I am really disappointed with you, my dear MSians. Last fortnight when Bollywood released its two biggies, Kaante and Saathiya, all of us sweated profusely with excitement and churned (I apologize for the expression, but it stays here nonetheless) out one review after another. Nothing actually wrong with that, except that it has revealed a few loopholes in our value system. For instance, after watching these two ‘blockbusters’, quite a lot of my MS peers wailed and bemoaned the fact that Bollywood and quality cinema are as different from each other as chalk and cheese. That sets the platform of my grouse against you. If that is the case (that you really cherish quality cinema), then how come not a single MSian has seen Mr & Mrs Iyer? The fact that no one seems to have written a review on this small-budget, almost-lyrical movie forms the basis of my judgment.
Mr & Mrs Iyer was released quietly last week, sans all the hype that almost always accompanies the birth of all its moneyed Bollywood cousins. The promos set the feel of the movie, implying a real, yet lyrically magical touch by director Aparna Sen (remember the wonderful 36 Chowrangee Lane or the path breaking Paroma?) For the first time, there was no difference between the glimpse and the full view. The movie stands tall to meet the expectations made by all its Previews on television.
Mrs Iyer (Konkana Sen in a wonderfully sketched role) and Jehangir (Raja) Choudhary (Rahul Bose, dependable as ever) are traveling in a bus when rioters go berserk. As it happens every time, a feud between a Hindu and Muslim family assumes grotesque proportions. The bus is attacked by Hindu fanatics who kill a Muslim couple. This is easily the most unnerving scene of the entire movie. A man is de-robed by the rioters to confirm his religious identity; a Jew plays Judas to the Muslim couple by revealing their identity (“If I had not done so, they would have killed me – I have no foreskin, ” he wails); and the Muslim couple goes to its death as if it were completing a daily routine.
Once Mrs. Iyer discovers that Raja (her Good Samaritan who helps her with her kid in the journey) is actually Jehangir, a Muslim, she decides to save him and convinces everyone around (including the rioters) that he is Mr. Iyer, her husband. The two are then forced to stay in a Forest Guest House. What follows is a tug-of-emotions between the two and they start falling in love. However, the inevitable has to happen and Mrs. Iyer is back in the arms of her husband, the real Mr. Iyer.
Aparna Sen has mentioned that Mr & Mrs Iyer is her most important film. Politically, it is her most forthright. She makes a whole lot of statements without being either didactic or pedantic. A tight screenplay, round characterizations and good performances are the hallmark of this film. However, Bhishm Sahni and Surekha Sikri, as the old Muslim couple come up with enactments that stay with you long after you have left the cinema hall. Zakir Hussain’s music is another plus. After hearing his score did I realize the rubbish that is being doled out to us in the name of music. The only problem with this film is perhaps, it’s love angle. That was unwarranted. It was towards the end that I felt that Sen was resorting to clichés. For example, the scene where Raja and Mrs Iyer are about to kiss and a passenger just passes through them is a waste and does nothing to explore the growing relationship between the two. But that is pardonable. After all, nothing is without a blemish. As they say, ‘Chaand mein bhi daag hota hai.’
Thank God that Mr & Mrs Iyer is a chaand with a daag and not the way round as it happens with most of our movies. Go for it guys. Such movies deserve an audience.