Mandi

Mandi is without a doubt one of the most entertaining movies of the great Shyam Benegal. Through this film, Benegal presents the world of young prostitutes and their madame, all of whom reside in an old brothel in Hyderabad. But unlike the glamorous portrayal of courtesans which are so common in Hindi movies, here we see an authentic and realistic depiction of the routine and effervescent neighbourhood and the brothel in particular. Benegal perfectly captures the atmosphere of the people residing in the village and his portrayal of their lifestyle is very impressive.

Mandi explores the hypocrisy of the society, but it's not as much a social movie as it is a satirical comedy. This is one of Benegal's most enjoyable movies in this regard. The film includes so many hilarious moments, keeping the audience entertained and yet never losing its seriousness. The humour comes in equal parts from the superb witty dialogues, the lifelike situations, the colourful characters, and the dark, ironic mood of the film, in which a serene but humorous narrative presents serious issues and flavours them with great sarcasm. That's what makes the film the more so amusing and funny.

One of the reasons Mandi works is the collaborative work of the ensemble cast, which includes some of the most talented actors in India, all of whom understand the film's darkly comic tone and act accordingly. Unquestionably, it is Shabana Azmi who leads the film as Rukmini, the domineering but caring madame of the house. At 33, Azmi plays a woman much ahead of her years, and she delivers an incredibly convincing and colourful portrayal, which is unrestrained and subtle at the same time. In preparation for the role, Azmi put on weight, and despite looking young, she definitely looks the part. Her unusually loud tone and crudely unrefined mannerisms are masterfully done, and it's both amazing and amusing to see her switching moods from angry to happy to suffering to motherly and loving. This is one of her most entertaining performances.

The rest of the cast is there to support Azmi, with Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah acquiring top honours. Patil is wonderful as the young and gentle Zeenat, who is also Rukmini's most beloved girl in the brothel, whom she has treated like her own daughter and for whom she cares the most. Shah delivers a greatly ambiguous performance as Rukmini's loyal employee, who indulges in funny and diverting emotional outbursts when she is not nearby. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is very good as the sophisticated businessman. Saeed Jaffrey is hilarious as Agarwal, who shares a common secret with Rukmini. Om Puri, Amrish Puri, and Pankaj Kapur lend adequate support in smaller parts, and so does the entire group of the brothel's girls, which includes such famous names as Ila Arun, Anita Kanwar, Ratna Pathak, Neena Gupta and Soni Razdan.

Mandi has music composed by Vanraj Bhatia, a regular in Benegal films. There are very few songs, but they are all nice. Mandi is a highly watchable movie. My favourite scenes are those taking place in Zeenat's room when several men come to visit her, much to Rukmini's displeasure. I loved the film's ending. Despite leaving several questions unanswered, it shows that there always is a ray of hope in everything. One of Shyam Benegal's most unusually crafted works, a great film with dark humour (which is so missing in Indian movies) and fantastic performances, which deserves many repeat viewings.

Based on a short story from an Urdu short story called "Anandi" by Ghulam Abbas, Mandi is presented as a black comedy about a group of prostitutes, led by Rukminibai, who struggle against the 'morality-police' forces in the city that want them thrown out, and their brothel destroyed to make room for 'development'.

This film is among Shyam Benegal's best work. Benegal assembles some highly professional actors, with Shabana Azmi excelling as the crude, selfish, yet likable "Bai" (madam) of the "Khota" (brothel), Smita Patil as the beautiful, gentle-looking, but rebellious Zeenat. The movie rests on their strong performances, and also on Naseeruddin Shah's, whose character reveals a lot about the 'khota' and about the relationships between its inhabitants. The relationship between Rukminibai and Tungrus is deceptively simple, for underneath all their interactions there is a deep concern they share for each other. This is why we see Tungrus being excessively critical of her during the opening scenes; he worries for her.

The relationship between Rukminibai and Zeenat is one of the main focuses of this movie; Rukminibai loves Zeenat like a daughter, but feels threatened when Zeenat wants to assert her freedom, and becomes addicted to 'taking care' of Zeenat and keeping her under her control. She eventually alienates herself from all the women who work for her, and her seemingly strong personality disintegrates, and right when she is on the verge of breaking down, and when the possibility of starting afresh and maybe beginning a reflective process of self-recovery appears, she tragically falls into the cycle of selfish-love/'motherly' control again.

