Mr. and Mrs. Iyer

2002 "Emotions Under Curfew"
7.9| 2h0m| en
Details

A bus is setting out to Calcutta from a village in West Bengal. Meenakshi Iyer, who is from a strict orthodox Hindu background, is leaving to Chennai for her husband, with her young child, after the vacation with her parents. By chance, she gets a co-passenger who is also to Chennai, Rajah, a photographer, introduced by one of the friends of her father. During the journey they build a good relationship. But a Hindu-Muslim communal riot sets out in the meantime, in some areas they had to travel. Then she comes to face the fact that Rajah is not a Hindu but a Muslim whose real name is Jehangir. Even though she curses herself at that time while some Hindu fanatics evade their bus she saves him introducing as Mr. Iyer. But they have to reach their destination while the other passengers know Rajah as no one else but Mr. Iyer.

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Also starring Bhisham Sahni

Reviews

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Sonofamoviegeek Every once in a while I see a film that I can't get out of my mind. There are movies that transcend their setting in such a way that they display the human condition without all its cultural baggage. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer is just such a movie. To those inside and outside India who think that Bollywood is the only cinema worth exporting from India, they should see Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. Everything in this movie is nuanced to the Indian environment but is immediately comprehensible to the non-Indian viewer. In the version I saw, there were even subtitles for English as well as the Bengali, Tamil, Hindi, etc. for goodness sake. I quite disagree the reviewers who say that only an Indian could understand this movie.I think that the attraction of this movie stems from the fact that the main characters are very, very imperfect yet they rise above their imperfection to perform noble deeds. The main female character, Meenakshi (acted by the writer's daughter) is a naive prig and a Madras Brahmin. The main male character, Raja, is a Moslem wildlife photographer, proud, egotistical and insensitive as only a man can be. These two disparate personalities are thrown together by circumstances and Raja is asked to accompany Meenakshi and her child to Calcutta from the hills of Assam. They find themselves on a bus stranded in the middle of a rural Hindu/Moslem violent disturbance along the route.Aparna Sen has written one of the most horrible scenes in all the movies I have ever seen. Hindu villagers besiege the bus and the driver/conductor abandon the passengers to the thugs (the most terrifying apparently acted by her son). The Hindus demand that all the Moslems aboard identify themselves and, if male, must drop their trousers to prove that they are uncircumcised Hindus. Some aboard the bus, like Cohen the Jew, act badly and denounce an old Moslem couple to save themselves. Meenakshi acts nobly and claims that Raja, the caste-less Moslem, is her husband, Mr. Iyer, and a Brahmin no less. The lie saves Raja but forces the odd couple to stay in each other's company until they can leave the troubled area back to Calcutta. Raja acts nobly and protects Meenakshi and her toddler until safe, sometimes a little grumpily but the movie is about real, flawed human beings after all.This movie is all about how love can develop between a man and a woman without becoming involved in sex. This is not a policy of "No sex, please. We're Indian." The love between Raja and Meenakshi is impossible to consummate partly because of the religious gulf between them and partly because Meenakshi is a married woman with a child. These two people obviously enjoy the fantasy honeymoon they give themselves in order to preserve their secret from a group of curious young women. When after escaping danger together several more times, they finally touch and caress their fingers (fully clothed), that is as erotic a moment as you will see in any explicit European or North American film.What more can I say? I loved this film. If you ever get the chance to see Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, don't pass it up.
spamslayer This review is intended to be read After seeing the movie, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer or Swept Away, as it contains soem spoilers necessary for comparisons of both movies. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer is simply a great movie on many levels. However, when the movie ended, I immediately went to IMDb to see if others saw the great similarities between MR. and Mrs. Iyer and Lina Wertmuller's Italian classic "Swept Away... by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August (1974)". Am I the only one to see the strong similarities between the two movies? Incidentally, Madonna's Husband (Guy Ritchie) was so enamored with the original Swept Away that he redid the movie in 2002. But be sure and watch the original Italian film if you want to compare it to Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. It's also interesting that both women, Aparna Sen and Wertmuller, were in their 50's when they made these movies (they are much further apart in actual age however). (Spoiler) In both movies, the audience watches as fate brings two potential lovers together. But the lovers, without the series of fateful events, would not be allowed to be together in their native cultures under normal circumstance. In