Review of Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013) by Ed C — 21 Nov 2013

One line summary: The corrupt and entitled versus the poor and disenfranchised in rural India.

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This starts out in class warfare mode, extremely rich landowner, Harry Mandola, versus indigent farm workers. Bijlee is Harry's daughter. Baadal, the son of one of Harry's political ally Chaudhari Devi, presents her with a dance number complete with Zulu tribes people from South Africa. Matru is one of Harry's trusted workers, but he's a lower class worker. He's not so happy with Bijlee spending so much time with Baadal.

To add to the comedy elements, Harry has a history of excessive drinking, and he swears off toward the beginning of the film. Then he gets the DTs (delirium tremens), and starts seeing shocking pink water buffalo and the like. Harry's doctor's receptionist is a large woman who likes to wear pink. There's an ongoing joke in which she is referred to as the pink buffalo.

Chaudhari Devi has been a government official for 20 years, and has helped Harry get his way in exchange for this and that. At a party, Harry takes up drinking again. He calls Baadal in idiot, and trusts Matru to keep him from falling. Baadal seems to be Devi's emasculated son; she tells him how to think. Nice.

Baadal does, however, come up with the idea of destroying all the farmers' crops with a chemical that is a pesticide at low doses, and an herbide at slightly higher doses. The land grabbers intend to poison the land for years, which will enable them to acquire the farmers' land at much lower costs so that they can do construction instead of farming.

How does this play out? Will Bijlee go with Matru, whom she has known for 20 years, or Baadal, whom she has known for 5, mostly at school? How will the movement of the disenfranchised poor versus the rich and corrupt turn out?

------Scores--------.

Cinematography: 10/10 Lovely.

Sound: 10/10 Very good.

Acting: 9/10 Imran Khan was very good. Pankarj Kapur was excellent. Anushka Sharma and Arya Babbar were rather good.

Screenplay: 8/10 Frequently funny, often touching. A bit long, though.