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Sunday, May 28, 2023
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BOLLYWOOD MIRCH
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***
"Mirch" is meant to be a `tikhi`, spicy and
delectable account of sex, stolen pleasures and furtive philandering during
times of day-to-day stress. Instead it turns out to be one of those half-cooked
exotic dishes, more tempting for what it promises than actually delivers.
Vinay Shukla`s last film "Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe", which came eight
years ago is best forgotten. However his film prior to that
"Godmother" stood tall and imposing primarily because of Shabana
Azmi`s preponderant performance as a politician in rural Gujarat who rips the
male bastion apart with her no-nonsense approach to life and politics.
"Mirch" is about the politics of sex. Set in two different time zones,
the contemporary and `period`, it takes potshots at the male gaze as it falls on
female sexuality. Each of the four stories has a protagonist, played by Raima
Sen and Konkona Sen Sharma in two stories each, with a high libido level that
they do nothing to hide.
In each story, the woman is caught red-handed by her husband doing `it` with a
lover. How the sexually-liberated woman in each story wriggles out of the
bedroom crisis forms the core comicality in the quartet of stories.
The four stories, apparently derived from the ancient Panchtantra tales and
their designedly delicious denouement are neither convincing, nor funny enough
to be outrageously fable-like. The stories just about manage to bring a smile on
our faces.
Not that Shukla can be faulted for his intelligent and astute handling of such
an audacious idea. Strong sexual gestures specially in a woman make for very
unpoetic cinema. Love when linked to lust tends to lose its lyrical lustre.
Shukla shoots his two heroines with a certain sensitivity, although there`s not
much room in the satirical tales of cuckoldry for subtlety he builds room for
tender touches and fleeting moments of arresting intimacy.
Raima`s large limpid eyes lend a certain grace even to her character in the past
and contemporary times. However Konkona`s performances in her two tales suffer
for the lack of inherent grace in the characters. And the actress doesn`t seem
to be enjoying the process of playing these `naughty` characters.
In her `period` piece, Konkona cajoles her royal husband (Prem Chopra) to climb
up a tree to watch her making love with the senapati.
How much fun for the actor and how funny for the audience can such a situation
be?
Go figure out.
Interestingly, Shukla has cast Arunodoy Singh as the film`s resident sex object.
The female protagonists in three of the stories are shown lusting after him when
they think their husbands are not around.
To create a certain distance from the preposterous parodic premises, Shukla
creates a film-within-film format whereby a young struggling idealistic
filmmaker (Arunodoy) and his girlfriend (Shahana Goswami) try to convince a wily
producer (Sushant Singh) to produce a film which has plenty of sex, humour and
drama.
The stories that the young filmmaker in "Mirch" tells the cynical
producer are the stories that we the audience see the not-so-young filmmaker
Shukla tell with a blend of whittled-down passion and half-formed sensitivity.
Some of it though not all, is interesting. As for the theme of creative
compromise that triggers off the four-storeyed plot, is "Mirch" really
liberated from those compromises?
The question acquires an added meaning when Mahie Gill shows up to perform an
item song choreographed by Saroj Khan at the end.
Actor Arunoday Singh, who has been a part of the Hindi film industry since 2009, feels his talent is under-utilised, and says Bollywood underrates him.Arunoday made his acting debut with "Sikandar" and later featured in films like "Yeh Saali Zindagi", "Mirch", Aisha", "Jism 2", "Main Tera Hero" and "Mohenjo Daro". He says it's very difficult to get films in which he plays the lead because he is not "wildly famous".Read More
Maanav is a struggling filmmaker who is unwilling to
compromise on the script he has written. His girlfriend Ruchi, a successful film
editor, arranges for him to meet Nitin, a film producer. Nitin likes the script,
but is not very sure of its commercial prospects. Maanav then suggests a story
from the Panchtantra:
A woman is caught red-handedwith her lover by her husband and yet,shae manges to
wriggle out of it scot-free!
Nitin loves the story, but finds it too short for a feature film. Maanav then
creates three more stories based on the same premise: in a way, the Panchantra
story travels in different versions to the modern times through the film. The
four stories are woven together by a common story. Mirch itself echoes this
structure, with four stories mingling with the main narrative.
The message is simple - if you have your wits about you, you can salvage even the most impossible situation.
At a deeper level, Mirch is about the gender equality in relationship; and at a still deeper level, it is about how an artist finds creative freedom in today`s mercantile world?