both movies, only the audience understands the special circumstances that allow them to be together. And thus the audience gives them permission to be lovers or in Iyers case almost lovers. The audience is soon jolted with a shock ending however after hoping for some miracle. Both movies end with the clear message that society's imprint is dominating and at least one of the lovers will reluctantly march in tune with their original lot in society. In particular the train scene in Iyer is almost identical to the dock scene in Swept Away. (There is a Hungarian film, Bizalom (Confidence) (1980) that also has the Swept Away theme to a lesser degree. Sadly, it currently is not available for home viewing. Fate is WWII in that movie.) I don't point this similarity out as anything the takes away from either movie. Instead, I think Iyer reveals the genius behind Wertmuller's device of using fate as well as the relationship between men and women to show case a given culture's intricacies. Despite the underlying affair theme, these are not intended to be love stories as such. In Swept Away the focus is on social and political "casts" and in Iyer its actual casts and subcultures. They are movies that reveal the cultures they examine by way of the relationship between men and women. In Swept Away there was an even stronger sub theme of what would happen if there was no culture at all. If Aparna Sen was aware of Wertmuller's Swept Away, then I think it was genius on her part to realize that complex Indian culture would work even better with Wertmuller's plot device and would kick it up a notch, as they say. I don't think it's an accident that the movie opens with her explaining how complex Indian culture is to outsiders. (I also note this is the first movie I've seen with a note to the readers in the subtitle's explaining certain cultural customs.)If you like Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, I strongly recommend you see the 1974 Swept Away and draw your own conclusions. The movies are certainly not identical in detail, only in overall plot structure, so you can experience the movies on their own.The possible homage aside, I loved the movie and think it should be re-released in full DVD format. By that I mean the DVD suffers from two common flaws with DVDs not produced with possible true widescreen viewing in mind. 1) They give you the worst of the best which is the widescreen format WITHIN a standard NTSC TV (4:3) format. That means the great cinematographic quality is even more compromised than if they just gave you standard TV format. You do however get to see the whole width of the original film 2) If you are going to do English subtitles for some of the DVD, do it for all the DVD even the English. Not only do you cover the hearing impaired that way but with heavy accents and names for things much of the English is not easy to understand. 3) The chapter and timing doesn't follow international standards but currently follows standards of India. It's often said a movie should transport you to another time and place. This movie did that. It's difficult to reveal all the intricacies of any culture in a standard movie time frame but this movie apparently comes close.Along that line, I also think an important supplement to the movie are the reviews posted here that explain the depictions of the culture found in Mr. and Mrs. Iyer as well as such things as the mother daughter relationship between Aparna Sen and the leading women.
staralam This is among the best of movies Indian cinema has produced. The plot/ storyline is powerful which is augmented by splendid performance by lead actors. It also exhibits the communal undercurrents going on in Indian society. It was a bold step to address these issues. Another aspect is the soft feelings produced among the lead actor and actress. As a contrast from the prevalent trend in Indian cinema wherein there is the notion of "love at first sight" in almost all movies, in this movie the feelings of love evolves from simple caring to a very strong one. It also exhibits the true picture of oriental society where common people just don't go on singing love songs or fighting antagonists of their love life. My best wishes to the whole crew of the movie.
Vivek Thakur Hindu - Muslim riots in the movie is merely the backdrop. People who have commented here just see it as a yet another attempt to take advantage of western perception of India. Sorry, it seems you have completely missed the point. The point tries to make a case between love and honor. And this is India, married women do not indulge (more often that not) in to extra marital affairs. So there is dilemma in the Minds of Raj and Meenaxi. Meenaxi who reluctantly fall in for Raj and Raj who understands it but is bound by his honor. Their relation is platonic and full marks to Aparna for keeping it so because by making it controversial she could have reaped more benefits at the box office.Well certain someone said that the act by the leads had not been put up properly. Konkana Sen Sharma got national award for her debut. People need to realize that she is a bong. Unlike west we don't not only have different dialects but entirely different languages. And the dialect is also extremely different. Which is why the performance is really really mind blowing, especially from the leads. Rahul Bose give a completely restrained performance. Aparna keeps is subtle. She is the greatest women director or may be probably the only who can carry of the subject like this. Kudos!