Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta

Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta is the title of the film though incongruously the lead protagonists happen to be Mr. Mehta and Mrs. Singh. First-timer Pravesh Bhardwaj’s direction keeps you as much puzzled as much as the intentional inversion in his film’s title. 

With a painter protagonist going through artistic block, snail-paced tempo, self-styled aesthetic female nudity, circumstantially complicated human relationships and a climax so symbolic and subtle that you never comprehend when the end credits roll, Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta meets all the requisite criteria of the alleged art-house cinema. Nothing wrong about it other than the fact that though the film expectedly runs out of entertainment, this one also fails to enlighten or even emotionally touch, move or bind you.

First-time director Pravesh Bhardwaj is entering the world of Hindi films with "Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta", a new story on marital infidelity. Releasing Friday, the movie will show how circumstances force married people into relationships outside wedlock.

Based in London, the film stars Prashant Narayanan and British-Indian actress Aruna Shields in lead roles along with Lucy Hassan and Naved Aslam. Grammy-nominated sitarist Ustad Shujaat Hussain Khan has composed music for this extramarital saga by UTV Motion Pictures.

The story revolves around two people - Ashwin (Prashant) and Neera (Aruna) who come to know that their respective spouses are cheating on them. Drawn together by shame and anger, they find comfort in their friendship. Though they try not to have any relationship with each other, they end up becoming lovers.

As the movie is about cheating spouses, it has a lot of bold scenes including 34 kissing scenes. Thanks to the many smooches, the film has created a lot of buzz. The censor board raised eyebrows over a scene where Aruna sheds her clothes for a painting. However, the movie was later cleared but with an A-certificate.

Bhardwaj's wife Shruti Nagar, who works with Rajshri Productions, is not happy with the overdose of nudity in the film. She has objected to the way the intimate scenes have been picturised. But Bhardwaj insists the low budget film has a lot more to offer than bold scenes.

"The film is not only about kissing and nude scenes as thought of by many. It has got a lot more to offer like a different story, an unique treatment of the script, performances by the stars and music by Shujaat Husain Khan," Bhardwaj told IANS. He is confident the audiences will accept his movie.

"I have tried to portray on reel what happens in real life. I think audiences are mature enough to understand it. This is not the first time when an actress has bared all for a movie. People have accepted it earlier and I am hopeful they will accept it in my film too," Bhardwaj said.

"Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta" is not the first film of lead actors Prashant and Aruna. Prashant, seen on the small screen, was critically acclaimed for his performance in "Waisa Bhi hota Hai Part 2" and also did a role in Ketan Mehta's controversial period drama "Rang Rasiya". He says working in "Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta" was challenging.

"I wanted to do the film as I found the script challenging. Filming for the movie was difficult because it had different requirements. It was not easy to stand in front of a nude woman who I barely knew. It was even uncomfortable for her (Aruna) but at the end we managed to give our best shots," Narayanan told IANS.

June 25, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Aditya Mehta (Prashant Narayanan) is an artist who is more shown painting his wife’s toenails than the colours of the canvas. His wife Sakhi Mehta (Lucy Hassan) is shown to be having an extramarital affair with Karan Singh (Naved Aslam). Now, Karan’s wife Neera Singh (Aruna Shields) discovers that her husband is cheating on her and she ends up seeking solace in Aditya’s company. They get drawn together by shame and anger as they find more comfort in each other’s friendship. But despite bonding well, they try not to have a relationship with each other.

One fails to understand that though the adultery is shown openly obvious since the start, why do Aditya and Neera never try to confront their respective partners over it? Trying to make the film more provocative widespread nudity has been incorporated on the pretext that overcome his block by painting nude female form ala Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Now funnily, Neera is shown to be shying away from posing nude for the painting that Aditya wants to do, despite the fact that she has been shown moving around naked in Aditya’s warehouse for big part of the film. What irritates more are the continually censored blurs that attempt to cover up her nude body. The climax is supposedly symbolic but it is too rushed that you end up feeling there some more of the film left! There is nothing wrong in making a complete art house project but at least let the film connect on some level or derive some emotion out of the viewer apart from frustration!