It's all in a bus journey. Review on Mr & Mrs Iyer

Having lived in the US for about 4 years, I'd have to say the whole communal riot scenario seemed so far removed from me. But when I had a sneak dekho at the trailer of Mr and Mrs Iyer, I decided it was time for me to sync myself back up with this recurring and ongoing problem plaguing several parts of India. What's more was it hit really close to home when my brother (who goes to Architecture School in Ahmedabad) had to leave Gujarat to escape the communal rioting when things got really bad there about a year and some ago. So I decided to watch it when I went back to India on vacation in February. The first thing that struck me was the audience in the theater was a more eclectic and discerning variety rather than the average college going hooligan. That gave me the feeling that it was going to be well received. Even though the theme (communal riots) had been beaten to death by Bollywood filmmakers in the past (vis a vis Bombay and countless others that I can't seem to think of this second), I thought this was a nice adaptation of the theme, without the frills. Since the story has been revealed in fairly good detail in a lot of the reviews here, I thought it would suffice just to add my 2 cents worth on different aspects of the movie that I thought were interesting.

Well first off, the whole idea of various characterizations was appealing. To have many different types of people in the bus - with each of them playing their own individual personalities and at the same time blending in to the overall scenario might get tricky to portray. Yet Aparna Sen's finesse as a director is visible in her attention to detail without compromising the main storyline.

Next - having Rahul Bose play the yuppie photographer was a good move. Rahul Bose is critically acclaimed for his roles in English August and Monsoon Wedding and his character (which I'd have to add was probably easier to portray than some of the others) as a Bengali Muslim photographer who travels with Mrs Meenakshi Iyer(played by Konkona Sen) seemed to be right up his alley.

Some of the depictions of the communal violence were good - especially in the town where Mrs Iyer and Raja (Rahul Bose) get stranded and get to stay at a guest house at the behest of the town's police inspector. Yet here's where the director could have been just a little more subtle. One of the scenes in the bus where an old Muslim couple get terrorized by Hindu fanatics (who go around asking everyone if they're circumcised) is a bit disturbing. Though it delivers the intended shock value for the sheer reality of the performance - it still seemed kind of brutal and maybe not in line with the subtle tone that the director intended to get across.

And then there's Konkona Sen's character Meenakshi Iyer. If at all there were any inconsistencies in the movie, I would have to say here's where you would find most of them. To begin with, Meenakshi Iyer's character is kind of an antediluvian closeted South Indian Brahmin stereotype with outdated ideals - considering this is the 21st century and being from the same community myself, let me venture a few comments here. Beginning with - if you ever interact with a girl that belongs to a fairly cosmopolitan middle class Iyer family - chances that she would be as close minded as the director portrayed Mrs Iyer are slim, nay non-existent. In a society that is awakening to more tolerant secular attitudes - I would say that Mrs Iyer's character is off by about 20 years or so in terms of her more than subtle racist overtones. What's more is this girl is actually educated and speaks English! (with an orchestrated Tamil accent). The part in the movie where she would not drink off the same bottle that had been used by Raja (because he was a Muslim) was unnecessary and didnt do anything to depict the communal hatred that the director was trying to pitch. Then here's inconsistency no. 2. All this time we were talking about a completely orthodox woman with antiquated beliefs on castes and religion. This same woman, due to the overwhelming circumstances and the fact that the only person helping her is a Muslim man, turns around and begins to develop feelings for him. Agreed this is a likely scenario but for someone with such deep rooted beliefs to quickly turn around and see the light (enough to make her forget she has a husband) is just a tad off the wall. Again - there could have been a better portrayal here. The extremities in her character are likely to throw the discerning viewer off balance. Then there is Konkona Sen's Tamil accent - no hard feelings here but I thought the accent was overplayed a little too much for comfort - (especially everytime she kept saying ''Santhanam'' - and other carefully rehearsed 'Tamilisms' if you will).

Despite the oddities mentioned above, I thought the movie was well taken, and the cinematography was excellent - a complete visual treat. Even though a few loose ends could have been tied up - the overall impression I had of the movie was it was worth watching at least once.