Mr and Mrs Mahi Review - Mahi and Mahi-maa Play Child's Cricket

Mr and Mrs Mahi Review Movie Talkies

Mr and Mrs Mahi Review: The film stars Janhvi Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao in the lead roles, and this is perhaps the first time we have a cricket couple in a Bollywood movie. Including the runtime, interval break, traveling to the cinema hall, and returning home, the film will take about 4 hours of your life, which is almost equivalent to what a T20 cricket match usually takes (without moving anywhere and without paying for a ticket). By the time you're done watching Mr. and Mrs. Mahi, you'll agree that you were better off with a cricket match on mobile instead of wasting your time on the film. The film has a storyline that could have been extended to a film or a short film, but the screenplay just doesn't stand. It doesn't even reach half-folly (if you, the viewer, are a batsman). Practically, it's a script that doesn't stand a chance on the ground; forget hitting it out of the park. Forget the front foot, cover drive, lofted shot, pull, scoop, or any risky shot; they couldn't even defend a straight delivery with the kind of poor screenplay they have. Above all, you have to spend 140 minutes.. That's like asking the crowd to come and watch the match for hours and then get all out under 50 runs. Remember Abhimaan? (Which was an adaptation of the classic Hollywood musical Star Is Born, and how it brought that male ego trademark in a relationship? Mr. And Mrs. Mahi is sort of like that, replacing singing with cricket.Mahi, aka Mahendra (Rajkummar Rao), wants to be a cricketer, but his selfishness overtakes his game, and he's out of the ground. His father (Kumud Mishra) wants him to sit at their sports shop and do all the helper's work. As the wedding age draws close, he goes to see Mahima (Janhvi Kapoor), an MBBS graduate with a highly respected job and educational background. Mahi's quality of telling her the truth about him wins Mahima's heart, and they get married. Soon after marriage, Mahi learns about Mahima's love and passion for cricket, and they both share some of the happiest moments of their lives together. With no chance of returning to the field, Mahi is left with the option of becoming a coach, but who will take coaching from an unsuccessful cricketer? Mahima, it is. A new partnership begins for Mahi and Mahima, but as expected, there are dramatic twists and turns like in every movie, and then we have an overly typical, excessively predictable, and utterly soapy ending to follow.From the very first scene, the film seems problematic, as we have an egotistic in the middle trying to make himself a hero. Half the connect is lost there. Then, we have a smart character paired up with him, which makes it look more problematic. But that's forgiven because it happens sometimes in real life too. Two imperfect people can make a perfect couple. My problem is the beginning of it. If Mahima was such a smart and highly educated girl, then why would her parents look for a match who was not even half as good as her? "Sach mein Samjhdar ladki hai. Usne haa bol diya" comes from Mahi's mother, and it fits perfectly well since she is the MOTHER after all, and MOTHER knows girls/women better than anyone else. The film goes on with several illogical conflicts like this, and we don't have any answers for the logical explanation of them. The husband and wife both quit their jobs and get into cricket. How are they earning money? How do they eat? How can they still live in the same house? How did they afford cricket training? After serving the purpose, we have the same selfish mannerism and male ego coming in. Don't know why it reminded me of Srikanth at that point. In that film also, one press conference changes the hero into a villain, and the same happens here. I wrote it in my Srikanth review, and I am writing it here again: "People don't change their years-old personalities and ambitions in a minute." Stop using that irrational conflict; it's 2024, not 2004. One of the major flaws of Mr. and Mrs. Mahi is the cricket action. We either see the shot or the ball. Where is the action? Where is that feeling of watching cricket? In a live cricket match, we get to the ball from the bowlers end until it reaches its point, and then it's Batman's turn. We can see the whole action in one frame. Sadly, no Bollywood film has even been able to achieve that. Not even Kabir Khan's much-liked 83. The closest we came to that kind of sublime cricket action was way back in 2001 in Lagaan, and even that film had to showcase unorthodox cricket shots to get over the actual efforts of creating cricket shots in cinema. Less cricket and more drama—that's what Mr. and Mrs. Mahi is, and even that cricket part doesn't get good execution, so what's left in the film?Talking about acting, Janhvi Kapoor has done 6 films in different genres, and she is yet to deliver a solid performance. I don't know if it's dysphonia or what, but her voice sounds too heavy for the character and the age she portrays on the screen. Mahima's character goes through an emotional drama in the last quarter, and she could have taken it as a challenge and stood tall. Alas... It's yet another ordinary performance. Mili might remain her best act for some time, I guess. Rajkummar recently delivered a good performance in Srikanth, if not great, and he continues the same form here. You might hate him for glorifying male ego, but that was the character's demand. He had done well, but nothing as remarkable as he used to do before 2018. Kumud Mishra has some childish punchlines, but he is not a childish actor. No, not by far. He shines again in his role, even though it's quite a despicable character. They have wasted an extraordinary talent like Zarina Wahab by giving her such a small and useless part. Thank God, she got that little impactful speech in the end, but I still believe God will not forgive them for doing such an injustice to her caliber. Rajesh Mishra and the rest of the cast were okayish.The cinematography during the cricket action was poor and disturbing, but it was strictly decent otherwise. The sound design does hurt your ears in some scenes, so it's a good time for us to call for "stop the music" slogans. The film has a couple of beautiful songs that feel mesmerizing. "Agar Ho Tum" is my favorite, and it has such an adorable video, I tell you. The chemistry is top-notch there. The production design was pretty good and gave a sense of Rajasthan and its locality in a fine manner. Mr. & Mrs. Mahi could have either been a good film or a bad film, and both because of director Sharan Sharma. He chose the latter one, sadly. The film could have done so many things so much better and so differently, but all Sharan had to do was go and pick some old dramatic segments and drag the film with them. Those 140 minutes felt like 3 hours. Why? Because the film doesn't have a grip, nor does it have any pace. Sharma's direction makes it even more tedious, and for what, the same outdated drama? Stop kidding with audiences. Do some extensive research, work on the script, and then come up with a screenplay that is watertight. Then all you have to do is bring that vision to the screen in the simplest way you can think of. That's all; you have a good, watchable film there. Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Mahi didn't work on any single level there. The pitch was batting friendly, but they couldn't hit a single boundary.