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Mithya: You remember that one film with Ranvir and who’s-that-guy???
‘Wow them in the end,’ is the sage advice screen-writing guru McKee gives Charlie Kaufmann in ‘Adaptation’. No matter what, wow them in the end. Reserve your best for the lag end and just before the public is ready to pack up and head home, sock it to them, hook line sinker. Give the crowds something to cheer about, to exult, to weep, to scratch their heads, to linger in as the lights come back on. Give them something that will bring back the last 100 odd minutes in a perspective that is pure head rush.
With ‘Mithya’ director Rajat Kapoor gives not one but two absolute ‘wow’ endings. First, a tantalizing twist, disruptive, abrupt, darkly funny, open for interpretation, pulpy, a turn of pure destiny which would cause Chabrol to smirk approvingly. And then there is the second, absolute antithesis. Prolonged, poetic, simple and powerful with larger and graver concerns, crafted and drawn out like a master work.
Only that at the first ending when the lights come on it’s the ‘interval’ and the audience which has been enjoying a laugh-out-loud black noir heads out for popcorn and the latrines, the crazy absurdity of the ending and all that led up to it seeming a rather enticing proposition. As one giggles and discusses all that has passed for the last hour and the ending, there is a feeling that the real madness is yet to come. Over-the-top and then some.
But as the second part of the movie unfolds, the mood has turned somber. The wacky humor, the noir allusions are by and by abandoned as the movie works itself into, of all things, an observant family crisis drama. And as the past catches up with the protagonist and the narrative, the clash is jarring and uncomfortable for both. The effect it gives is of splitting one ambitious film into two seemingly supplementary segments of contrasting tones. It all becomes a bit like an obligatory gang war tableau, a bit of Company and Miller’s Crossing, until the ‘wow’ finale. But sadly by then it seems that Director Kapoor was so concerned about his ace cards that he just bluffed his way to the very end.
But there are other delectable ‘wow’s. Primary among them are star Ranvir Sheroy who delivers a performance supreme. It is a role or actually two, of rare intricacy- of a down-on-his-luck junior artist forced to play a dreaded gangster and a dreaded gangster, that Ranvir tackles with a chameleon like ease. Post-interval, the twist lends his already complex character more complexities and without a single bit of ham or agitation, he renders the piling absurdities an absolute plausibility. He never towers or thunders in an attempt to steal the scene, rather he is great because he is. It is a performance so fine that history might forget only because Ranvir makes you forget he is putting in any effort to get there. A consummate performance, a transformation. If ‘Mithya’ is ever remembered, it will be because of Ranvir.
For a movie critiquing the plight of the commons, ‘Mithya’ gives its supporting players a hard deal. Saurabh Shukla, Vinay Pathak and a staccato scene stealer in Brijendra Kala get their laughs in and then it is bad writing or a bullet for them. Neha Dhupia once again gets stuck somewhere in transition between wooden and emotive where a better actress would have been around to provide support and chemistry to Sheroy and verve to the femme fatale. Naseerudin Shah looks uncommonly bored and Suhasini Mullay is missed in a few blinks. Only Harsh Chayya gets to be effective as the gangster’s loyal yet cold-blooded brother.
There are inspired moments, ideas that seem to be headed towards a great movie. Director Kapoor has a sharp eye for the minutest details and everyday absurdities. Watch out early on for the surrounding umbrella twirlers as Ranvir crosses the street in the beating rains trying to wring his umbrella into submission- a magical romanticizing of the junior artist. There is a cock-eyed genius at work as Kapoor internalizes Bollywood clichés into the story of a struggling dreamer- the baroque nostalgia, the doomed love affair, the bout of amnesia, the double role, the family drama, the gangster epic, the fish out of water comedy, the item dance and finally, with masterful brilliance, grounds them in the ballad of the common man, the perennial struggler.
If only, if goddamn-it only, like his own star or even Kundan Shah’s classic noir-comedy-ballad-of-the-commons ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’, director Kapoor would have got his tone right and eased up and acknowledged his movie’s own intelligence instead of playing to the public. When the movie reaches its sad finale one is forced into a guilt trip on having guffawed in the first half. It all seems a bit too mean spirited without actually going anywhere for the dreamers in the audience.
As it is, Mithya’ is a rare and inspired effort that stumbles on reaching a point where it becomes endlessly intriguing, never actually crossing the line to where it was dreams for, greatness. Something it shares with the protagonist. That and the chance of being forgotten.
