Mr & Mrs Mahi, despite all its flaws, comes across as a breath of fresh air. What works for the film? Well, on one hand, it is the film’s fresh pairing of Rajkummar Rao and Janhvi Kapoor, secondly, its theme of spouses getting competitive with each other in the same field is captured in an interesting manner. There is also a twist that the audience may not have expected and that could be stimulating and intriguing. But on the flip side there is an over reliance on tried-and-tested formula resulting in a predictable fare that could have been avoided.
Rajkummar Rao plays Mahendra Agarwal, an aspiring cricketer striving to establish himself in the sport. According to his coach Mahendra is an average player and his career hits an all time low. Soon after, his father stops him from pursuing his passion for cricket and forces him to join the family business of selling sports goods. Mahendra, also known as Mahi, turns out to be a poor salesman who instead of attracting prospective customers in the shop in a way discourages them in buying their goods much to his father’s chagrin.
There is a scene where a young boy likes a cricket bat in their shop and as he’s trying hard to choose one, Mahi discourages the kid by telling him: ‘Chhakka batsman marta hai, bat nahi’ (Sixer is hit by the batsman, bat has no role to play in it). As a result, Mahendra is often ridiculed by his autocratic patriarch who gives more attention and love to his younger son. His ‘best beta’ is clever, savvy and opportunistic like his father. Rao impresses in portraying the miseries in his life, his unfulfilled dream and the angst of the validation-hungry son.
Soon his life takes a 360 degree turn when Mahima (Janhvi Kapoor, also called Mahi) enters his life through an arranged match. Mahendra tells the truth to his would-be wife about his failed sports career. But why does Mahima want to marry a loser like Mahendra? Well, she likes his honesty and accepts the proposal. She brings a lot of happiness and positivity in his life.
Mahima has excelled in academics; she follows her parents’ wishes and ends up pursuing medicine but she, too, is cricket aficionado. The couple discover this within a few days of their marriage and both realise that their desire, their passion has been killed by their respective families. While Janhvi’s character has made peace with her situation and has a stable job in a hospital, Mahendra can’t cope with the humiliating life he is leading.
Janhvi Kapoor uses no. 6 Jersey for Mr. & Mrs. Mahi movie promotion.
Mahima wants Mahendra to get back to cricket but latter urges his wife to pursue a career in cricket as he has seen her fling sixer after sixer on field. But Mahima says she has played only gully cricket and isn’t confident about her skills at the sport. Finally, she succumbs and Mahendra decides to coach her.
While it’s essentially the quality of honesty that had attracted her to her husband, she is shattered when she comes to realise that he wants to live his unfulfilled dreams vicariously through her. She initially thinks he is doing it out of love but his latching on to her rising stardom is his only ticket to success and recognition in the eyes of his father who calls him a defective piece. She has put in a lot of hard work in playing the sport shows on screen but otherwise Janhvi Kapoor is quite average and one dimensional throughout the film.
Mr & Mrs Mahi cannot be categorised into a sports drama, instead writers Nikhil Mehrotra and Sharan Sharma have concentrated more on the theme of marriage, ambition, conflict and friction between the spouses. It may be inspiring and emotional in parts but the film is very slow and drags in the first half. Most of the drama happens in the second half but again the drama that unfolds is predictable albeit just one twist that comes as a surprise. With a linear plot and linear narrative there isn’t enough meat to hold the audience. But if you are looking for a feel-good, breezy weekend watch this might just be the film for you.
The film doesn’t score a century but makes for a decent watch
