1 Line Review: Mostly hilarious, language issues at times but overall a good fun.
Expectations run high as this movie has been directed, co-produced, written and music given by Vishal Bhardwaj. Make no mistakes, he is the man behind few of the best movies in the recent past including – Ishqiya, 7 Khoon Maaf, Kaminey, Omkara and Maqbool just to name a few.
Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (MKBKM) is a hindi adaptation of a German play with exactly the same story – Mr Puntila and his Man Matti. The movie has a run time of 2 hours and 30 minutes and frankly the first 20 minutes I was having problem in understanding the language and the plot! True, since the movie is set in a Haryana village Pankaj Kapur used too much of local tone and spoke too softly. But then you will get a hang of it and start enjoying all the jokes, believe me it does have a good share of hilarious moments (and pretty serious ones too).
The movie belongs to Pankaj Kapur and his pink buffalo, watch it to know why. Imran Khan was not the original choice but when Ajay Devgan and even Shahid Kapoor rejected, Imran took over and did a good job. Anushka’s entry was like Jab Tak Hai Jaan part 2 (my heart skipped a beat I tell you!) as she appeared in short pants, but soon things became better, she did a good job too. Shabana Azmi plays a politician and Arya Babbar plays her son who is made the bait to marry Anushka to get political mileage. Then obviously things go haywire, as expected.
Am actually amazed to see how Arya Babbar has been struggling to make a mark in the industry, even when he is a star son – Raj Babbar. Few of the flop films that he was a part of – Tees Mar Khan, Jokar, Dangerous Ishq to name a few. Does he take inspiration from Tushaar Kapoor? I do not know that.
Music is not that great but fits the story. The story has a good desi angle to it with farmers and their struggle, the political involvement in modernization and land grabbing scam from the government.
Even though stretched, it is a good fun watch. Plus you get to see ‘Ek Thi Daayan’ and ‘Murder 3’ tailors 🙂