Mirch

Actors: Shreyas Talpade, Mahie Gill, Konkana Sen Sharma, Raima Sen, Shahana Goswami, Arunoday Singh, Ila Arun, Shreyas Talpade, Boman Irani

Director: Vinay Shukla

This is a rare Bollywood arousal. Bollywood grows and becomes more passionate after making a sarcastic remark on Amrika last week; this one raises and satisfies your hormones of fun, masti with its naughty level of horniness, ‘Mirch’ is a film with a one-track mind and a single ambition to entertain with layers and should happily wear that crown until another film sets out to steal it.

Coming from Vinay Shukla the helmer of the acclaimed ‘God Mother’ which starred Shabana Azmi in the lead, changes gear in ‘Mirchi’ but doesn’t forget to celebrate womanhood but this time with a wit on its own. Chauvinist may find it difficult t accept but for more open minds it an arousing experience. ‘Mirch’ gives ample time for the women to score which translates into extra coin for its prospects making it a must see comedy for adults.

Maanav (Arunoday Singh) is a struggling filmmaker who is unwilling to compromise on the script he has written. His girlfriend Ruchi (Shahana Goswami) a successful film editor, arranges for him to meet Nitin (Sushant Singh), a film producer. Nitin likes the script, but is not very sure of its commercial prospects. Maanav then suggests a story from the Panchtantra: ‘A woman is caught red-handed with her lover by her husband and yet, she manages to wriggle out of it scot-free!’ Nitin finds it too short for a feature film. Maanav then creates three more stories based on the same premise: in a way, the Panchtantra story travels in different versions to the modern times through the film. The four stories are woven together by a common story. ‘Mirch’ echoes the message - if you have your wits about you, you can salvage even the most impossible situation.

The message is simple - At a deeper level, ‘Mirch’ is about the gender equality in relationship. Mirch" is meant to be a 'tikhi', spicy and delectable account of sex, stolen pleasures and furtive philandering during times of day-to-day stress. Instead it turns out to be one of those half-cooked exotic dishes, more tempting for what it promises than actually delivers.

Vinay Shukla's last film "Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe", which came eight years ago is best forgotten. However his film prior to that "Godmother" stood tall and imposing primarily because of Shabana Azmi's preponderant performance as a politician in rural Gujarat who rips the male bastion apart with her no-nonsense approach to life and politics. "Mirch" is about the politics of sex. Set in two different time zones, the contemporary and 'period', it takes potshots at the male gaze as it falls on female sexuality. Each of the four stories has a protagonist, played by Raima Sen and Konkona Sen Sharma in two stories each, with a high libido level that they do nothing to hide.

In each story, the woman is caught red-handed by her husband doing 'it' with a lover. How the sexually-liberated woman in each story wriggles out of the bedroom crisis forms the core comicality in the quartet of stories. The four stories, apparently derived from the ancient Panchtantra tales and their designedly delicious denouement are neither convincing, nor funny enough to be outrageously fable-like. The stories just about manage to bring a smile on our faces. Not that Shukla can be faulted for his intelligent and astute handling of such an audacious idea. Strong sexual gestures specially in a woman make for very unpoetic cinema. Love when linked to lust tends to lose its lyrical lustre.

Shukla shoots his two heroines with a certain sensitivity, although there's not much room in the satirical tales of cuckoldry for subtlety he builds room for tender touches and fleeting moments of arresting intimacy. Raima's large limpid eyes lend a certain grace even to her character in the past and contemporary times. However Konkona's performances in her two tales suffer for the lack of inherent grace in the characters. And the actress doesn't seem to be enjoying the process of playing these 'naughty' characters. In her 'period' piece, Konkona cajoles her royal husband (Prem Chopra) to climb up a tree to watch her making love with the senapati.

How much fun for the actor and how funny for the audience can such a situation be? Go figure out. Interestingly, Shukla has cast Arunodoy Singh as the film's resident sex object. The female protagonists in three of the stories are shown lusting after him when they think their husbands are not around. To create a certain distance from the preposterous parodic premises, Shukla creates a film-within-film format whereby a young struggling idealistic filmmaker (Arunodoy) and his girlfriend (Shahana Goswami) try to convince a wily producer (Sushant Singh) to produce a film which has plenty of sex, humour and drama.

The stories that the young filmmaker in "Mirch" tells the cynical producer are the stories that we the audience see the not-so-young filmmaker Shukla tell with a blend of whittled-down passion and half-formed sensitivity. Some of it though not all, is interesting. As for the theme of creative compromise that triggers off the four-storeyed plot, is "Mirch" really liberated from those compromises?

The nothing-fancy, just-get-to-the-point approach continues throughout, with the known pattern of a film within a film. This modern version of Panchatantra which travels in its various versions to modern times never gets vulgar and its smartly devoted to its sexual undercurrent, Vinay’s narration makes it simple and smooth and is able to claim marvelous performance from its actors especially Konkona Sen Sharma.

The movie’s short stories are its comic highlight which comes with an unexpected twist in the end which makes it really funny. Disclosing the stories will kill the charm but it feels that the period story of the king in Rajasthan should end up being the favourite. Bollywood has had its share of comedies which tries to please all but this is loyal to its genre and succeeds in its elementary mission due to its sheer wit layered by fundamental realism about gender equality and coming out during difficult times with your wisdom.

Konkana is the best but Raima is not far behind, Arunoday Singh is natural, Shreyas Talpade is competent, Shahana Goswami is good as usual, Rajpal Yadav is fine, Boman Irani excels, Sushant Singh gives justice, Prem Chopra is apt, Saurabh Shukla is fair, Tisca Chopra and Ila Arun chip in with valuable support. The talked about love making scenes are well shot. Smartly shot and sharply edited with fine production values