Mithya – the art of a thriller
iView Author:
Indraneel Majumdar
(Pune, India)
Email:
indraneelmj [at] gmail [dot] com
Mithya - the art of a thriller
Mithya starts off as benignly as good pulp thrillers generally do – doing a nice sketch of the protagonist, replete with his small dreams, manipulations and limitations. But boss, what transpires after that is what I have not seen before on Indian screens as yet. The film goes beyond the pages of a racy thriller and puts in a poignant story of a manipulated human being.
I cannot tell you the story, not any more than what all other reviews are telling or summaries on various websites. That would be too hard on PFCites. Good cinema lovers shall do well to troop to the nearest movie hall and see the film. I have enjoyed it and have resolved to open a McD bottle (alongwith that free glass as in the movie, now where is that going to be on offer – Krishna wines??) and then discuss the movie in all its glory with friends, PFCites and the likes!
Suffice to say, character sketches have never come so razor sharp in the near past. Ranvir Sheroy has so many shades to his character that he is something of a mystery somewhere in the second half, and this when he has a very commoner feel when the movie starts. I have found another good actor called Brijendra Kala, or so the credits say, playing a henchman’s role. Gosh, one cannot take an eye off this guy when he is on view!
Some fabulous oneliners populate the movie. It must be, Sourabh Shukla is there as a writer here and going great guns as always. Some onliners shall go on to be very popular too. But, “Samundar mein nahake aur bhi namkeen ho gayi ho!!” takes the cake for its inventiveness!
I found that while the humour is there all through, I felt sad for the protagonist. That is where this story crackles. The poignancy never leaves you right through just as troubles never seem to leave Ranvir. This is a nice story in itself without any gimmicks.
I also liked the fact that it did not delve too much into the character sketches of the supporting cast and concentrated on the lead character’s plight all through. The support cast was almighty and performances are galore. The pitch of each of the support cast was perfect including 1 minute cameos of Honey Irani, Suhasini Mulay and the likes! Of course, do I even need to mention the competence of Vinay Pathak, Saurabh Shukla, Harsh Chaya and some others!!
Naseer acts as a Bhai here. I was a little disappointed with his character. He could have been much more. A wee bit lazy, I felt..or may be that’s just the way the director visioned the role. Neha Dhupia wants to do good films but needs to be more expressive to do well in such movies. The director, of course, has cast her as a dumb belle here.
That brings me to Rajat Kapoor’s work. As a director, this is his third attempt and very different from his other movies. He has adorned his frames with a lot of dark shades suitably colouring his characters to tell a poignant story of lies and deceit. He then employs the technique of moving the story ahead with conversation, clever twists and a mood that towers over his scenes. This mood is solemn with humour rounding off the rough edges of every scene.
He concieves a lot of scenes from the POV of Ranvir, the Bhais and the women. This gives a wholesome round look to most scenes. Impeccable are many scenes, but some notably more so -
1. The photography scene of VK by the henchmen.
2. The Chai scene between Ranvir and Irawati (very well concieved character, hers)
3. The Punju scene at Honey Irani’s place.
4. The first boat scene.
5. The classic asking for breakfast and lunch scene by VK.
6. VK’s bathroom scene as Raje bhai.
The Editing merits a mention and so does the Camerawork. They create the moody scenes with a flourish. Plenty on view here in terms of craft. I was not enamoured by the songs. The background score is not harsh, a ploy in many thrillers these days!!
Mithya has a lot of cinematic substance. People may find it slow or not enough masala type. But go see it. ( Sorry, I will do a star exercise here)
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
I am a big fan of Shaurabh Shukla. I want to see this film only because of him. I know he was in Khoya Khoya Chand as well. But, I prefer, if he does this sort of films. He is so underused and underrated.
Good review, Indraneel. I am really looking to see Irawati, haven’t seen her after Shanti. She was my 10th standard crush.
Wonder why they never put good OST’s here. At least one good rock song to banta hai..
The basic inspiration for the film is Amitabh’s “Don”. In fact I think you can see the film playing in one of the scenes. Wonder how most of the reviewers missed it…
great film nonetheless…
Right you are, Shiv..I missed that..on hindsight it seems pretty much similar to Don!!
The scene in which he walks from the place where he was bashed up and thrown, to the docks in tattered clothes was heart tugging. He has no clue watsover wats happening to him. Oh man, the movie was just jaw dropping.
