Review : Main meri patni aur woh

Take a look at Indian society. Look closely at our hang-ups with marriage : caste/creed, gender, height, color, weight, wealth etc. Into this prejudicial society introduce a short, plain, unassuming man, and his tall, beautiful, vivacious wife. And let the fireworks begin.MMPAW is a very detailed look at the life of Lucknow based Mithilesh Shukla (Yadav), a regular, non-descript sort of a guy, who has washed his hands off marriage, until his nagging mom and her concerned brother (Vinod Nagpal) get him to see Veena (Sengupta) as a prospective bride. Veena is beautiful, cultured, educated and pretty much everything Mithilesh wants. She is also leggy, a good 6″ taller than our hero. This doesn’t concern him too much, until he overhears people talk and laugh at his relative lack of stature/looks. Everyday situations, such as driving a scooter, with a tall wife towering from the back-seat, or a fawning doodh-wala (milk-man) delivering milk, become a nagging headache for the insecure Mithilesh. More problems crop up when Veena’s good college friend, the TALL, worldly, smart Akash (Menon) moves into the flat next door, and jealousy consumes Mithilesh, leading him into a quagmire of problems, which threaten to rip apart his life.

Akash is everything Mithilesh is not. He’s charming, suave, interesting and has the gift of the gab, as compared to our awe-struck librarian. Mithilesh in attempt to be more like him, tries medicene from quacks, and exercise, and even tries to imitate Akash’s style. But does that help ? See the film to find out.

This is very off-beat film, with outstanding performances from the cast. Yadav and Menon are masters at their art, and Rituparna is no less. Varun Badola as Salim, Mithilesh’s friend, manages just the right amount of exhuberance. And Vinod Nagpal (remember him from “Humlog” ?) as the “Mama” is very convincing. Characters are well-fleshed out, and the dialogues are apt for the situations and the locale.

The film is told completely from Mithilesh’s view-point, his fears and his paranoia form the crux of the problem. We see Veena, Akash, Salim and others as Mithilesh sees them. Admittedly there are flaws. By the nature of it’s telling the film is slow, the pace is of day-to-day happenings. And the story has it’s kinks, which seem unrealistic. Veena’s character changes subtly through the film, from a thoughful girl (what else would you call a girl who chooses a husband not for his height but his intellect, i.e.; one not influenced by society’s prejudices) to one who wants romantic, candle-lit dinners, and that for me took away some of the impact.

Chandan Arora, who brought us the stellar “Main Madhuri Dixit banna chahti hoo” (see best films of 2003) impresses once again with this delightful film. Touted as a comedy, MMPAW is actually more of a thoughful drama, with doses of realistic humor, and a welcome change from the mind-numbing slapstick which passes for Hindi cinema these days. A must-see.