Movie Recommendation - Mandi

Cast: Shabana Azmi, Naseruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Saeed Jaffrey, Neena Gupta, Ila Arun, Soni Razdan.

Release Year: 1983.

Director: Shyam Benegal.

There are numerous Hindi films with a brothel as the backdrop. While some chose to show elegance and grandeur (Devdas, Umrao Jaan); others chose to show the sleaze and underworld connections (Chandni Bar).  But Shyam Benegal’s Mandi is different. Comprising of a huge ensemble cast and a healthy dose of black comedy, Mandi is unlike the other films.

Rukmini Bai (Shabana Azmi) is a madam runs her brothel with a strict hand, assisted by the bored-to-death servant Tungrus (Naseruddin Shah). Rukmini Bai is overtly protective about all her girls, especially the coy, yet rebellious, Zeenat (Smita Patil), who is always confined to learning music and dance, rather than attending to the kotha’s customers. Problems arise when she finds herself struggling against the hypocritical moral police, lead by Shanti Devi, who threaten to throw them out of the town, in order to keep the city ‘clean’. Her landlord, Mr. Gupta (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) offers a place outside the city, in exchange of the current one. The town’s mayor Agarwal (Saeed Jaffrey) finds himself stuck in the middle since he cannot afford to disagree with the social activists, and has to rely on Rukmini Bai to hide his secret. Other characters squeezed into the film include a mute girl (Sreela Majumdar), who is sold to Rukmini Bai by her husband; Agrawal's son, who is madly in love with Zeenat; a pervert photographer (Om Puri); Shanti Devi’s assistant (Pankaj Kapur) and of course, the brothel girls (Ila Arun, Neena Gupta).

Mandi focuses on the nature of relationships amongst all its characters, where double-crossing, betrayal are everyday affairs. Rukmini Bai’s love-hate relationship with Tungrus is perhaps the most complex of them all. Tungrus is ferociously loyal towards Rukmini Bai, doing everything as she says, word-to-word, yet yells at her when he’s drunk. Naseruddin Shah pitches in a classic act as the droopy, exhausted Tungrus. Shabana Azmi’s portrayal of Rukmini Bai is delicious. Her body language and the Hyderabadi intonation are to die for!

Scenes to watch out for:

#1: When Mr. Gupta comes to see Rukmini Bai for the first time. You see Shabana Azmi shouting instructions at one instant and managing a coy smile at the other. Also, its amazing the way Rukmini Bai cannot stop herself from looking into the mirror, whether it is in the middle of a prayer, crying, or even an argument!

#2: Again a scene between Gupta and Rukmini Bai, where he is offering her money to leave the place, and she is telling him to raise the price. Look at the way she says, “Paan khayenge?”

Why not to miss this movie:

Shabana Azmi’s performance. Need I say more? ;)