Mirch

Vinay Shukla has done an excellent task of weaving separate stories together on a common theme of suspicion and lust. Although the theme of all the stories portrayed in the film are innate human desires, the portrayal is subtle and never relapses into anything similar to the traditional ribaldry that marks mainstream Bollywood films (aka dances with towel between legs or songs with incantations of 'jawani'). The cast is powerful, and lives up to its promise, although the second half of the movie loses its Woody-Allenesque feel and becomes much too dark, and even predictable. Overall, a good watch, and one of the few recent movies that tickle the humor, as well as get the audience thinking about the frailty of human relationships.

Regarding the novelty of the concept, the film deserves an applaud as the film isn't a typical 3 hr movie with songs, villains, or any climax. The film involves the story of a struggling film writer who narrates 4 short stories to a producer. All the stories, based on different time periods are based on the sexual frustration of women which appears pretty hilarious on the screen. However, the viewers must be alerted for the content which might be offensive. Overall, with few reservations, the film makes a pretty good entertainment; but few viewers might not just stomach the content for which the film might have went pretty unnoticed.

Rating: 2 stars out of 4

Some films prove you absolutely wrong when you just ignore them in comparison to few big films and then end up cursing yourself for making such a weak assumption about the movie. MIRCH was definitely one of those few under-estimated films which not only surprised me with its bold content but also made me think several times about all the relevant questions raised in its thought provoking script, after a long time.

But before praising the movie further, I would first like to mention that MIRCH is not at all a technically brilliant film from any angle nor it can be included in the list of all those perfectly acted or directed films either, to be precise. Yet, the reason why I am including it in my MUST SEE MOVIES List is that it is a very rare movie which is both likable as well as hateful in a very strange manner.

In fact MIRCH is a novel kind of daring attempt which at one end surely entertains you in a very fresh and mesmerizing style, but on the other hand it may also seriously offend both the MALE and FEMALE genders equally in a very dishonorable way. Talking about four different stories on the sexual relationship between man and women in contrasting backgrounds, the film is a pretty bold sex comedy which strictly calls for an adult viewing without any doubt. And in the end it may also turn out to be a dangerous movie putting many new unwanted ideas into your mind un-necessarily.

In short, its a Vinay Shukla directed film made on a very bold sexual subject, which for the first time explores the topic of adultery from the woman's side. In all the four stories in the film, it's the woman who betrays and cheats her husband in a very harsh way, whereas its only the fourth one in which the husband too is doing the similar kind of act on the other side. In each act of betrayal shown in the film, the women play on a certain trick and get away with their disrespectful act very smartly. On a controversial note, even after being a fairly entertaining flick, the film may come out to be both confusing and disturbing for a certain section of viewers who may like to take the depiction of Man and Women in its stories in a bad taste.

Where the women might feel being shown with an intolerably sickening attitude, the men too might feel being portrayed as fools and silly husbands on the screen with a pinch of humor. But at the same time, both the genders would also feel thoroughly entertained deep inside from their heart (which they may choose to hide). And that's actually what I liked the best about MIRCH, a movie which can generate such wide diverse reactions among the viewers which may go beyond any imagination of human mind.

In bold words, the film may be thought provoking for some and a kind of soft porn for many. It may be enlightening experience for one and a disgusting thought of a pervert mind for the other. It may seem to be a journey into the mind of woman for one and might turn out to be a waste of time for the other. And since there are not many movies which are capable of generating such variety of responses in the viewers, MIRCH becomes an important film to be seen and studied in your own unique way.

Here I would also like to add that in spite of being based on such bold subject, the seducing and intimate scenes in the film never go beyond a certain limit and remain un-objectionable, which indeed is a great job done by the director and his cinematographer.

Reportedly the film is partly inspired from the Italian Classic "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio and partly from "Panchtantra" as mentioned in the movie itself. However, I was quite surprised with the reference of "Panchtantra" in it, because I only had a vision of 'Panchtantra' as a collection of moral stories for the young ones. May be I would have to research on it a little more. Anyway, along with its interesting concept, director Vinay Shukla uses his entire talented star-cast in an intelligent way where no one looks like doing something wrong on the screen and also entertains. It only takes few initial moments to move into the actual theme of the movie and then it starts making its impact pretty fast.

On the whole, MIRCH is a movie which should be seen by all as a must because one cannot guess what actually you will make out of it in the end. After watching it, you may get a feeling close to the one mentioned above or in other case, you might go on to discover something of your own in the four stories unfolding on the screen one by one. But you essentially got to see it first to make your own decision.

This is one of the finest piece of art, Bollywood had ever produced. I am not going to give my point of view on story line, but I can tell you its got wonderful Screenplay, Cinematography, Art Direction. Music is also good. Please don't go by its Box-office collection data, People are not so matured yet to risk going cinema without any superstar's involvement. In fact I regard it as the best movie of the year 2010. Sadly, It wasn't given any notice at all, Even though its cast wasn't at all strange

If your taste is offbeat and you like dramatic story line, than its a GO for you!

Vikas Lohia

While the concept may not be entirely novel and writer/director Vinay Shukla seems to have sincere intentions, 'Mirch' suffers from poor writing. There are four stories withing a story (thus in total five). While I liked that the women were portrayed as strong and dominant, the men are almost portrayed as dumb caricatures.

The first story that revolves around a struggling screenwriter and his girlfriend who try to convince a producer to make a movie from his script. While this story is halfbaked, the characters are very poorly developed. Moreover, the Tisca Chopra track in the end is completely pointless and looks forced. The following two stories are more like folktales. While the second segment is well executed, the songs were a bit excessive. The love scenes in the third segment look staged and lacked sensuality but the art direction is wonderful. The fourth segment is pretty much the typical bored metropolitan housewife having an affair with an artist story and it is unnecessarily stretched. Similarly, the last one is needlessly extended and ruined by Boman Irani's irritating performance.

Arunodhay Singh is very good in the second and third segment and he hams it up in the first and fourth segment. Konkona Sen Sharma and Raima Sen are first rate. While Konkona performs naturally, Raima shows tremendous growth as an actress. Ila Arun is equally fun to watch. Shahana Goswami too does a terrific job even though her character wasn't properly fleshed out. Rajpal Yadav does a decent job and Shreyas Talpade goes over the top.

While I liked that 'Mirch' tries to tell the story of smart and dominant women who definitely know how to manipulate their men, it's mostly been let down by poor writing, editing and average execution. Which is a pity because it had a lot of potential.