Mithya
wogma rating: Watch but no rush (?)
The tongue-in-cheek, sharp humor might not make you roll on the floor but surely makes you laugh out loud. Unfortunately this is only in the first half. The crisp plot withers away and the acting wanes as the climax approaches.
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Watching Mithya is like watching a cricket match that started out well but ended up being one-sided after all. Anything can happen at lunch break. But in the second innings, there is no fight, no struggle to keep your attention and thus you end up with a very cold climax. And the cold-blooded murders don't have anything to do with this cold. It is more like the "I couldn't care less" cold.
The subtle comedy in the first half is an integral part of the plot - from a comment on "anything free is better" attitude, to the hints at the eating habits of people in the film industry. Barring a lone toilet joke, the interdependency between the lines and the situation brings a flow to the plot. The humor along with the art direction, the background score, the performances, etc. create an environment conducive to suspension of disbelief. And disbelief you can live with. Only to see the movie being rushed from one episode to the other keeping a 120 minute time-limit in mind.
Genre shifts or mixing too many genres generally bother me. But, the finger cannot be pointed towards that either. It moves from dark comedy to plain dark. That's not that much of a shift. But its disconcerting to see the humor dry up along the way. I would blame the writing for the downfall - the dialogues are not witty or funny any more, the sub-plots not that well streamlined. And it lacked the punch, the mind-bending twist that a movie of this genre needs.
Giving credit where it's due though, only the likes of Rajat Kapoor could cast Ranveer Shorey as the main lead. It takes guts to have Naseeruddin Shah play second fiddle. And he certainly has made an attempt to show the many layers of VK/Raj's (Ranveer Shorey) character. Now, whether he was successful in getting them across to the audience is an altogether different issue. An awesome opportunity to portray the VK's mental process is lost.
The first half-second half split in writing has taken its toll on the performances too. A promising start has everybody doing their bit and getting a cackle out of you with their comic timing. And suddenly, the acting too becomes very superficial as the movie approaches the climax.
On the other hand, I thoroughly enjoyed the background score throughout the movie. At times however, especially in the beginning, it overpowered the volume of the dialogues and thus I might have missed a few good dialogues. But overall, it was refreshing accompaniment.
A second half that flowed better would have made Mithya a must watch with its tongue-in-cheek humor. The anti-climatic climax leaves you feeling high and dry. All this hoopla for what? The most common way to get to a oft-repeated noir climax?
- meeta, a part of the audience
Thumbs up, by Amodini, Amodini's Movie Reviews : ...What gladdens my heart furthermore, is the fact, that not only are film-makers moving away from the ordinary, they are actually pushing the envelope to give us interesting, intelligent cinema.... full review
Thumbs up, by Nikhil Kumar, Apun Ka Choice : ...Indiscernibly and cleverly laced with moments of light humour, the plot of ‘Mithya’ straddles across different genres (comedy to thriller to mysterious farce) with incredible aplomb.... full review
Thumbs up, by Baradwaj Rangan, Blogical Conclusion, The New Sunday Express : ...Alternating dazzlingly between slapstick and soul, the actor gives one of those performances that can only be described as career-defining.... full review
Thumbs up, by Rachel Fernandes, Bollywood Mantra : ...Mithya has several layers and they are brought to the fore by director Rajat Kapoor in an extremely adept manner... full review
Thumbs up, by Smriti Mudgal, DearCinema : ...The film is dark, it takes you time to digest the end... full review
Thumbs up, by Bikas Mishra, DearCinema : ...multi-layered narrative of love and loss, memory and amnesia, success and failure, life and death, performance and reality and of course truth and Mithay (a lie).... full review
Thumbs up, by Martin D'souza, Glamsham.com : ...After Rajat, credit goes to Ranvir for his complex act enacted with puzzling precision!... full review
Thumbs up, by Khalid Mohamed, Hindustan Times : ...Throughout, the wickedly funny screenplay by Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla, incorporates an emotional undertow... full review
