Cast: Imran Khan, Anushka Sharma, Pankaj Kapoor, Shabana
Azmi
Direction: Vishal Bharadwaj
By
Rummana Ahmed:Yahoo!
Movies Review: ‘Matru
ki Bijlee ka Mandola’ has a lot of things going for it but
somehow it lacks the edge of other Vishal Bharadwaj films.
Except his last production (7 Khoon Maaf), Vishal Bharadwaj’s
productions are commendable for their tight, flawless scripts
but in ‘Matru…’ too much time is spent on background and
creating context before the story unfolds.
While the plot is basically
about illegal land acquisition; here the story revolves around
industrialist Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapur), his daughter Bijlee
(Anushka Sharma) and Mandola’s odd-job man Matru (Imran Khan).
Bijlee is all set to marry the local politician’s (Shabana Azmi)
dumb son Badal (Arya Babbar). The wedding is a mutually
beneficial deal between the industrialist and the politician.
But of course, there has to be the typical Bollywood-style twist
where Bijlee falls in love with Matru, putting the entire
arrangement in jeopardy.
The reason why it is difficult
to grasp the narrative immediately is because the plot
oscillates quite a bit; it’s a romantic comedy set against the
backdrop of the fight for the villager’s rights, there’s a bit
of the absurd but the direction is not as sure-footed. The pace
of the first half is quite slow and the story tends to drag a
bit till interval. Except a few songs, there’s nothing
outstanding about the music.
What works for the film is the
solid performance by its lead actors. Imran Khan has obviously
put in a lot of lot of hard work to make the transformation to a
Haryanvi hero. He almost gets the accent and pronunciation;
maybe he needed to be a little more arrogant, as far as his body
language was concerned. Shabana Azmi is a delight to watch as
the scheming, manipulative politician. But it is Pankaj Kapur’s
film all the way; he plays Harry Mandola with élan as his
eccentric character switches between the shrewd opportunist and
the endearing drunk.
If I was a little disappointed
by the plot execution, the performances more than made up for
it.
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* Movie links:
Matru Ki Bijlee
Ka Mandola
* Movie reviews:
Matru Ki Bijlee
Ka Mandola
* Movie trailer: Matru Ki Bijlee
Ka Mandola
* Movie Video songs:
Matru Ki Bijlee
Ka Mandola
