Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (2013)...

"Jab Dill Saand ho, to har ladki Bhains nazar aati hain", these are the words of a drunk Mandola 30 mins in to "Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola" to a pink wearing Navnit Nishant. By now you have already fallen head over heels in love with Haria Mandola's (Pankaj Kapur) character and his twin personality. One when he is Sober and a fierce Business Man who dreams of converting the huge and fertile land of his village into Factories, Housing Complexes and Malls and the other when Mandola is drunk, turning into to big hearted village caring philanthropist, encouraging the villager to do mutiny against himself.

This is the latest offering of the immensely talented Vishal Bhardawaj and this one totally belongs to Mandola (Pankaj Kapur). Mandola who is father of Bijlee Mandola (Anushka Sharma) and employer of Matru (Imran Khan), whose father had taken 1.5 lacs loan to send Matru to study law and now job of Matru is to ensure that Mandola does not get drunk and self distruct. The movie opens with a Limo being rammed into a desi theka for refuisng Mandola a crate of his favourite Gulabo Brand whiskey on a dry day and ends up revolving around Gulabo (the whiskey bottle and a pink buffalo). The whole metaphor of the pink buffalo has been used beautifully by Vishal Bhardwaj to create some mind blowing hilarious scenes throughout the movie.

The story is focused around the sale of the fertile land of the farmers of Mandola Village (named after the richest person of the Village) to be converted into Factories and Malls, and a state Politician is an equal partner in to this scam. The Politician (Shabana Azmi) has the desire to marry her Son Badal (Arya Babbar) with Bijlee to gather enough clout using Mandola's money so that she can get entry into National Politics from the current State politics. There is the character of Mao (secret identity of Matru) who is trying to get the villagers to fight for their rights and stand up against the current political regime and money power of Mandola. Its the concept about land and farmers and how farmers are pushed to a corner to sell off their lands to government, who in turn sell the same to rich builders for hefty profit sharing. A topic very much in focus a few years back with the Tata Nano plant incident in Bengal or the agitation by villagers who sold their land for the Delhi Agra Yamuna Express way. Vishal Bhardawaj has been able to give a very comic turn this whole serious situation, Simple story told with a lot of heart and thought. 

There are enough sequences in the movie which are a trademark of Vishal Bhardawaj and leave you big time laughing and smiling. He has also touched a cord with the viewers to show the plight of the poor farmers and how they get arm twisted easily by the rich and those in Power. There is a sequence where Mandola is explaining his dream to Shabana Azmi and the whole fertile land starts to get converted into Factories and Malls and housing complexes, pollution and how the money paid to workers in factory is taken back via sale in the malls. The whole sequence leaves you spell bound on what is so evidently happening all around us, but we have never stopped for a minute and look at it the way Vishal Bhardawaj has shown. Its is a scary picture that comes out of that scene, and makes you think what world are we  leaving for our future generations. 

Smart dialogues are consistent throughout the movie. An aircraft scene where Matru and a completely drunk Mandola end up flying a glider and then jumping off it, as Mandola has learnt how to take off but has no idea how to land it. Another one in which Shabana Azmi is raising a toast to her victory over the farmers (who sign off their lands to the Govt) by saying "Ab dilli door nahin, Kursiya". With Kursiya being a replacement of Cheers (Chairs) but a metphor for the seat of Power that she is targetting in Delhi. Another one in which Mandola is holding two bottles of Whiskey and has to give one to Matru, he asks him to take the one from left hand as he is a Mao (a leftist). The movie also has Gulabo, a pink colored buffalo whom Mandola keeps seeing as part of Withdrawl symptoms while he is trying to leave whiskey. There is an African tribe that badal has brought as a gift to Bijlee, though they could have been done without. 

On performances, this one is for Pankaj Kapur, his performance of a drunkard has no parallel in cinema as yet. Simply mind-blowing. Till the time he is on screen, the movie remains interesting. Imran Khan and Anushka get noticed only in scenes when they are with Mandola, otherwise there performance is ordinary., though Imran's looks for the part are apt and very well suited. Shabana Azmi as a villainous Politician is brilliant. Music is ordinary and the other cast and crew are there for support and that is what they have done. Special mention is due for Gulabo, the Pink Buffalo, the way the buffalo smiles at Mandola, teasing him and inviting him to come back to his loving Gulabo, whom is craves so badly is simply hilarious and comical though very simplistic. 

