing drunk Mandola flying the plane, flashback, songs, music, crowd, screen play etc. But he gives this all a very street play like treatment, which is actually unique and good for the movie. Very Humorous and very satiric.
I never knew that Vishal Bhardwaj is such a talented dialogue writer. You hear rough & tough but witty words in typical Haryanavi. At times very straight & At times sarcastic. You can’t stop laughing when Mandola tells Matru to take bottle from left hand just because he is MAO. 10/10 to Vishal for dialogues. Many people might not understand all the dialogues due to the accent and use of Haryanavi words.
On Music front also a decent job is done by Vishal. He blends folk with modern music seamlessly. Gulzaar saab has again given meaningful and simple songs.
Last but not the least is the acting department. This movie wouldn’t have been what it is without the great Pankaj Kapur, Harry Mandola of the movie. Now we all know he is a great actor and gets into the character. But here, Mr. Kapur has to get into 2 personalities and you actually believe that they are two different people although you see the same face. We all have seen the great timing of Pankaj Kapur right from the days of Karamchand, but Hariya Mandola beats Sourav Ganguly in timing.
Shabana Azami plays the politician with such an ease that you sometimes think her Rajyasabha days must have been useful to her for this role.
Anushka doesn’t have much scope and does a decent job. Imran Khan neither disappoints nor delights as Matru. But he is surely evolving. Surprisingly good performance comes from Arya Babbar.
Matru ke Bijlee Ka Mandola reminds me of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, but with a happy ending.
Thanks Vishal for introducing us to Matru, Bijlee and Mr. Mandola (Harry as well as Hariya).