Mithya – Rajat, Ranvir in top form
We have Rajat Kapoor the actor – playing the pedophile uncle in Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, the genial uncle in Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai, the frustrated music company owner in Sagar Ballary’s Bheja Fry and the evil king in Subhash Ghai’s dud Kisna, and a gamut of other characters on the big screen – and yes, in ad films.
And then we have Rajat Kapoor the director, who started off making short films like Tarana and Hypnothesis, both winners of the National Award, before turning feature film director with Raghu Romeo, which again won the National Award.
We all know what Raghu Romeo was – a tragi-comedy that was the story of a ‘small’ guy’s big dreams as it was a critique of the national pastime called television soap operas.
It was a film that signalled the arrival of a director who wanted to make interesting movies, on his own terms, working from Mumbai but independent of what the world identifies Hindi (“Bollywood”) cinema with.
Kapoor’s second directorial venture Mixed Doubles was an interesting take on wife swapping, but it somehow could not take him to the next level as a filmmaker despite raising some interest among the multiplex-going crowd because of its theme and the interesting cast (Kapoor himself, Ranvir Shorey, Konkona Sen Sharma and Koel Purie).
Why am I giving you all this low-down on Rajat Kapoor, when we all know his work?
Well, because it is time to take a bow to a filmmaker who has found his calling, with a script that he had written long before even deciding to make Raghu Romeo, but had not been able to go forward as there was no financier who thought it was worth it.
I am talking about Mithya – or The Imposter Who Wasn’t, as the rest of the world, particularly the festivals, would know it — and Kapoor the director who knows what he is handling, giving us a fantabulous film that can be compared with the best of comic-thrillers that has a tinge of sadness to them (examples galore from Europe, particularly France, are there), drawing a wide range of emotions.
Yes, Mithya has shades of Akira Kurosawa’s 1980 film Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior), in that here too the main character has to impersonate another, going through almost another life that is based on one lie after another, as he finds for himself a whole range of life’s bitter truths. If Kagemusha was set in the “Warring States” or “Sengoku” period (Mid 15th Century to Early 17th century) during which Japan witnessed a lot of social upheaval, Mithya is set in present times, in Mumbai, and in the Mumbai mafia world.
But kudos to Kapoor – he has just been able to take off by himself from this premise (though he has said in his director’s comment in the official festival brochure of the 9th Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian & Arab Cinema in New Delhi, July 20-29, 2007, that the seed of Mithya came from a mythical tale involving Lord Vishnu and Sage Narada), to give us a film that will surely be counted among the best work to have come out not only from the Mumbai industry but also the whole of Indian cinematic world during 2007.
A tout screenplay, some interesting background score by Sagar Desai, Rafey Mahmood’s moody cinematography, all this makes Mithya a film not to be missed. But the cherry on the cake, if one can use that cliché, is without any semblance of doubt, is Ranvir Shorey. We all know Ranvir and his soulmate Vinay Pathak are hugely, hugely talented, and Vinay has already shown that he can be the “hero” of a film, in Bheja Fry.
Now it is Ranvir’s turn to play the hero, so to say, a strong one that has a lot of Chaplinesque pathos (this mood is eloquently presented by Kapoor in one of the initial scenes of the film, where Ranvir is shown struggling to control his umbrella caught in apparent high winds, while people moving around him on the street are not affected by the same high winds. Either it was a deliberate ploy of Kapoor to show the impending storm that would invade the struggling actor’s life, or it just happened inadvertently – this only Kapoor can explain).
As the struggling and getting-frustrated actor who is pulled by the circumstances to impersonate a don who has been bumped off by a rival gang, Ranvir has given what is without doubt one of the landmark performances in recent Indian cinema.
The comic streak in his character definitely gave him a great platform to showcase his histrionic talents, but as the film becomes darker and comes to a tragic end, he definitely overshadows all his co-actors, Naseeruddin Shah included, superbly capturing what the director visualised in his character – of a simple man with big dreams who does not know what the future holds for him, and gets sucked into the vortex more and more even as he plays his charm on all around quite successfully till his act is caught.
All others – Saurabh Shukla, Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia – have given competent performances in the film, but Mithya is definitely a film that belongs wholly to Ranvir and to Rajat.
If it becomes the next rage in the multiplexes after Bheja Fry, don’t get surprised. And if by the quirk of fate that often decides a film’s fortune rather than its quality (or the lack of it) does, it fails to become a big Box Office hit, it will still be a film that will establish Rajat Kapoor as a director who has now found his firm foothold, and Ranvir as an actor who can really scorch the screen without being pretentious about it.
