Cast: Soumitra
Chatterjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Raima Sen, Swastika Mukherjee, Parno Mittra, Shauvik
Kundagrami, Rachita Chauhan, Anubrata Basu, Pamela Singh
Bhutoria, Neha Panda, Pradip Mukhopadhyay and Anuradha Roy
Director:
Mainak Bhaumik
The opening
credits unfold with sketches of Kolkata, setting the mood for a light-hearted,
enjoyable two hours with your popcorn. Maach,
Mishti & More is a mint fresh urban romantic comedy set in the
cosmopolitan Kolkata. Mainak’s third film tells the tale of the trials and
tribulations in the relationships of three brothers in a joint family in an old house.
The eldest,
Rahul (Shauvik), is an NRI based in US who chucks his high-paying corporate
career to come back to his city with the dream to start his own restaurant (‘To
cook for others’ in his mother’s words). Rony, the middle one (Parambrata), is doing well in a corporate job, earns handsomely, and struggles to meet expectations of his
Marwari girlfriend (Rachita) from a rich family. Raju, or Raj, the third one
(Anubrata), is a struggling actor who dreams of his big break in Bollywood. All
of them love to spend time with their ‘Dadu’ (Soumitra), who believes in living life on his own
terms and is at ease dealing with gen Y (He goes to his morning walk in cool roundneck tees). While Rahul and Raj are sorted out in
their personal lives - Rahul has a settled and routine life with Rina, his wife
of three years (Swastika), and Raj doesn’t date a girl for long - Rony is the
confused soul. He is in love with Swati but not sure of committing to marriage.
Each of them happens to meet a new girl and life takes a turn from
that point. Rahul comes across June (Pamela), his friend’s colleague, who helps
him in setting up his business. Rony bumps into Ishani (Raima), his college mate, now a yoga & reiki teacher and Raj meets Neha (Neha), with who his past two encounters were unpalatable, in a meeting set up by his mother to help her son in his career. Meanwhile Dadu meets Sunny, a college-going tomboy (Parno) in the local tea shop and helps him sort out her love life.
What is
refreshing to see is that the women in Mainak’s film are , in varying degrees, confident, liberated, unapologetic for the right reasons and take their own
decisions, yet are true to their feminine selves. The men are overshadowed by
these stronger women, which reflects the changing equation of modern urban
society. Mainak takes a look at the idiosyncrasies of the Bengali and never stops
short of having a hearty laugh at it. In the same spirit the film shows a young
girl lighting up in the middle of the conversation with someone her
grandfather’s age or a homemaker sharing a fag with her much younger
brother-in-law. Going ahead, it treats the death after a life well lived
with a song, rather than the familiar background score. Some moments of the
film did remind me of Aamra – Mainak’s
debut film.
The
performances elevate the film, helped by apt casting, and taut script and
dialogue by Mainak (with additional writing by Pratim D. Gupta, the maker of the last Puja release Paanch Adhyay. Everyone fits the bill for his / her part. Soumitra is
superb as the old man of the family rediscovering life in his city of love. I have always wondered
why none offered an actor of his calibre a role like this, breaking out of the
stereotype he has been forced in. Neha (also one of the stylists in this film)
is impressive as the kickass Neha driving bike with Raj riding pillion. Swastika
is good as the bored wife thanks to an ever busy husband, and disgusted by the middle
class practices in her in-law’s family on return from abroad, yet making an
effort to win over her husband from the other woman. Though Anubrata is the
natural choice for his role, he is just rocking as Raj representing gen Y. His
telephonic conversation with a prospective landlord in a coffee shop is uproariously
funny. The three leading men show fabulous comic timing. Ajopa Mukhpadhyay, the
other stylist of the film, also shone in the small role as sister to her real
life sister Swastika. Neha and Ajopa have done an equally good job in styling. Shauvik’s
accent sounded a little too heavy though. And I wish Anuradha Roy (the mother)
was given a better wig.
The sepia
frames lovingly embrace the different parts of the old and the new Kolkata.
They are perfectly complimented by the well-worded songs (by Srijit, Rituparno
and others) put to hummable tunes by Neel Dutt and sung by Rupankar, Somlata
and Timir among others. The title track, the one with Param-Raima and one with
Anubrata-Neha are particularly good. Supriyo Datta has done a good job behind
the camera. The editing job could be better though, the cuts in some scenes
look a bit rushed.
There are minor
glitches, like Sunny’s character could have been fleshed out a bit more to lend
it a credibility that it lacks or the mother’s shock at her son’s return from
abroad to pursue that silly dream being too mild. Rony’s frequently walking
into Ishani’s ongoing classes and starting a very personal conversation also
looks odd. But one is still able to set aside all this once out of the theatre thanks to the overall
feel good factor.
Mainak said in
his Calcutta Times pre-release interview that he sincerely believes he is a mediocre
director who has a shitload of interesting stories to tell. Well, Maach, Mishti & More is indeed an
interesting story, but it’s no mediocre work either. In fact, this is the best
from Mainak. Go for it!
