Mirch – an assorted mix of 4 erotic tales

In the last few years, there is a growing trend within Bollywood to try out something different. These so-called experiments while were critically acclaimed have been usually a disappointment at the box office. There has been Road,movie, The great Indian Butterfly, Pankh, No Smoking etc. Though there have been notable exceptions of the likes of Peepli Live, LSD, Dev.D. What has worked with these exceptions is the heady cocktail of art and commercial cinema. The scripts have been brilliant supported by very sharp editing and direction. Needless to say the actors performed very well. Not sure of the box office success, but Mirch can be safely put in this second category.

Its an eclectic mix of 4 stories, totally unrelated but with a common theme of sex or if I must enhance the underlying theme is the empowerment of female sexuality. All the stories have the female lead committing adultery and very successfully and wittily coming out of it without the husband even realizing what hit him. The first two are set in the medieval period and the last two post interval set in modern times.

There is no connection between the stories though at some point, the director tries to bring in the narration in the form of 5th story to connect pieces together which according to me doesn’t work.
What makes “Mirch” work is obviously the “mirch” in the stories... They are exotic, they are spicy, they are raw and they are sensuous. But at no point they are obscene. There is nothing cheap or vulgar in it. In fact the way each story ends makes the movie an erotic comedy. I don’t recollect any other Bollywood movie attempting comedy in such a way (may be Dil Kabaddi but that failed to connect). There have been unrelated stories earlier like Darna Mana Hai, Dus Kahaniyan or more recently and comparable LSD but this is certainly above them. It actually tickles you.

To keep pace with this “mirch”, the lead female characters had to be equally spicy and who better than Konkona and Raima Sen to play the characters. They both are so exotic and moulded in their characters that they overshadow all others. Only Ila Arun, Boman Irani and Rajpal Yadav could compete with them in some way. Boman anyways can play all Indian nationalities with equal ease whether it was a Sardar in Munna Bhai or a typical Gujarati in this.

The other characters like Arunodoy Singh (common factor in first 3 stories and the narration), Sushant Singh, Shahana Goswamy and Shreyas Talpade are not much of a match for Konkona and Raima.

At the end, this is a typical urban multiplex or a home video movie. The box office figures should not be considered while judging the performance of such a movie. It’s an experiment and must be appreciated for the different genre it is creating in Indian cinema.

Band Baaja Baraat – Low on Budget; High on Entertainment

To make the title short B3 is a typical “Dilli” film be it its locales, dialogues, styling, roughness or should I say crudeness sometimes. The debutant director Maneesh Sharma has captured the inherent flavour of Delhi really well and that’s what keeps the movie going from the very first scene.

Its the story of Bittu Sharma and Shruti Kakkar – contrast personalities who come together to start their own business – the business of wedding planning which if I may quote the lead actor in the movie is “inflation” and “reception” proof (Recession but said in Haryanvi). The movie revolves around their growth in business as well as in their closeness. To develop a story, obviously they develop cracks in their relationships but all is well in the end.

The strong point of the movie is its spontaneity. The dialogues are sharp and the actors even sharper. Anushka matures with this movie as she is supposed to be the known face but the new comer Rannveer has also acted quite well. Rannveer is not going to be the typical hero material but might be able to carve a niche for himself considering the confidence he displays in his very first movie (not sure if he is the son / nephew / friend etc of anyone in the industry to have deserved such a good break).

The direction and the editing is slick. The movie seems to be made on a very small budget as there are no known actors not even side-kicks, no foreign locations to shoot for and no jazzy sets unless you discount some of the wedding arrangements which are quite “sho-sha” keeping pace with “Dilliness”.

The first half is better than the second half as it builds up the story. The second half does get a bit emotional and typical Bollywoodish but the overall package still works out fine. The music might not be great if you go with Yashraj expectations but couple of songs like Tarqueebein and Ainvayee Ainvayee will be on the charts for some weeks to go.

Overall its a lively movie and after a very long time, a decent movie from the Yash Raj studios.