Mr and Mrs Iyer

Just a little bit about my favourite  movie.  Excellently made, crisp direction and superb acting. Well this won,t justify the waves of feelings i go through as i watch this movie.

I will begin with the love story. And the best way to meet the love of her life... in a bus as they travel together to catch train from the same station. The picturesque roads unfurled themselves with every turning of the bus and the beginning of a unique relationship in unique circumstances between two protagonists for whom falling in love was not at all any priority yet the inevitable happens subtly, slowly. The plot and the love story flows seamlessly as the story unfolds... an average Indian audience can easily relate to the young educated married girl struggling with her baby in public transport, the tussle between the baby...his feeds, diaper changes the struggling mom and to the rescue the smart wild life photographer.

The focus of the story shifts from the interesting chemistry between the protagonists to the horrid communal tension and the gruesome killings and in between comes her startling discovery the man who had been holding and feeding her baby is from another religion she has learnt to hate, learned to keep her distance from as touching them would make her lose her own religion as she  stares in awe at the water bottle she had shared with him. Their relation takes a new turn as they move away from the crowd to save themselves from the mob and she discovers a man perhaps she had no idea ever existed.

When the group of young girls from their bus press them hard to share the story how they met imagining hem as a couple with a kid, the story flows like a poetry from his mouth as she listens to the dream she never had, feels the goosebumps she never did. Like so many times in life, one feels stunned of the things one can never reach and yet they can be so close. The riot gives her many a glimpse of the real life, the hatred, the violence and yet draws her to a man from another religion which was alien to her from childhood.

The love story ends as her husband finds her after she gets down from the train... or does it... the  Mr Iyer her soul had discovered through her journey and not the tag her family has stamped her with. No definitely not a love story out of wedlock, even if it is... it,s the beauty of the relation which keeps us spellbound and simply no fault finding with the husband as he is simply out of the entire frame.

I do love all of Aparna Sen,s films... they are smart, crisp and handle relations splendidly... sometimes i feel only the way a woman can.