There is'nt enough in the story, and the movie does kind of slack for around 20-25 mins in the beginning of the Second half, but again gains momentum with Pankaj Kapur coming back and lifting the whole script with his performance. The climax seems a bit hush hush, and could have been handled a bit better with more acrobats from Mandola. Having said that, the movie has more than enough moments to get you laughing and thinking of the simplicity and the brilliance of this director, Vishal Bhardawaj.

Overall, Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola is a must watch. Whether you are a fan of Vishal Bhardawaj or not, this one has to be watched for what will surely be the best Drunkard depiction ever performed by any one in the history of cinema! Hats off to Mandola, kamaal kar diya Penchoo Penchoo!!

Review of Ishqiya (2010)...

What Ishqiya brought back for me is the "Mitti ki Khusboo". The Rustic rural setup, the calm and quietness of a small town and the simple looking complex problems of its people. Living in Bangalore now for the last 10 years, some how I have gotten cut off from the farm lands and rural part of India. The days I used to spend in my Grandma's house, with people living a really carefree life. I had started to believe that in this mad progress that India has made in the last 2 decades, that kind of India has been lost somewhere. Ishqiya has brought back those days and the belief that that India still is very much there, may be not in the Bangalore and Delhi's of the world, but certainly in the Gorukhpur's and Lucknow's of India.

Ishqiya is a story about 3 key characters Vidya Balan(krishna), Naseeruddin Shah (Khalujaan) and Arshad Warsi (Babban), and how there lives get entangled in Love, Lust and Deceit. There is the plutonic style love of Naseer for Vidya, and also the Lusty love of Arshad for her. Both the love stories progress together, and one cannot understand why Vidya is playing with the emotions of both of them, clearly she has an agenda of her own. All this going on with a Maoist movement, Murders and kidnappings happening in the background, A business man having an affair outside of his marriage, a young boy having his own dreams, a small time Bhai trying to recover his money or blow off the brains of our characters and all these characters being involved with each other in some way or the other. I will not reveal the plot of the movie further, as there enough twists and turns in the story, incase I was to reveal them, it would make your movie experience predictable. All I can say, the story is like a Onion, with each peel coming of, the story becomes more and more interesting. Just that in this case peeling of Onion does not bring tears to your eyes, but rather a smile to your face.

The screenplay is co-written by Vishal Bhardwaj along with Abhishek and Sabrina Dhawan, and is the main strength of the movie, like all the previous Vishal Bhardwaj ventures. He has not taken the role of Director this time, instead it is Abhiskey Chaubey who has directed Ishqiya. Inspirations from Vishal's previous works, Omkara, Maqbool are clearly visible though. Vishal has in the last few years has managed to create a handsome following for himself and a unique moving making style. In his movies, it is the characters of the movie that are in the limelight and not the stars playing them.

Though the story line is complex, it is told in a really calm and realistic way, and it grows on to you slowly as every leaf of the story unfolds. Each of the 3 main characters have an equally strong role to play and each of them try to outdo the other with their performances. There are equally strong support characters in the movie, which contribute to the movie becoming more and more gripping. For me the second half of the movie is more interesting than the first half. This does not mean the first half is boring or anything. Its just than the movie takes off beautifully in the second off, and does not look down after that.

On the performances, while we all are aware of the acting ability of Naseeruddin Shah, it is Vidya Balan and Arshad Warsi, who have come out with some mind blowing performances. Arshad Warsi has clearly given the best performance of his career yet. Vidya Balan has shown that one does not need to be Size zero and wear small clothes to look sexy and seductive. A village girl can be as Seductive and attractive as a big town girl wearing designer clothes.

My favorite performance of the movie though was by Salman Shahid, playing the role of Jijaji in the movie. A person whose money has been stolen by Arshad and Naseer and he is after them to get his money back or blow off their brains. The way Salman has played his character is really fantastic. He has brought in so much of realism to his character with his Dialogue delivery and suttle nuances, that one looks forward to his return to the screen. We surely could have done with another 10 mins of his additional screen presence.

The movie flow is crisp and with a running time of hardly 2 hours, is aptly timed. The music is nice and simple and the camera work great. Another feather in the Cap for Vishal Bhardwaj, looking forward to his next movie now. Net net a great story, some sleek direction and great acting by the actors, make Ishqiya a must watch in the Theatres. Incase you can't catch it on the Theatre, Wait for a the DVD release. A good item to add to your collections.

Beware, the dialogues are very realistic (very U.P. like) hence it will not be a good idea to watch this with your Kids (what ever be there age). Strictly for Adult viewing.