Mandi

Thank you, Shyam Benegal, for this masterpiece.

I had been planning to watch a Shyam Benegal movie for a long time but never got around to it. Sadly, we lost this legend a few days ago, so I decided to finally watch one of his most loved films, Mandi. And honestly, I was speechless after watching it. Right from the first scene, the movie had me hooked. The story is so heartfelt, with touches of dark comedy that keep it engaging.

What I loved most is how you slowly connect with every character. Shabana Azmi absolutely stole my heart-what a phenomenal actress! She plays a strict character, but in just a few moments, you find her adorable. I felt such an emotional connection with her. Smita Patil as Zeenat was equally brilliant; no doubt she was one of the finest actresses of her time.

Even actors with minimal screen time, like Amrish Puri, Annu Kapoor, and Naseeruddin Shah, left a mark with their amazing performances. Their presence added so much depth to the film.

This movie has made me want to dive deeper into Shyam Benegal's work. Rest in peace, Shyam Benegal-you've left behind a legacy that will inspire generations.

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

My Rating : 6/10

'Mandi' is great for spotting all of the amazing side-actors and character actors as there's quite a few of them however the movie is rather average - it's meant to be a black comedy but there's not much of humour going on and neither is the storyline as exciting - aside from the great assembly of actors it's got a dull arc and frankly I was not entertained in the least.

An average film with great actors - good first-half - nothing however makes it more than a one-time watch.