MATRU KI BIJLEE KA MANDOLA (APPRECIATION FROM A NOVICE FILM-GOER)

(Confession: went for the movie after @ravishndtv’s tweet, “we should watch MKBKM just to do our duty being in the finest phase of Hindi film making”. Otherwise it should have been watched #YouKnowWhere . )

As all my friends who went for it in the opening week had some disastrous reviews, when I went for it with my friend group; all preferred not to waste their 100 bucks on it. But as I was almost certain to take a chance with VB (still after having some drastic bad comments on twitter), one of them also joined me (although I do understand during the movie it was more of a giving company typeJ). Picked up a suitable seat in an almost empty hall and was ready for any form of a bad experience.

The rollercoaster ride began with Mandola’s US bought BMW destroying a wine shop as the Shoppe declined to give them on a dry day. A drunken Mandola leads a march of villagers intended against him, but goes to his cruel landlord avatar after coming back to normal sense. In this first couple of scenes VB had his take on the rich’s behavior and mind vs. heart tussle in today’s world.

Then it was the turn of a cunning politician and the ‘yes boss’ speaking bureaucrats. And a business deal between the wealthy Mandola and the politician which had the marriage of Mandola’s lively daughter Bijlee and the politician’s dumb son as its sidekick. The satirical take went on showing how the dumb son bought a group of African tribes and the whole village had only one higher educated guy, the protagonist Matru.

While Matru was working under Mandola, he was leading the farmers as ‘Mao Tse Tung’ by means of his ‘liberal communism’. In between all this land grabbing central theme VB too took on the news media, which made an chopper crash into an UFO attack and ignored to look on the prospering lands which were taken over from the farmers stating as unfertile land property.  After all the misuse of govt offices the farmers were compelled to sell their lands, the marriage cum business deal was confirmed ignoring the girl’s affection towards Matru. Even the way the politician lady (Chaudhury Devi!) taught his son the need of his marriage with Mandol’s   daughter, it had some stiff-blunt comments on Indian history or a satirical take on our history (my favorite dialogues of the movie).

Although climax was fully bollywoodish but it still had its say on our system.

Apart from this the ‘Gulabi Bhens’ episode which in my take was showing the modified communism of the time (not completely red, i.e. fully Maoist, bit diluted version as per the time needs) stayed at the top.

Laced with some intellectual punch lines and some great acting from Sir Pankaj Kapoor it will stay as the most socially relevant movie of the time and VB’s best for me (more than Maqbool).

HAIL VB!!!!!!!!!!!

PAINCHO!!!! PAINCHO!!!!

(Had a couple of awkward moments, when I was the only one laughing out loud on ‘Tu Mao se , tu left wali le’; And a group of girls bashing the movie for not having anything in it and I cant even say paincho, paincho!!! )