We all agree that no film is perfect, and it is also not without them, but they are only minor ones, with dialogues, editing and the overall screenplay leaving not much to complain about.
We need more films like Mithya, more directors like Rajat and more actors like Ranvir, and yes, more producers like Planman who are ready to back projects like this one.
- Utpal Borpujari
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
definitely two notches above bheja fry.. loved it..
cant wait to watch it, heard amazing things about it
Rajat Kapoor ka ftii film ka naam kya hai? i thin i have seen that film.can someone tell me what it was about.
Tarana?
Not seen it though
i Am searching for a copy of Private Detective as well.Havent seen that either
Rajat’s FTII diploma film is Hypnothesis. And you can watch it right at your home. FTII recently brought out a DVD called Masterstrokes, which has diploma films of Jaya Bhaduri, Kundan Shah, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Girish Kasaravalli, Danny Dengzongpa, Rajan Khosa, Sriram Raghavan, Smita Patil and several others. Apart from, of course, Rajat. In fact, the DVD publicises only these names, but if you see the credits of each of the films featured, you will see a number of names that are familiar now, working in various branches of filmmaking. The DVD is being marketed by a company called Rudraa (www.rudraa.com)
Not convinced with the English title… The Imposter Who Wasn’t doesn’t have a ring to it…
But what abt Private Detective
interesting plot!!
Just now finished reading the synopsis of the film The Passenger by Antonioni in wikipedia.
hmmmmmmmmmm can’t wait to see the talented ranvir….
Private Detective: Two Plus Two Plus One is available on VCD; or, at least, was available when I bought a copy for myself.
Thanks a lot for the information about the Masterstrokes DVD, Utpal! I’ve been long wanting to catch Hypnothesis.
Hi!
Great to hear all good things said about Mithya. sadly, it too is a copy os JOHHNY STACCINO – written, directed and acted by the greatly talented Roberto Benigni. It was first made in Italian.
Many of the big libraries in the city have it.
Thanx
Jack Daniels:
How do you know Rajat’s film is remake of Italian film.
and if yes then may be this time Rajat Kapoor and gang has bought the rights to make a remake from producers of Italian film. Now they have enough money curtesy success of Bheja Fry. Before BF they had not got money and now they can follow straight way of buying rights before remaking anything done before elsewhere in the world.
Rajat’s story is really inspiring,just went to google after this and found this website www.rajatkapoor.com ,i didnt know that he rasied money for raghu romeo through internet,will definitely see mithiya when it releases
The other thing about the guy is his honesty and integrity and no show -sha (have absolutely zero tolerance for all of that). When he was in SF for RR, since it had made it to SF Intl Festival, the guy had figured out all the bus routes to get around the city and was quite comfortable doing that. Then I had invested a “princely” sum of $200 in his RR and when it did not do well, he sent me an email saying he wanted to refund my Rs 10,000, this when he was still coming to grips with RR’s lukewarm response…and me being a CPA and a Chartered Accountant was pleasantly surprised when, one of the only guys I have met, who wanted to send me the Tax Receipt for my $200 investment, he wanted my PAN number. The guy is totally above any financial hanky/panky and easy going and humble. Was so happy to see him happy post the success of Bheja Fry when I met him in Mumbai last month…we need more Rajat’s in the Indian film industry:)
Well … if Rajay has really bought the rights to remake some film he should make it public rather than calling his own invention. And you still think Maybe … Bheja Fry was a success but Rajat was not the producer who earned the mega bucks and nor is the Mithya produced by them. I think it wud be better that Rajat himself clarifies this, he is a sensible guy and should come clean out of it.
I just hope he has used the structure of Johnny Staccino and not copied it frame-by-frame. Right now it looks to me a blatant copy.
Thanx
thanx utpal… i have that dvd…liked the film…
JACK DANIELS i have seen both johnny stecchino and mithya and there is no similarity beyond an ordinary man replacing a gangster..not even a scene that’s similar..
and by your logic johnny stecchino which released in 1991 is a copy of our original Don which was a copy of House of Games.. and some one replacing a look alike is a plot as old as shalespeare..
comedy of errors..
and like i said mithya is what Don should have been.. it is not even based on Don.. accidental similarity.. wait till you see the film before making an opinion
I am really looking forward to this one, when is it releasing in theaters?
Right said, Anurag, about Jack Daniels’ comments.
