All of a sudden there seems to be a glut of movies dealing with land reforms. And though Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola (MKBKM) is about a lot other than land issues, there’s still no shaking off "the hammer and sickle" in the backdrop and the phantom-like influence it has on the Indian hinterland.
Matru (Imran Khan), a bidi smoking intellectual JNU postgraduate is back to his hometown "Mandola", ostensibly as a driver to Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapoor) by day, and troubleshooter by night. The villagers are neck deep in debt and Harry alongwith the the CM (Shabana Azmi) nurtures the ambition of usurping their land to set up a factory. However Harry is a confirmed alcoholic and suffers from something of a split personality whereby he turns into a wellwisher (to the villagers) by night. Much of the movie revolves around how alcohol virtually "brings out the best in him" and how he finally kicks the habit to bring the story to a logical conclusion.
If you have a weakness for Drama/theatre, or to put it better, the dramatic/theatrical way of expressing things, MKBKM will be right up your street. The title itself plays on a lot of linguistic onomatopoeia with Mandola standing for many things from "title of Harry" through "flights of fancy" to "change of mind" ! It has loads of extravagant humour (including but not limited to, "gulabi bhains" and the lovely drunken act of dragging a well across a village crossroad), or at least elaborate attempts at it. The humour, though intelligent in parts ("tum Mao ho, tum Left waala lo") is largely understated and not the kind that’ll evoke peals of laughter.
Then there is an overdose of "Macho-Banjo" (:-P) and sometimes even worse, though my ticket had a ’U’ rating. Even Zulu dancers are thrown in but to what effect, nobody knows. The plot itself borrows heavily from the current poiltical backdrop in India and references to politicians may sometimes be very overt., eg, Shabana Azmi once while admonishing her son says "yahi fark hai tum me aur Rahul, Sachin aur Jyotiraditya me. Dekho woh kitne responsible hain"
The movie belongs to veterans (read Pankaj Kapoor & Shabana Azmi). The former virtually holds it together while the latter excels in her negative role as a politician. Imran doesnt do too badly but then again he has miles to go before reaching anywhere near his "Maamu". Anushka can be anything from yummy to yucky depending upon whether you like to leer at hotbods or have got sick of the overexposure. A couple of songs like Oye Boy Charlie and the title song have made it to charts. Again its good to see elaborate recitations and use of blank verse as a form of effective poetic expression.
Why then should a movie with so much going for it get a 2 star rating ? The answer is that it can be terribly boring and overboard (with the drama bit) in parts. Every now and then the movie tends to drag so often that all the good work is lost. How can a movie be entertaining and boring at the same time ? Well, search me. Guess its a talent only new age directors have. And even though its good to see many "fantastical" concepts being tried, probably somewhere the execution is well short of the required quota. As an example one can cite the instance where a dead drunk Harry tries to drag a (bore)well across a village crossroad towards a bullock cart. Very reminiscent of the various similar memorable acts by AB. But instead of showing the bullock cart move, the director might have been better off taking alternate shots from behind the cart and showing it further up each time. To make matters worse, Anushka’s acting and enthusiasm to overexpose doesnt help.
Would I recommend the movie as a "one-time view" ? Honestly I don’t know. I wish there was an option of "Don’t Know" in the drop down menu. Unfortunately there isn’t any. So verdict is reserved and kept in abeyance for this one :-P