Friday, September 14, 2018

Manmarziyaan – F for flawed



To put it in one line, Manmarziyan is the modern day, Anurag Kashyap version of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam – a love triangle with a feisty Rumi (Tapsee Pannu) , her commitment-phobic lover Vicky (Kaushal) and her goody two-shoes husband Robbie (Abhishek Bachchan). With AK as the director you also get a generous dose of Fyar. Also, as in most AK movies, the characters are realistic and flawed. All three characters are annoyingly indecisive.  This will go down in history as the first love triangle I watched, in which I felt sorry for none.

I get that the name of the movie is Manmarziyan (whims of the mind), but by interval time I felt like screaming “aargh, one of you please make up your mind.” Even after their wedding, when Robbie suspects that Rumi is still in touch with Vicky, he tells her “You make the decision. Koi jaldi nahi hain.”  What do you mean ‘jaldi nahi hain’? Hamein hain!

So many questions that cross the mind - Even after being stood up twice by Vicky, Rumi still feels she can trust him when he says he will elope with her a day before the wedding. Is this madness? Or just fyar? Even after knowing he can’t commit to her and knowing she has finally married someone else, Vicky still interferes in her life. Is this self-centerdness or fyar? And even after knowing she is still in love with Vicky and has told him she doesn't want to marry him, Robbie still wants to marry her and fall into the mess. What is stupidity, if not this?

The script shows a middle finger to the age-old Bollywood mantra of “Love is sacrifice”. My generation (of 40 pluses) will at least watch the movie with an open mind and try to analyze it. But fyar, virginity talk, abortion, deceit and infidelity are sure to make the elders just walk out in disgust. Like the 15+ rating (here in Dubai), there should also be 50- rating, in my honest opinion 😉

As far as the acting is concerned they all do a perfect job. Vicky (Oh Vicky, you’re so fine, you’re so fine..) and Tapsee (at her energetic best) look convincing as the young lovers madly in love. Abhishek tries to shine as the mature husband but his character feels the weakest of the three and demands more conviction. The rest of the cast is decent too, but has not much to do but look over helplessly as the three musketeers continue with their manmarziyaan. The dancing twins (Poonam and Priyanka Shah who first appeared on a dance reality show), make periodic ghost-like appearances in the movie, sometimes to the audience’s bewilderment.  My interpretation is that they represent the mind and the heart. When both are in agreement, they dance in unison. When both are at war, they appear somber. 

What I loved most about the movie is Amit Trivedi’s soundtrack – with my personal favorites – “Halla” followed by “Daryaa”. Many of the songs often continue in the background adding punch to the melodrama. Halla will play in repeat mode in my playlist for the next few days!

To sum it up, AK’s directorial love story as one of the songs put it, is neither Kala na Safed, but in between “Gray wala shade” (uncertain as always!)

My rating: 2.5 stars

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