(pics courtesy- Sulekha)
16 Responses to “Mithya: You remember that one film with Ranvir and who’s-that-guy???”
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Bhai Keh Kya riya hai ???
Picture acchi thi ki nahi ? Woh to main paisey kharch larkey khud hi tai kar loonga , par maa kasam thaari angreji padh maatha phir gaya, baawley lagta hi ki picture ney tanny bahut prabhavit kiya hai, issiliye itni behki behki baatein kar raha hai.
Bachically yeh keh riya hai , picture is sey acchi ho sakti thi !!!!!
koi keh raha tha picture kahin se copied hai .. sach hai kya ??
aur bhi achche nahin hone ke dhukh mein main angrezhi main phooth pada.. eet hurrtz
pharak nahi girta filmibhai.. blue print uthaya hoga.. baaki sampporna desi hain
Hamarey ek bahut hi nalayak prophessor kaha kartey thi ki “Caapying phrom one is Plagiarism , caapying phrom maany is resarch”
Iskey parli wali post mein HG baawla keh riya hai ki wok Bleck end Bhite nahi dekhega , key zaroorat hai , jaakey Bobby Deol waali Badal dekh key woh Pleygiarism hai Bleck end Bhite research.
yeh dono shuru to “shaitan ka apna” sey hi hui thi na
Great film, excelent review.
great review, Sid.
Doston.. Dont waste your money or time…
MITHYA SUCKS>>>>>
It sucks….
And sucks and would sink so bad..
I was robbed of my money i wasted on tickets
:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((
Hey Aashish, kya baat kar raha hai yaar…. the movie was spellbinding man…. Plz watch it everyone. It implements that cliched movie caption ‘Expect the unexpected’ with aplomb.
Mithya is fucking brilliant.period.
Sid, check Aditya’s Mithya review. This is the guy I was telling you about yesterday. Some great pics in there(unlike your review!)
http://urgetofly.blogspirit.com/
@Tushar.. point taken..
@Tushar, why was I being discussed ;)
Aditya bhai, we were generally discussing blogs that do not meet public eye that much, so your name came up. Besides you are another rare breed like us who liked jhoom barabar jhoom and eklavya :)
Has to be one of the good movies to come in this year. A film that like all other Kapoor films launches before you can say noir, and is well lapped up in its narrative, a bundled up ratatouille of successive emotions, all human mind you, by the time you realize oh this and oh that. An effervescent auteur touch if I might say.
Kapoor assigns roles and just starts off without any bleak desire to excel in framing or that one classic scene or line. He doesn’t want to assert the greatness of the film by doing all of that. His choice. It is only once the mundane thematics have been satisfied that he veers off into the beyond, a rich library of literary and cinematic influences.
The film worked rather well for me, from a very satisfying Neha Dhupia(I thought she was brilliant, may be she was not acting I could care less), to a I-am-not-here-to-entertain-you Vinay Pathak(it is almost startling the way the scenes play out, ok here we have a high fundoo gangster plot, but fuck that we will do it like our old theater rehearsals, haven’t seen those kinda balls off late), the fucking brilliant background which is often repetitive for amplified effect, loved it simply.
What editing, the second half almost gets over before multiplex popcorn junkies can bother you with their inanities. I loved the nothingness of the beachy expanses, the looming from the window shots, not to mention the Chaplin flourishes, the layered giggle of Shorey that giggles universally at everything one can think of.
This and that, and this and that, but what I loved the most was the imperfections, the refusal to go elite(not that I mind it), and the thetrics at wild play. Notice the scene when Pathak is shot, its almost B grade, you can see his legs hang back up, but no one laughs. screw them. Or the one where the camera doesn’t move away from Kala and he is doing and redoing his claim to fame sweet nothings. Or the one featuring the brilliantly realised ‘Manu’ by Chhaya as he beats the crap out of VK/Raje.
I also loved how Kapoor never tried to explain it all in a all’s well emotion, when VK talks to Harshe through the window, you can;t decide what to focus on, and that master cinema for me.
or even the one when he is coldly dragged out of the breakfast table.
and when the events get too cosy for a gangster thriller, you see the thaain thaain almost used like a compulsive device. what liberal cinema man. absolutely shying away from its greatness.
Kapoor is a guy who can play a joke and mock at your reaction the very next moment. samandar mein, abey hil mat(dentist), hmmmmm bathroom scene, maa ka phone, filmi producer(what a brilliant in-joke “agar aap chance nahi denge to hum artists ko kaun poochhega”), teri akal tere pichhwaade mein, omlet/baasi khaana,namak kam hai.. et al.