Thumbs up, by Taran Adarsh, IndiaFM : ...MITHYA has the courage to tell one of the most novel stories we've ever watched on celluloid... full review
Thumbs up, by Gaurav Malani, indiatimes : ...Each scene is crisply written, deftly directed and has its relevance to the script.... full review
Thumbs up, by Evita Saldanha, M TV : ...Neha Dhupia tries so, so, sooo hard to act but ends up looking plump & pretty. Oh sorry, meant pretty plump... full review
Thumbs up, Movie Talkies : ...Its brand of humour is quirky, whimsical, and black at its best.... full review
Thumbs up, by Anupama Chopra, NDTV : ...Post-interval the pace slows; the tension scatters and the proceedings become decidedly random.... full review
Thumbs up, by Jahan Bakshi, Now Running.com : ...Revealing more of the unpredictable story which skillfully steers itself through various moods... full review
Thumbs up, by Subhash K Jha, Now Running.com : ...Director Rajat Kapoor pieces together a melancholic, deeply metaphorical and yet straightforward tale of moral redemption.... full review
Thumbs up, by Hanumant Bhansali, Radio Sargam : ...The screenplay and the direction suggest that we are watching a meaningful Hollywood cinema but the reality is a suggestively different Indian vision on the celluloid... full review
Thumbs up, by Raja Sen, Rediff : ...Despite significant humour almost throughout, this qualifies as a bonafide thriller, a story with wheels within wheels that unfolds briskly enough... full review
Thumbs up, Upper Stall : ...The mid-budget film doesn't seem compromised and has a some high-quality actors playing not-so glamorous parts... full review
So-So, by Fatema H Kagalwala, Business of Cinema : ...But after the series of montage that the first half an hour is, the film settles down or seems to and that’s where all the trouble begins.... full review
So-So, by Abhishek Mande, Buzz18 : ...it incorporates elements of the mainstream Hindi cinema and blends it quite well into this 'experimental' genre... full review
So-So, by Ashok Nayak, Now Running.com : ...The first half of the movie takes you by surprise but the second half disappoints... full review
So-So, by Sonia Chopra, Sify Movies : ...The film is technically competent and the background music is notabl... full review
Thumbs down, by Amit R Agarwal, merinews : ...Rajat Kapoor was much better in Mixed Doubles. Here, he is unable to give a just treatment to the climax.... full review
Twitter reviews for this movie are not available.
This page has additional observations, other than the ones noted in the main review.
Plot Summary
VK (Ranvir Shorey) is a struggling actor who gets mixed up in a gang war due to no fault of his. Mithya is about how he gets out of the mess, if at all.
What Worked
- The dream/nightmare sequence - brilliant picturization.
- Ranveer Shorey's make-up towards the end of the movie.
What did not
- The shot in which VK is trying to fight the heavy wind while it is raining. Looked pretty unconvincing.
- The sharp cut from the barber shop to the airport scene. Too abrupt and thus disorienting.
- The water special effect used in one scene with Neha Dhupia and Naseeruddin Shah was visually intriguing but the use itself felt rather random.
- Dubbing of the little boy who brought tea to their room - voice of an adult was used and seemed rather off.
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![[Wikipedia page of Mithya]](/static/images/icons/wiki_small.png){kind=icon}
![[IMDB Page of Mithya]](/static/images/icons/imdb_small.png){kind=icon}
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Comments (5)
Review - Mithya...
The tongue-in-cheek, sharp humor might not make you roll on the floor but surely makes you laugh out loud. Unfortunately this is only in the first half. The crisp plot withers away and the acting wanes as the climax approaches....
[...] the details meetu scribbled while watching the movie - this may include spoilers. This review was also published on meetu’s [...]
[...] in the second innings, there is no fight, no struggle to keep your attention…. Meeta Kabra [ without giving the movie away [...]
[...] Meetu believes you shouldn’t rush to the theatres to see “Mithya”. She has a nice quick review. The tongue-in-cheek, sharp humor might not make you roll on the floor but surely makes you laugh out loud. Unfortunately this is only in the first half. The crisp plot withers away and the acting wanes as the climax approaches. [...]
Mithya...
The film has an unexpected beauty that leaves us stunned. Beauty that is only short lived but very relevant to the context of this film.
......
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