It's a film about, love and gives you something to laugh about here and there, but more importantly it's a story about political corruption, village brutality and a revolution waiting to take place...
Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapoor) is presented to us as the filthy-rich businessman, whose only desire is to turn the Haryana village into a corporate, industrial, capitalist city. Whilst the village- farmers earn a living out of harvesting crops here, Mandola dreams of tarnishing the fertile land to build an abundance of shopping malls, business hubs and other multi national corporations. Mandola will do whatever it takes to make his dream come true, and his selfish, greedy and ruthless nature makes it seem almost impossible for him to back down from his master plan. This, however, is not the only side to Mandola, as his severe drinking habit turns hims into a man who carries out a protest march against himself, and drunkenly disapproves of his future actions!
His one and only daughter, Bijlee (Anushka Sharma) is set to marry Chaudhry Devi's (Shabana Azmi's) son Baadal (Arya Babbar), in which Devi believes the alliance will vastly assist with the building of a factory site, and Mandola believes he will vastly profit from too. In between all this political chaos, one educated villager- Matru (Imran Khan) plays an infinite role in stopping all this from happening! The hero of the plot, works as Mandola's sidekick assistant, yet consistently fights for his fellow villagers rights to freedom , and their rights to maintaining their agricultural land too. From throwing cow dung to protest against land ownership, to getting Mandola drunk to confess to what he is doing is betrayal against his own villagers, Matru does whatever it takes to bring about a revolution! What we find, however is Matru's plans to bring about change fail miserably, and the only thing that brings an end to Mandola and Devi's corruptive plans is Matru and Bijlee's love for one another!
Where the whole film was based around the realities of political corruption, bribery and betrayal, the film ends on a very unrealistic point- in which 'love' supposedly conquers and heals all political evil! Vishal Bhardwaj has created a film whose underlying issues concern the rural masses across India, however, because his ending gives in too easily to everything looking ever so rosy and ever so easy- it leaves audiences like myself somewhat disappointed! As Mandola is presented as someone with an inexcusable drinking habit who transforms into a quirky freedom fighter like the rest of the villagers, audiences can predict early on that his industrial plans will fail miserably. Bringing together Matru and Bijlee as the lovers in the story, is also rather predictable, as in the second half of the film it becomes pretty obvious that their love is the only thing that will shape the future of Haryana!
Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola- isn't exactly a poor watch, and despite the wacky dance moves and predictable storyline, the three characters in the title of the film, do everything they can to keep their audiences entertained. Pankaj Kapoor gives an outstanding performance, whilst both Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma acted like true village stars too! It's comic at times, and certainly lives up to the Vishal Bhardwaj expectations- it's worth a watch once, but I'm not sure if I would go out my way to watch it again!
Ratings: 3.5/5
Kin x
