Dr. Mala Chakravorty

At this juncture, enters new neighbor, Akash (Kay Kay Menon), who is everything that Mithilesh is not -- tall, smart, gregarious, successful, a foreign-returned software engineer from Delhi who also turns out to be Veena’s childhood friend. Veena and Akash share history, interests, and a love for fun. Deeply anguished by their rapport, Mithilesh feels more and more isolated and begins to believe that Akash is much better suited to Veena than he ever will be. Inspired by a movie he sees, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), he decided to emulate Ajay Devgan’s character and move out of the way of Veena’s happiness. What happens next, I will leave untold, to act as a teaser to potential viewers!

The movie belongs entirely to the exceptionally talented Rajpal Yadav. As in Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Rajpal brings to life this complex role of an ordinary man lacking self-worth and self-confidence. Reprising a role mastered by powerful actors like Amol Palekar, Faroukh Sheikh or Naseeruddin Shah, Rajpal gets under the skin of the unlikely tragi-comic ‘hero’ and drives the movie along as he suffers imagined and real indignities, turns uncharacteristically sneaky and manipulative, eventually withdrawing into stoic resignation and acting tragically sacrificing. The entire movie is from his point of view; all other characters and plot contrivances are props to the delineation of this character. To an extent this is a flaw in this character-driven film, as everything is seen through Mithilesh’s eyes. We don’t get to know anyone else at all, we see the outside, just as the obtuse Mithilesh sees it.

His wife, Veena, especially, is a bit of a stereotype: she is perfection personified -- angelic within and without, with no clue of the demons that plague her husband. Rituparna Sengupta, who is a big star in Bengali cinema, deglamorized (somewhat unsuccessfully) to fit the role of a small town middle-class housewife, looks gorgeous and gives a mature performance, but remains one-dimensional because of a narrow conceptualization of the character. As does the customary scene-stealer, Kay Kay Menon, who surprisingly remains in the shadows even as he plays his flamboyant role in his inimitable style. 

Of the other supporting cast, Varun Badola, the hockey-coach friend of Mithilesh, is a bit over-the-top in his attempts to be exuberant. Vinod Nagpal as the uncle is good and adds to the nostalgic factor of Hum Log fans when he hums a K.L. Saigal song as was his wont in that path-breaking soap. Sutradhar Naseeruddin Shah's narration at the beginning and end is an added attraction of the film.

One the greatest strengths of this movie is the way it positions small-town India. Old and new Lucknow are juxtaposed and come to life through Jehangir Chowdhury’s cinematography, Gautam Sen’s art, Pankaj Saraswat’s subtly ironic dialogues and Sanjay Jaipurwale’s background score. Anyone who has visited or lived in a North Indian small town can relate to the housing complex with the narrow stairways, compact apartments, balconies and terraces; the university campus with the crowded corridors, sparse offices; bustling streets and bazaars; extended families getting together in old havelis for matchmaking, weddings and naam-karan ceremonies; ghazal sessions in upper-class homes, sharaab-kabab sessions in middle-class ones; cricket matches on television eating pakodas with hot chai, cramped overnight bus rides to neighboring cities; bumpy auto-rickshaw rides; fiery aloo-tikkis and gol-gappas from roadside vendors; the rare treat of cold coffee with ice-cream in a fashionable café; haircuts in local barbers-shops with a decrepit radio blaring out Hindi film songs -- the examples are many. What also strikes us as familiar is the constant intrusion from family members, friends, neighbors, service people, even total strangers, in every aspect of an individual’s life. Many of us have come from a world so defined by ‘what people say’ that you really don’t have a life of your own. The language, with the UP intonations interspersed with smatterings of English, the invasion of new technology through cell-phones, email, computerized office systems, the introduction of supermarkets and fancy restaurants, posh car showrooms with smart car salesmen, all add to the ambience of a modern day Lucknow that is changing, but only superficially.

One thing that contemporary viewers will definitely wonder about is why such a savvy, educated, independent-minded woman like Veena would willingly marry someone as nondescript as Mithilesh. The concept of “seeing a girl” and the elaborate ritual of the “showing” that follows seem dehumanized and regressive in our present-day world. We also question this basic concept of an arranged marriage in its traditional form where two total strangers are put together by their families and expected to live together happily ever after, with the woman giving up her home, family, personal aspirations, and immersing herself in her duties as ‘wife’. Veena’s complete contentment as housewife, even though the couple doesn’t seem to have much in common, is inexplicable in the modern context. Why does she never think about taking up a job? Does she really prefer to cook delectable dishes for her husband and whoever drops by, day after day? This situation reminded me of Kisise Na Kehna (1983) where the character of Deepti Naval happily concealed the fact that she was a doctor and immersed herself in domesticity because her uncle-in-law was prejudiced against modern educated women! 

To be fair to the filmmakers, the movie has to be placed within the context of the small town and middle-class setting where such arranged marriages are still fairly prevalent and educated women accept their pre-destined roles without questioning. Marital compatibility is an alien concept in this world. Looking at the tagline of the movie: “A Mismatched Couple”, one should consider the fact that not every married couple outside the realm of romantic literature and cinema is ‘made for one another’. The movie could have taken an angle of true marital compatibility being based on mutual interests, shared ideas and values, without focusing so much on the disparity in physical appearances. There was a lot of raw material in the chosen subject matter that could have been developed to analyze the complexities of human relationships. However, it seems that the director opted not to explore that avenue and stuck to his chosen subject matter -- the inner turmoil of a man who has an inferiority complex that threatens to corrode his mental equilibrium and change his entire life.

To give him his due, within the limited scope, Chandan Arora has done a great job in presenting to us a heart-warming story of ordinary people living ordinary lives without depending on star power of any kind. Even though the movie skims through the surface of some serious issues, the second half tends to drag a bit, and the ending is predictably contrived, Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh stands out in the midst of the gloss, glamour, and gore, typical of the regular Bollywood fare. The approach and treatment are simplistic and charmingly archaic, maintaining a nice balance of humor and emotions that makes this small-budgeted, unpublicized movie different and definitely worth a watch!