Readers Write In #712: Mr & Mrs Mahi – Of fame and the never ending quest for it

By AJ Sathyanand

Mr and Mrs Mahi ,directed by Sharan Sharma , produced by Karan Johar and starring Rajkumar Rao and Jhanvi Kapoor in lead roles is about two Mahis , and their bittersweet relationship with cricket . 

Mahendra (Rajkumar Rao) is the son of a fiercely ambitious and competitive sports shop owner (Agarwal , played beautifully by Kumud Mishra). Mahi is an aspiring cricketer and like every boy who loves cricket ,wants to play for the Indian team. His Father Mr Agarwal , though proudly own’s the town’s No-1 sports shop but frowns and looks down upon his son playing cricket and wants him to join his shop and take his legacy forward . This along with his inability to get selected in the team because of his own miscalculations and poor form , kill the cricketer in Mahi and he ends up joining his father’s business. Time passes by , Mahi’s life goes from bad to worse.His father keeps ill treating him and to add to his woes, his brother ,becomes a small time serial actor and a ‘star’ in his father’s eyes . Some years go by and now we are intrduced to the other Mahi -Mahima (Jhanvi kapoor) , Mahendra’s prospective bride and an ambitious , hardworking , high achiever doctor. They get married and also discover that their common passion is – no prizes for guessing – Cricket . Happiness and cricket re-enter Mahendra’s life. He does try becoming a cricketer again but unsuccessfully and is given an option that he can become a coach instead of becoming a cricketer. Mahi decides that he will train Mahima to become a cricketer. His motive behind this decision ,and what happens when Mahima finally becomes a cricketer forms the rest of the story of this very interesting film.

What works 

The Story ,The Direction ,The performances and the cinematography 

Mr and Mrs Mahi deals with a plot that is very similar to Abhimaan and Aashiqui2 ,which in turn were adapted from the english film ,A star is born’ and some real life stories.’The male ego’  remains an important aspect of this story ,but that is not the only emotion addressed here.There are several other themes like the father- son relationship ,repressed emotions ,traumatic childhood, sibling rivalry and the most important, the love for art vs the love for adulation/ public acceptance in the age of social media .These things make this quite different from those films and the writers Sharan Sharma and Nikhil Mehrotra and the director Sharma himself deserve to be praised.The film never goes into unnecessary melodrama or distracting subplots and follows the two lead characters and their life.Supporting characters are introduced only to add something to the plot.Since it is a bollywood romantoc,sports drama and that too from Dharma productions ,the expected romantic song, training montage and one emotional song do make their way into the movie but they do not overstay their welcome 

The performances drive this movie forward.The ever dependable Rajkumar Rao displays his acting prowess yet again.He goes from being an alpha-ambitious and clever cricket player to a down in the dumps son of a succesful business man ,with low self esteem to a doting husband with some selfish motives and then finally to someone who realises what his problems are. His scenes with his father form a very important part of the story. A scene with his coach played by Rajesh Yadav ,one with Jhanvi kapoor where he is unable to bowl a short ball to her and another one with his mother played by Zarina Wahab , bring out the different shades of his character beautifully.Jhanvi kapoor plays the sensitive,soft spoken wife well.Her body language in the initial scenes and later during the cricket matches is commendable.Rajesh Yadav plays a coach with slight grey shades and does well.Kumud Mishra ,who generally plays the sweet- smiling uncle or ladki ke papa plays a toxic father well – A portrayal that makes Anil Kapoor’s character from Animal look tame in comparison. Zarina Wahab plays Mahendra’s mother and gets one important scene and does that well.

The cinematography is good, the cricket matches are shot well and look realistic.The film is mostly shot in soft tones and aids in enhancing the mood and emotions of the film

What doesnt

The film is definitely slow and takes some time to reach its destination.

The whole portrayal of Jhanvi as a doctor doesnt work .

The resolution happens quite quickly and the ending is quite predictable.

But these are minor issues in a film that largely works well.

So, Mr and Mrs Mahi is a well made emotional film that is a worthy addition to the sports drama genre ,with good performances. It is currently streaming on Netflix