Mittal V/S Mittal Review

Looking back at director Karan Razdan' s work, one realizes that his films are women centric. Whether it' s ' Hawas' , ' Girl Friend' or ' Souten - The Other Woman' , Razdan always has handled women related issues though his films. Same is the case with ' Mittal V/S Mittal' , where he talks about marital rape. Bollywood has seen many films handling the same issue like ' Matrubhoomi' , ' Daman' and ' Provoked' , but Razdan' s take on it also looks sincere.

' Mittal V/S Mittal' is a sincere effort by the director to showcase not much talked women' s tragedy - marital rape. It' s sure an eye opener, but it also loses its pace when it becomes formulaic in the middle.

' Mittal V/S Mittal' talks about the protagonist Mitali (Rituparna Sengupta), who is a model by profession and dreams of marrying her prince charming. She then meets Karan Mittal (Rohit Roy) who is from a rich family. Smitten by Mitali' s beauty, Karan goes to her house with a marriage proposal. Happy at their daughter' s luck, Mitali' s parent immediately accept the proposal. However, the happy days don' t last for long. As Mitali comes from a middle class up bringing, she faces many differences with Karan' s rich family background. Her mother-in-law, who doesn' t like her, worsens the situation by creating misunderstandings in between them. In turn, Karan is mamma' s boy and her father-in-law himself is a victim at home. Later, when she faces abuse by Karan, she finds herself helpless in the new found world. Unable to bear the injustice, Mitali decides to take charge of her life. She finds a layer (Suchitra Krishnamoorthi) and files a case against her husband. Meanwhile, Karan too hires the most expensive lawyer (Gulshan Grover) he can afford with all his money to fight against her.

We have often seen issue based films on Hindi screen like domestic violence, which many women do not prefer to talk about. One could expect a strong courtroom sequence for the issue, but the drama created doesn' t make a strong impact. Sometimes, the clash between two lawyers is interesting.

Also, there is a sequence where a woman talks to an activist about her husband' s violence at home. The director has used English dialogues for this sequence, which are not understandable by many. Rather if he would have used Hindi, the issue might have reached a wide range of audience.

After some time, the film seems predictable and formulaic. The sequence where both the parties are called on a TV show for discussion is not necessary and unconvincing. One more flaw in the film includes the theme song used at many places, which actually gives a haunting feel.

Talking about performances both the lead actors Rituparna and Rohit have done justice to their roles. Rituparna has performed her role with understanding, while the forceful acting of Rohit will surprise you. Suchitra Krishnamoorthi and Gulshan Grover have performed beautifully as usual. Reema Lagoo, Amar Talwar and Anjan Srivastava are also good.

Conclusively, ' Mittal V/S Mittal' serves the purpose, but it is a story that could have been told in better way. It may not work well at multiplexes, but sure will work for single screen audiences.

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