Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola Review

One Line Review:The film has a strong yet a repeated plot, but fails in delivering the expected.

Positive Points:A good base story; humor with a regional flavor; an ideal rural setting

Negative Points:Unimpressive execution; some scenes have been unnecessarily dragged

Plot:Hari Mandola (Pankaj Kapur) is a rich industrialist of a village with the same name in Haryana. He is rock-hearted, tough and very ambitious about his dream. The old guy who is also very much fond of country liquor has a lively young daughter Bijlee (Anushka Sharma). Matru (Imran Khan), who is a law graduate, works as his driver. Apparently, whenever Mandola get inebriated after drinking this particular country brand 'Gulabo', he turns into a completely different person from what he really is.

Now Mandola harbors the ambition to build factories, malls and township on the land that belongs to the farmers, at any cost. However, this isn't as easy as it seems. He plots to grab their land by collaborating with a powerful politician (Shabana Azmi). She strikes a deal whereby Bijlee would get married to her son Baadal (Arya Babbar). However, she has her own wicked and nefarious plans.

While on the other hand the farmers are also suffering from this wicked conspiracy, Matru makes up his mind to bring justice to the humble village folk by not letting the industrialist succeed in his unjustified endeavor. Now Matru and Bijlee who happen to be childhood friends, love each other deep in their minds.

Will Matru succeed to protect the farmer's interests? Will he be able to fend off Mandola's wickedly ambitions? To witness what happens further, watch this comedy of errors with a great regional flavor.

Direction And Other Technical Aspects:The direction of the film is average, which is actually quite unexpected since the director is Vishal Bhardwaj. The camera work is similarly average by Kartik Vijay. The dialogues and screenplay too, both written by Vishal Bhardwaj, aren't much powerful, but are satisfactorily average.

Performances:Though the performances aren't too great, Pankaj Kapoor has surely put his best to an extent that he steals the show. He has aptly played the role of an ambitious man who flips his personality after he gets drunk. Imran Khan has too made a good attempt to enact an educated rural Haryanvi, but falls a little short to deliver perfectly. Anushka Sharma's performance as a lively, bubbly and worry free young girl is well done. Supporting roles by Shabana Azmi, Arya Babbar and other supporting actors are well into their place.

Music:Apart from direction and screenplay, Vishal Bhardwaj has also done the music direction of this film. The songs have been written by lyricist Gulzar with good playback singing by Sukhwinder Singh, Shankar Mahadevan, Mohit Chauhan and Rekha Bhardwaj. 'Oye Boy Charlie' is the only enjoyable song in the film with a catchy tune.

Final Verdict:Though the film has a strong plot, it lacks the much wanted entertainment quotient. The film is humorous at certain points, but isn't as much enjoyable as one would expect. It is a onetime watch but don't expect too much.