Other interesting facets of this movie include the 'social worker', Shanti Devi, who is concerned about the moral degradation of the city, and fights the unrelenting prostitutes to claim back lost honor. There is an especially emotionally frustrating scene where Shanti Devi speaks about how a woman should be respected and not sold, while addressing a crowd, and proclaims that she will persuade her 'sisters' to give up this lowly work. Some prostitutes respond with, "And where will we get our bread?" Shanti Devi, the great, compassionate womens-rights espouser coldly says, "Bread isn't everything in life." One of the women casually reply with bursting frustration: "you must get it for free."

The prostitutes' fate feebly dangles in between these powerful forces--on the one side, there is the moral, 'feminist', social-worker, who is so superficially attached to her 'cause' that she cannot relate to real women and their struggles, and on the other, there is the powerful industrialist, Gupta, who buys their brothel with the intention of razing it down, but continues to mislead them.

Other female representations include Gupta's extremely-inhibited, mentally-restrained, child-like daughter, for whom he strategically arranges a marriage with the son of another powerful figure who also ties-in with the prostitutes in another manner. Aditya Bhattacharya plays the innocent, young Sushil, engaged to Gupta's daughter, but attracted to the liveliness and beauty he perceives in the unpretentious Zeenat. His attraction to her soon proves to be problematic, however.

This movie very subtly points out how morally-lacking these surrounding forces are, and how the prostitutes, who seem more real and bound by morals than the other, rather snobbish, 'respectable' people, ultimately are forced to take the blame for 'moral degradation' and are forced to leave the city (their struggles don't end there). This theme is at the heart of the recurring song (Rukminibai hums it often, and also asks Zeenat to sing it), "Zabaane Badalte Hain Har Aan Khubaan.. Yeh Sab Kuch Hai Bigdi Zamaane Ki Baatein."

This is a classic. I am sure this movie would have been a great point of inspiration for the making of sanjay leela bansalis "Gangubai khathiavadi". The tone of both the movies feel pretty similar. The another point of coincidence is that alia bhatts mother soni Razhdan plays a major role in this movie (alia bhatt played the lead role in gangu bhai khathiavadi). Shabana azmi is just breath taking in this movie. Her style, her beauty, her natural charisma and screen presence just made me fall in love with her. All the other actors smita patil, nasiruddin shah, soni Razhdan, neena gupta, ila arun and many other actors, all give an amazing performance. Just seeing a whole bunch of talented actors working together itself is such a joy. The set design, the cinematography gives this movie that aesthetics which makes this movie stand the test of time. The writing and staging of scenes are amazing. The climax portions of this movie is amazingly shot, even giving this movie a spiritual perspective. It's so amazing that this movie discusses and shows the topics which are usually considered taboo, and gives it's perspective on sex workers and it's significance in society (remeber the movie was released in 1983)

What worked:

• ensemble cast; the movie has one of the finest actors of the industry in their early years of their best career. It's a pleasure to see all these actors portray their roles for a challenging and daring topic of the time. It's commendable direction by Shyam Benegal and the team to bring together a very important movie. It's engaging, entertaining and brutally honest movie.

What did not work:

• sound mixing and editing; one issue that was consistent with the movie is the sound quality. As a result, the voice and pitch of the characters especially the females in their directive voice sound painfully bad. It sounded like it was more of a shout than a dialogue delivery.
• cast; one of the biggest issue is the lead character Shabana Azmi's portrayal. No doubt she acted well but her role as per the story is of a at least middle age woman which doesn't fit her verbal and nonverbal attributes. If only the role was given to someone older, it would have been more convincing.

Final verdict: recommended

Mandi narrates the story of a brothel, situated in the heart of a city, an area that some politicians want for its prime locality. It is a satirical comedy on politics and prostitution.

There is no doubt that it's one of the most entertaining films from The Great Shyam Benegal. I've never seen so many great actors in a single film before and everyone stood out beautifully. This film is another example of Shabana Azmi's utter brilliance. I think it's A Must Watch film with pure entertainment.

Available on Amazon Prime Video & JioCinema.

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