Watched this over the weekend. My personal opinion, comming from a household where the parents lived this problem, the movie is very close to reality. However real the issue at hand maybe; the storytelling lacked. Worth checking out on a lonely Saturday night when you dont feel like watching the usual lathkas and jathkas.
Movie Review
Main Meri Patni Aur Woh - This ‘chote babu’ has come of age
Joginder Tuteja, IndiaGlitz [Saturday, October 08, 2005]
“This is going to be one light hearted entertainer that would keep a smile on your face for its entire duration” - that’s the thought one has after watching the promos of ‘Main Meri Patni Aur Woh’, second directorial venture of Chandan Arora, who earlier came up with ‘Main Madhuri Dixit Banana Chahti Hoon’. The thought comes true for the first half of the movie but evaporates during the second half as soon as the movie takes a serious turn. Nothing wrong about that as MMPAW was never touted to be a rib tickling comedy a la a ‘No Entry’ that would have kept you in splits throughout. But then the story that could have been an ideal fare for 100 minutes has been packaged in 140 minutes that makes the movie loose its impact. Nevertheless, a story told in a sweet and simple fashion, it is enhanced due to great performances and an honest attempt by the second time director.
The storyline is very simple and identifiable. Mithilesh Shukla [Rajpal Yadav] is a 34 years old bachelor working as a librarian in the Lucknow University. An introvert by nature, his short height doesn’t do anything great for his self-esteem and hence he never thinks of marriage due to the fear of rejection. Popularly called ‘chote-babu’, his life changes for better when after much coaxing by his uncle [Vinod Nagpal] and ever-ready-to-weep mom [whether it is ‘khushi’ aur ‘gham’], he is made to meet 30 years old Veena [Rituparna Sengupta], a mature and beautiful woman. After two back to back rounds of 100 course breakfast and lunch, sparks fly between the two over a coffee and on a rainy night, Veena ‘proposes’ marriage. Pretty sure that he would be rejected by Veena, Mithilesh’s happiness is no bounds and pronto the two of them take 7 ‘pheras’.
A perfect homemaker, Veena makes Mithilesh’s life a living heaven, but Mithilesh’s insecurities appended by his complex do not allow this happiness to be sustained. His best friend Saleem [Varun Badola], milkman, vegetable vendors, auto rickshaw driver, youngsters in his neighborhood - he starts speculating that everyone around him is trying to come extra close to his wife. Being an ardent Shiv-bhakt, he gets some ideas and ousts each of them by his ‘paintra’ [tactics]. He makes Saleem get a ‘rakhi’ tied by Veena, fires the milkman and opts for ‘Amul full toned milk’ [a subtle yet well placed in-film commercial], starts buying vegetables from super-marts and drives Veena on a scooter rather than an auto. In short, gets his life back to normalcy.
At this point enters ‘woh’ in the life of ‘pati aur patni’. Woh - a tall dark dark handsome Aakash [Kay Kay Menon]. An epitome of a perfect guy which Mithilesh is not! Aakash arrives from Delhi to Lucknow to automate his library and as luck would have it, he gets his guest room right opposite their apartment and to add insult to the injury turns out to be Veena’s one time buddy! Veena and Aaksh continue to share a great camaraderie even after a gap of a few years and Mithilesh’s complexes start becoming deeper rooted from hereon! He tries to distance the two by some means or other but the unsuspecting duo never realize his concerns.
At the back of his mind, he realizes that Aakash is a much better personality than him and tries to ape his mannerisms. He starts drinking and smoking just like him, gets facials done in the saloons, tries to be more polished. And this is when something unthinkable happens…
The movie moves on quite well for the entire first half and there are enough moments that make you go for those sweet little giggles. You don’t go for a full hearted laugh but then that’s by design rather than a flaw as the movie has been made in the style of 70s when such movies starring the likes of Faaroque Sheikh and Amol Palekar were made aplenty. The sense of humor belongs to the same genre - subtle, down to earth and very simple, rather than of on-your-face variety. Director Chandan Arora succeeds quite well in building up a great base for the story to take on from there. In fact when Kay Kay Menon arrives at the interval point, one expecs the drama to reach an all time high. But that doesn’t really happen in totality. There are some light moments in the second half too but not as many that you could take home with. In fact majority of scenes from thereon take their own sweet time to meet an end and reach a logical conclusion. In short, the proceedings drag to a great extent.
In terms of sequences, the best ones are reserved during the first half, which are witty and keep you smiling throughout. Screenplay by Pankaj Saraswat and Ashok Khanna is quite good till this juncture. But post interval, things somehow fail to move at number of crucial junctures like an unwanted song by Kay Kay in a party, the entire drinks session between Rajpal and Kay Kay and a hallucination sequence thereafter. Nevertheless pre-climax is a high point when Mithilesh confides in Veena about Aakash being the best match for her. Performances by both Rajpal and Rituparna are simply superb at this juncture.
Overall the movie belongs completely to Rajpal Yadav. He is literally present in every frame of the movie and he excels in an award winning performance. After working in around 50 films, he has now shown to the world his versatility and proves that he can play an introvert yet lovable middle class educated person with as much elan as a buffoon [Hulchul]. A remarkable performance! Chandan Arora should be applauded for showing trust in this bundle of talent and making him the lead role of the film. Rituparna Sengupta is a delight to watch and she not only looks beautiful but acts wonderfully too. Her naughty nature compliments her mature mentality to a great extent, due to which the chemistry between her and Rajpal is simply superb.
Kay Kay surprisingly takes a back seat in this movie, which is quite rare for him as he always manages to steal the show from right under the nose of everyone. But in MMPAW, he is just fine. In fact Varun Badola makes a much greater impression with audience remembering him even after the show is over. He brings a certain feel-good factor come alive on screen. Vinod Nagpal is good too, especially in the first half where he gets his maximum screen time.
Sanjay Jaipurwale’s background score is appropriate while the two songs that work in the narrative are ‘Doob Jaana Re’ and ‘Roz Hum Badlege Paintra’. Dialogues [Pankaj Saraswat] belong to every day variety while cinematography by Jehangir Chowdhury captures the mood of a small city well.
For a movie starring Rajpal Yadav as a main lead, the movie has taken quite a good start at some of the reported centers. The movie may not be phenomenal but still is a watchable fare. With no competition in sight for 2-3 weeks and a low budget, the movie may just about manage to break even at the city multiplexes.