How can you bring in more viewers into the theater with not so known star cast and very limited budgets? or How can you make your project famous without spending much on its promotional campaign? There are two simple answers to these questions. One, use a controversial burning topic to get yourself noticed and Two, incorporate many steamy, hot scenes into it which can get you more eyeballs at once. And looking at the track record of director Karan Razdan, he is well familiar with both these options and has used them in almost all his films till date. With a set strategy in mind, he comes up with yet another erotic kind of subject on the similar lines of his previous projects "Hawas", "Girlfriend" and "Souten". But the only difference is that in his latest venture, he has touched a more relevant, important and sensitive issue which may be new and a surprise eye-opener for many youngsters. "Mittal Vs Mittal" enlightens the viewer about the Indian Law against Domestic Violence in married couples and Marital Rape.
Said to be based on some true incidents, the movie revolves around a young girl, who falls in the love trap of a rich brat and then hurriedly gets married to him due to her family's pressure. But once she reaches the house of her loving husband, on the very first night she witnesses a completely different and ugly side of his character, which shatters all her dreams of a happy married life. And when the things become worse and cross their limits, she decides to leave the house and files a legal complaint against her husband in the court.
The screenplay is expectedly divided into two parts where before the intermission you are served with all those loving moments, songs and sensual scenes which are clearly directed in a way to bring in a specific section of viewers, especially targeted in the smaller centers. And the second half takes you into the court where the husband and his lawyer are ready to go on to any extreme and cheap levels to save their name and win the case. No doubt the subject is interesting but it's the execution which fails to move the movie to any greater heights above than a B grade kind of cinema.
Though there are some remarkable scenes too which are surely well directed and well thought off by the writers. For instance, the scene where another victim girl tells her horrifying experiences of marital sex in front of a NGO panel (which may not be understood by many as its completely in English) and the sequence between the two male elders of both the families on the beach. But apart from these few scenes, there is a lot of confusion and filmy formula's added towards the end, which reduce the overall impact of the subject and its relevance.
Like, throughout the court case it is not clear that whether they are discussing specifically Domestic Violence or Marital Rape. Even the judge's verdict in the end does not clearly mention any reason for his decision and he simply goes on to punish the husband. Moreover, the plot of husband's first marriage, the girl's mother not standing on her side and the mother-son dialogue suggesting her infidelity in the past was really absurd and un-necessary. Along with that, both the parties openly doing a T.V. chat show, when the case in still in the court was very childish thought of the director. The entire drama in the court was OK but it should have been more tense and engrossing as per the need of the subject.
On the performance front, Rituparna is very impressive in her portrayal of a victim girl and has a great screen presence. She rightly enacts the pain felt by the character with her own insight. Rohit is fine as the cunning husband but at times he looks like really acting with great effort. Gulshan Grover and Suchitra Krishnamurthy as the two lawyers in the court are impactful. Reema Lagoo, Amar Talwar and Dolly Thakore are OK but Anjan Shrivastava shines in the role of the girl's poet father. All songs in the narration are strictly average and the camera-work is also routine.
Talking about the subject of Marital Rape, it really doesn't seem that the director was even interested in bringing some awareness in the society using this base. Because nowhere in the movie, he clearly informs the viewers (mainly female audiences) about any of their hidden rights or new changes in the Law which can help them to fight for their own dignity (Only taking names of certain sections do not serve the purpose). In fact the topic is only adopted to make a sensual movie which can also be discussed on the news channels on its release.
In simple words, this important subject has been dealt in a much better way in few other movies, which are a must see for any person, male or female, who at least is willing to think about the society we are living in.
If you are interested, I would like to recommend to watch "Matrubhoomi" at the earliest instead of this.