I watched Mithya today.This one bloody rocks, man! Trust me, this one of the finest hindi film you have seen in the recent years.No comparison, but the screenplay reminds you of the likes of Coen brothers, Anderson and, i dare say, Scorsese. The noirish dark comedy is something you dont see often in hindi films and Mithya dares just to be there.hats of Rajat kapoor and Saurabh Shukla !
mithya is by rajat kapoor
and i don’t like him.
because he made bheja fry.
we Indians don’t enjoy ridiculing other human being. a rich Indian don’t ridicule poor. intellectuals don’t ridicule not so intellectuals. thousand of years of conditioning that god is in everybody is behind this indian trait.
bheja fry is a french movie remake. where a rich business man make his evenings alive at the expense of some one. can you really find this kind of a man in india. imagine.
it is same like finding a dhoti clad thread wearing mantra chanting chinese.
what will be your reactions towards a character played by vinay pathak.
and this kind of characters are not rare to find. but for us they are innocent not idiot. can you think of ridiculing such character. our sensibilities just aren’t like that.
and rajat kapoor made a movie on that.
how deep
:-w
After a long long time i watched a movie..Mithya..Am glad i did..This one is class
Although i feel different ‘ending’ wud have been possible for this movie..Good ..Bad..Sad..Ugly..
Neverthless movie is good.This one is truly hatke and Ranvir sheroy has evolved tremendously as an ACTOR. He Rocks and so does the supporting cast.As mentioned in the review, some scenes are too good and jisme ye scenes imagine kiya hai uski ‘daad’ deni chahiye.
i just hope this movie finds its audience..
Guys..as we blog and post..this movie is surely finding its audience..thats what I hear!!
i don’t think that was honey irani…
superb movie…
hats off too rajat and ranvir. this movie rocks!!
Vishrant,
Bheja Fry was not made by Rajat Kapoor. If you dont know your facts, the best you can do is to keep your mouth shut.
Indraneel – The actress who played Neha Dhupia’s aunt was Kamini Khanna, not Honey Irani.
@Aditya, Poornima…I stand corrected. Kamini Khanna it is. Thanks. But whatever, the lady shone in that lil cameo!
gaurav agrawal
ok.
whoever made bheja fry, he is out of my list.
i still will not be seeing, mithya.
mujhe rajat kapoor ki shakal achhi nahien lagati.
quote – Vishrant,
Bheja Fry was not made by Rajat Kapoor. If you dont know your facts, the best you can do is to keep your mouth shut.- unquote
what is this facination with this kind of language . arrogance, or whatever.
meri pareshani jante ho, agar tum mere samne is tarah ki language ka upyog karo, main wahien tumhari gaand main khoonta thok doonga. per ye net hai. sara attitude log yeahi nikal dete hain. ek bahut purani kahawat hai, aur bollywood ki faviroute ki bhokne wale kutte katate nahien hain. is tarah ki language se ye jahir nahien hota ki tum bade garam khoon wale ho. isse ye jahir hota hai ki tum bade cheap aur dabboo kism ke aadmi ho. jo sirf net jaise highly impersonal medium main bahaduri dikha sakte hain.
art cultred logon ki cheej hai. art main intrest dikhane se koi cultred nahien ho jata. mamala ulta hai, cultred log hi wastav main art main intrested hote hain. so agar tumhari aukat ye hai ki tum is tarah ki language use karte ho, to tumhara art se kya wasta hoga ye saaf ho jata hai.
main koi sant nahien hoon. but when i said someone to shut up, i mean it, and is ready to kill for that.
>:p
Bhai Vishrant,
Aapki saari baatein manzoor, bairhaal Mithya mein Rajat Kapoor ki shakal kahin nahi dikhti. Woh kewal director hain, film mein act nahi kiya hai.
Aur jahan tak kala ka sawaal hai, jab aap kalakaar ki kalakaari ka pradarshan nahi dekh lete, aap kaise keh sakte hain ki aapko pasand nahi aayegi. Ek mauka toh deejiye apne aapko… shayad aapko pasand aa jaaye?
Bheja Fry mein Rajat abhineta the, yahan nirdeshak evam lekhakh hain.
Ek baar humare kehne par dekhkar toh aaiye. Uske paschaath hum aapka mat jaanna chahenge.
I really enjoyed the movie. Ranvir Shorey was brilliant. In the scene where post memory-loss his character goes into an abrupt Hamlet Speech, one realizes that its a struggling yet passionate actor delivering the speech. Ranvir shines in that scene.
In the end when he screams Sonam, I thought what if the Neha Dupia
@Vinayak..VK realizes after he is shot that he has been betrayed by his lover too..in a way he has had a 360* betrayal – profession, friends, memory, family, lover..even the betrayers / the dark guys were feeling bad about it..notice Naseer’s quiet “aa jao”..Neha’s complete quietness, Harsh’s looking away..even the lowering of the gun..only the nature kept chirping away..oblivious!
The life of a lie ends on earth. With earthly thoughts and materialistic achievements.
Like a burden henceforth unnecessary,
The shadows of passion and songs vanished from my memory.
The Most High ordered it
@Vinayak..yes..I forgot that smile…
Ek Lamha ye Zindagi
Jee len zara,
Kya pata Kya ho,
Aa pee len zara!!
lol..I manufactured this!!
But seriously..the last few scenes are open to a lot of interpretations..right from VK being thrown out of the Rajebhai household..yaar kaafi gabheerta hai yahaan!
Mulholland dr. ki last scene ki tarah!!