Quirk is difficult to understand as a viewer and handle as a filmmaker. It is often dismissed as being silly and incoherent, only rarely getting the attention and accolade it deserves. I would credit the likes of Woody Allen and Quentin Tarentino with making quirk cool. In Indian cinema, with its cultural richness to draw from, quirk is a Godsend for we are tired of looking at caricatures who pass off as comedians. ‘Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola’ is a brave attempt to look at a serious problem of land grab through a set of quirky characters in a rural setting.
In appreciating quirk, we need to appreciate the imagination of the writer in creating zany characters with zanier habits. Here we have Harry Mandola, a rich alcoholic who, while sober has a dream of getting all farmers of the Mandola village to sell their land to him, so that he can develop malls, factories and the works in partnership with a corrupt local politician Chaudhari Devi who wants her idiot son Badal to marry Harry’s daughter Bijlee to sweeten the deal and seal it. Harry’s man Friday is Hukum Singh Matru, who nurses a soft corner for Bijlee, has a strong loyalty towards the service of the Mandola family and a growing concern for his village’s problems.
While the villagers are wary of Harry and Devi’s fiendish scheme, they are unable to negotiate with them without the help of a vigilante, curiously named Mao who directs them from time to time with messages tied to trees. Harry while drunk is a benevolent man who feels for his villagers. How the village of Mandola survives the land shark attack, how do they use Harry’s split personality to their advantage is what the plot tries to uncover.
Vishal Bhardwaj has carved a niche for himself as a sensitive film maker who writes thought provoking stories which unfold in rustic settings with interesting characters. With ‘Matru.’, Bhardwaj gives himself enough creative freedom to build a truly wild bunch of characters against a very real situation of land grab by the corporate-politico nexus, at the expense of farmers. His contrast of this wild bunch against a real problem is the real usp of the film’s writing and direction.
Where he falls short is in the sub plots – Bijlee’s difficult relationship with her father and her strange acquiescence to marry Badal which Matru refers to as a ‘Meena Kumari complex’, Matru’s conflict of loyalty between his village and his master, Devi’s linking of the Mandola land grab with a runway to a bigger position in Delhi and the obvious question – haven’t farmers made it big around the NCR region by selling land? Is it such a bad thing? Is getting the right price the real issue?
The film belongs to Pankaj Kapur, that fine talented artiste who has been reduced to doing 1 movie every 3 years for want of good scripts. Kapur as the sober shark and the delirious drunk is equally fascinating to watch as he is as a loving father and a chiding yet doting master. Shabana Azmi lends him wonderful support as his partner in crime but is not supported by good material. Anushka Sharma has the rustic sex appeal, but fails to impress as an actor. Imran Khan may have grown a beard but remains a wooden actor. Arya Babbar seems to be stereotyped as the idiot, but at least lives up to expectations.
‘Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola’ is a brave attempt at a difficult sub-genre, and almost makes it work. Worth a watch though.
