Matru meets Mandola!. Review on Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

I liked the new logo of VB Films, since in its style it says many things, it also depicts a thinking cap other than just displaying 2 letters VB, and that’s what we all have seen in all the movies this director has given us – Vishal Bhardwaj. This talented person has started his career as a music director, and given us the hit and different music of movies like ‘Maachis’, ‘Satya’, ‘Chachi 420’, ‘Hu tu tu’, and started his direction carrier with brilliantly made children movie ‘Makdee’. Then he has given us the Indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic Macbeth novel – Maqbool, then he directed other movies like ‘The Blue Umbrella’, ‘Omkara’, ‘Kaminey’, and ‘7 Khoon Maaf’. And now he is back with another thinking movie ‘Matru ki Bijlee Ka Mandola’.

Well, at first instance the film's name itself seems quite odd, and so you’ll find the movie odd too, yes, it’s quite oddly made, with odd settings, incidents, and happenings occurance and you can compare them with ‘Joker’, but still there are many things related with movies which make you watch them. It is a story of 3 characters – Hukum Singh Matru (Imran Khan), Bijlee Mandola (Anushka Sharma) & Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapoor) and their struggling village named ‘Mandola’. Chaudhri Devi (Shabana Azmi) and his son Badal (Arya Babbar) are behind a conspiracy as they want to take all the lands of farmers to build SEZs, factories and companies to reap profits, and even Harry Mandola also wants the same thing so he is helping the party as it is he who is the biggest industrialist of the area, and owns a lot of land and had enough money. But he has a weakness – Botal aka drink. He can’t resist that and in want of helping the villagers its Matru who used this habit of his in favour of villagers, as after drink even Mandola started thinking welfare of villagers. But what actually happens, for that you have to see the movie.

Well, first some negative points – Go in theaters only if you’re a fan of Vishal Bhardwaj’s movie, because he is there to show his charisma and not just any masala served in a platter. Movie is very oddly made, as I already pointed out above, odd situations, odd costumes, odd happenings and some of the scenes look boring with the absence of background score and it can make you feel a bit negative, but it is the movie which works well as a whole. The movie is a satirical take on a problem of grabbing farmers land by government just because they want to develop India; they make SEZ, factories etc and reap profits while a farmer simply loses his land and source of his roji-roti. The premise is good, its Haryana, where this problem is growing up, no need to mention, you all knew about Gurgaon and many other developmental projects coming in the vicinity of Haryana state and many others. The story is good, though I felt that screenplay could be better, but many scenes generate enough laughs, and you laugh like anything on those scenes. 1st half is more on comical side but 2nd half becomes a little more emotional, but both are equally balanced. Background score suits the movie well (except 2-3 scenes), well; it’s kind of different though.

Best part of this movie is Pankaj Kaoor, the great actor. If he’s there in any movie, you are assured of watching a good performance from him. He did his role beautifully, and looks extremely lovable in his talli (drunk) scenes, he acted so naturally that at no moment it looks like he’s acting. The scenes of his and Imran’s conversation came out so wonderfully that you started loving it instantly. Then his sudden change of expressions when he turn villainous, this transition is so flawless that only a Pankaj Kapoor can do it. Imran has probably given one of the best performances of his life, with Anushka complementing him well. Shabana Azmi looked gorgeous even in his vemp kind of role, while Arya Babbar looked as stupid as he could. And BTW, don’t miss ‘Gulabi Bhains’, even its performance is also good (see more to know more). Talking of music, the best song of the album is the title song which comes at the end credits of the film, and is sung by Sukhwinder Singh & Ranjit Barot. No points for guessing the composer (Vishal Bhardwaj) & the lyricist (Gulzar). Then there are 4 other songs in the movie, well placed though, ‘Oye boy Charlie’ (Rekha Bhardwaj, Mohit Chauhan, Shankar Mahadevan) is a different song but a good one. Then a romantic number in ‘Khamakha’ (Vishal Bhardwaj, Prem Dehati), a masti song ‘Shara ra ra’ and a rebellious song ‘Lootne wale’ is also there. A varied and a different album there. Dialogues are good too like the style of Pankaj Kapoor’s character of saying the famous Hindi swear word twice looks good on screen. One dialogue of Bhains was also good, though kind of non-veg.

So, all-in-all, the movie is bit weak in presentation, but a good try and thoroughly enjoying because of Mandola’s character i.e. Pankaj Kapoor. So, do watch it with less thinking and you’ll enjoy it. My take 3.5/5, for making me laugh and think at the same time.

GRuchirG.

Jai Raam ji ki :)