Mandi

Review By Kamal K

Brilliantly directed, Mandi is an entertaining and incisive commentary on society. I can't remember where else a brothel has been treated with so much liveliness, humour and depth. It is a world in itself with colourful characters, each distinct from one another. Each of the characters are so memorable. Shabana Azmi shines as the loving, at times almost maternal and yet fiery and beautiful Madame, who runs the brothel effeciently. Her range from being seductive to maternal, from being crude and shrill to being poetic and seductive is simply marvellous. The rest of the cast Naseeruddin Shah, Neena Gupta, Smita Patil, Sony Razdan, Om Puri among others are praiseworthy.

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 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.

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)

Shyam Benegal, one of the finest filmmakers, tells the whimsical story of a group of prostitutes struggling against the 'city' who wants to have them thrown out in order to replace their brothel with development projects. 'Mandi' is a splendid comedy comedy. The humour is subtle and dry which is a refreshing change from the usual slapstick witnessed so often in Indian 'masala' films. Plus, they had me laughing out loud. While the film reflects the hypocrisy of society, it doesn't preach to anyone in particular. All the characters, even those with very limited screen time, are interesting. 'Mandi' mainly centres around Rukmini, the madam of the brothel (played by a spellbinding Shabana Azmi), and her 'apprentice' Zeenat (Smita Patil in another riveting performance). The other colourful characters include Tungrus (Rukmini's royal servant - played by a terrific Naseeruddin Shah), the hypocritical superficial social worker from the women's association and her assistant (a hilarious Pankaj Kapur), a horny photographer (a superb Om Puri), a Darvish (the one and only Amrish Puri), a businessman (a great Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a sympathetic businessman with a secret (the dependable Saeed Jaffrey), a deaf novice (a brilliant Sreela Majumdar), a mentally underdeveloped bride-to-be (Ratna Pathak) and many more. The union of all these characters creates the unique story that is 'Mandi'. The writing and dialogues are cleverly done. Given the long running time, 'Mandi' remains entertaining and thought-provoking from start to finish. There's nothing too complex about it. It's a simplistic story and, like with any Benegal film, a worthy cinematic experience except that this time you'll be laughing more than you'd expect.