’’Mr. & Mrs. Iyer’’ is a movie made by Aparna Sen, featuring Rahul Bose, Konkana Sen among others.
Having been suckered by my friend into watching a supposedly art movie which has been showered with accolades by the Indian media, it is very tough for me to find kind words to say about this sham of a movie.
The movie begins with a group of passengers traveling on a bus who are joined by the duo of Meenakshi Iyer(Sen) and her child. Raja Choudhary (Bose) is a photographer who’s asked to make sure that Meenakshi boards the train safely.
The scene then shifts to the bus ride with some teenagers, an old Muslim couple, an irate spinster/widow, a group of guys who look afflicted with severe middle-age crisis, our lens-loony and of course the omniscient Meenakshi.
What appears to be a tranquil, everyday journey is disrupted by the bus being forced to take a detour through a dry river bed. A long line of vehicles precede them in a line and after several rumours, the police arrive saying that communal riots have broken out between the Hindus and Muslims.
The arrival of some ’’Hindu extremists’’ looking out for anyone who’s a Muslim brings out the survival instinct in the passengers with one of the guys conveniently pointing the finger at the old Muslim couple. I don’t think that the ’’fanatics’’ need a wop on the head to find out after the old woman is seen as wearing raiments generally worn by Muslim women. Was the director trying to tell us how miserable and cruel humans can be in a crisis, because this shot was totally inane.
A scene where one of the teenage boys is forced to drop his pants to prove his religious identity is supposed to shock audiences, but the scene has been filmed with indifference as if its just another byline to the budding romance between Ms. Iyer and the cameraman. The same can be said of the scene where the motley gang take the old couple out of the bus.
The movie then goes on to shift its focus on Meenakshi’s conservatism and her initial abhorrence of Choudhary when she finds out that he’s a muslim. What transpired in her mind to save his skin by calling him her husband in front of the fanatics is a mystery, with the audiences left to choose between her humanity and her perennial need for a man to ’’protect’’ her.
As fate would have it they are forced to spend time in a cabin in the forest, thanks to an almost unreal police officer who duly even offers to chauffeur them around town in his government-issued vehicle. In that tranquil setting with some soul-searching conversations, a verdant ambience with a dash of deer and fresh dew drops on the sun-kissed grass . A setting which can tempt even the most celibate of humans.
They make the occasional trips to town, hoping that the curfew would end, and praying that their Kodak moments would last forever. They befriend that band of teenagers at a hotel being forced to answer their questions popping from their Mills&Boon addled brain. I almost fell off my friggin couch with laughter when one of the girls asks about the lack of Choudhary’s ’’Tamil accent’’ thinking look who’s talking about an accent.
Finally after some scenes where Meenakshi watches a guy’s throat being cut, after revelations that she’s still conservative after going to grad school and her bonding with Choudhary they board the train for their final destination. There she invariably has extreme mood swings, like a Prozac junkie and their adulterous moment is spoiled by an intrusive fellow passenger. When they finally bid adieu after Meenakshi’s reunion with her dorky husband, I was supposed to feel disturbed, but ended up being grateful and reiterating my promise to stick to only mr. Ray’s movies.
The failure of this movie is that a sensitive topic like communal harmony has been treated in such a wayward manner so as to make it take a back seat to a love story. Why can’t we take a look at the harsh reality of why all of us can’t get along and how our fundamental differences broadens that schism? Finally why do I need to see a repackaged Bollywood formula with a different backdrop.