Jack – first watch the film and then comment. That would help you be more objective. It is nothing new for filmmakers to get inspired by ideas they get to see in other films, but it can still lead to a good film if the filmmaker develops his own vision out of that idea and executes it accordingly. There are thousands of examples of that.
Just to help you, maybe Pratim, who has done an excellent job in preparing that RGV list, and others can just list how many ‘inspirations’ or ‘remakes’ Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai has led to over the years, and why some of them have been good, some bad and some pure ugly!
this is bizarre
somebody called jack daniels has decided without seeing mithya that it is a copy of some italian film! wowo!
how do you guys do it? really jack!
i havent heard of this film- never
private detective, raghu romeo and mixed doubles and mithya have been all original works- these are my films and i wouldnt dream of stealing a film or an idea- i have about 300 ideas of mine waiting to be made, why would one need ot steal any?
and once and for all- bheja fry is not my film- i did not direct it!
so, there!
bravo jack daniles for finding similarities and being ready with allegations of plagiarism! i mean, really!
is it because we have such low esteem that we can not think that we are capable of an original idea- that is why anything which is remotely good, must be copied! is that it?
remember great dictator? where chaplin plays a barber who becomes hynkel for a while? remember that, anybody? if i had to steal from anybody why wouldnt i take chaplin
and jack daniles, watch the film before you pass the verdict- that is all i ask for!
thanks
rajat
and thanks – anurag
rajat
Rajat, Thanks for coming on PFC and addressing the doubts head on and clarifying the issue Jack mentions… (though we were quite satisfied with Anurag’s response
)… Rest assured, PFC authors and readers love what you are doing and happy to see that all your hard work is atlast paying off.
Great to see you here, Rajat! All the best with all your projects and ideas
>-
the first film that came to mind when i read the synopsis was, in fact, the great dictator… don’t know about jack daniels, but rajat, it’s just a natural reaction, more of a reflex action… kothay jeno shunechi golpota (where might have I heard this story?)… but coming from you after rr and md, it’s evident that it’s an original idea… keep it up man! you are doing a great job.
Thanks for posting the link to Rajat Kapoors website Rahul… some good stuff… I like Raghu Romeo… Mixed Doubles not so much… that being said my interest level for Mithya is growing by the day…that scene described in the post… with Ranvir and the umbrella… just reading that is inspiring… can’t wait to see it…
Anyone know when it may release? I’d have to wait 4-6 months from that time to catch it on DVD…lol… mind you Bheja Fry’s DVD released in Canada about a month or so after its Indian theatrical release…
Guys this is absolutely ridiculous!
Please read this review of Hotel Rwanda – http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2004/hotelrwanda.shtml
Now just by synopsis, some one can comment that it is just a remix/rehash/ulta of Schindler’s List.
Whether such a slight will stick on Terry George or Don Cheadle for making Hotel Rwanda?
If there is a story to be told, it needs to be told. If Rajat felt that this story needs to be told and in this fashion, who are we to throw stones at him? Off course everyone is welcome to see the movie and give their 2 cents anywhere in this flat world of web.
Mixed Doubles was an excitement to watch.Particularly the sequences of the following day were a treat to watch. We should congratulate a film maker for making his films and not pull him down because we found similarity in a synopsis.
Great dictator was fun!!
Also Prisoner of Zenda, Uthama puthiran in Thamizh and Imsai Arasan 23am pulikesi all have similar synopses. and all these movies stand in their own right, thanks to the audience who understood their relevance and style.
Thanks everybody- it is great to see the debate.
i am glad people in this country still believe in debating and have strong opinions- always a good sign. sign of our times!
when will mithya be released?
either september- or else february, if it goes to berlin film festival…
i would like it to be soon, but i am okay with february too…
Hi, somebody was looking for private detective. It is readily available in market on VCD now.
Private Detective VCD has been released by Moser Baer.. Found this link selling the movie:
http://www.induna.com/1000000925-productdetails/
Rajat Kapoor is not being honest either, his movie “Raghu Rameo” borrows liberally from the Robert DeNiro movie “The King of Comedy” (1982) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085794/
I have seen him criticizing the movie “Bhaja Fry” for it’s copied content from French movie “Dinner Games” and clarifying that he is not the director of this movie at others forums as well. Now his own movie “Raghu Romeo” does not have any less inspired material than “Bhaja Fry”. Chori to chori hai, badi ho ya choti.
This is plain hypocrisy and very very unfortunate.