"Matru ki Bijli ka Mandola" is a rustic social/political satire/comedy set in the rural haryana with all the sights, sounds and flavours intact including a generous overdose of cuss words. A first time attempt at something like this by the brilliant filmmaker Vishal bhardwaj and he surely manages to make a fist of this. The movie has serious political undertones and raises some important questions about the way our society functions, without making it a social commentary of sorts.
The humour is real with some of the sequences just brilliantly shot , and almost all of them features the stalwart Pankaj kapoor , aka, Mandola. He carries the film throughout with a commanding performance as the drunkard and lovable hariya on one hand and as his alter ego Harry, the business man who means business, on the other hand backed by some fine acting by Shabana Azmi, the stereotypical politician , Imran khan, as Matru, the righteous revolutionary and Anushka Sharma with some uninhibited acting as Bijli, carrying on from her JTHJ days. The scene involving Azmi and her son about the way "Pragati" should take place is great as is the last wedding sequence. The movie makes no qualms about it not being inspired from the communist school of thought with enough references and dialogues. Its Vishal’s most political film to date !
The narrative is slow generally and has several scenes of long camera duration with the actors involved in their portent conversation, hence demanding a lot from the actors involved, typical of Vishal’ movies. A good deal of patience is recommended but the movie manages to grab our attention most of the times. The local dialect at times becomes difficult to decipher in the low decibel scenes. The music, as always in Bhardwaj’s movies is rustic and catchy with the title song and the "O Boye" number being real gud. A patient audience will enjoy this cinema, its different and deserves a watch !