'Mr. and Mrs. Iyer' Planned Sequel
Mini review time: I had recently watched "Bride and Prejudice" (another good film, by the way), and just fell in love with Indian films. I wanted to see a more serious film, and came across this on one "Top 10 List". Well, I saw the whole thing on YouTube unsubtitled. I need to see the subtitled version of this, because I think I missed a lot of good dialogue, especially at the beginning. But what I could understand blew me away.
Rahul is a sweetheart in this. That child loved being held by him as well. I thoroughly enjoyed the subtle romance between him and Meena. Just the idea of a "forbidden romance" is an interesting theme to explore. It's not in your face, like, "Oh, you're Muslim and I'm Hindu. We can't be together even though we kinda want to." It's more implied that verbalized, and it really is a joy to watch.
The ending is bittersweet, but it is undoubtedly poignant. It does go to show that not everything in life is a fairytale ending.
(Though I do so wonder if Meena ever told her husband what happened those few faithful nights? How would she even bring it up? "Oh, honey, Mr. Chowdhury and I pretended to be married when these terrorists came on the bus. We shared the same room a few nights. And I let him take photos of me and our son, too.")
To conclude: this film needs a wider audience.
I apparently picked a good time to see this movie. I literally just found out that there's talk of a sequel.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-05/news-interviews /43659323_1_mrs-iyer-goynar-baksho-sequel
Aparna Sen plans sequel to her award-winning 2002 masterpiece with Konkona and Rahul Bose
When Mrs Meenakshi Iyer, a Tamil Brahmin, tried to hide co-passenger Raja Chowdhury's Muslim identity by introducing him as Mr Iyer to rioters, their story not only tugged at our heartstrings, but fast became the toast of Indian cinema. The rest, as they say, is history. Aparna Sen's 2002 English drama, Mr and Mrs Iyer, was honoured with the Nargis Dutt Award, given for encouragement of national integration in cinema at the 50th National Film Awards. Sen was adjudged the best director, while Konkona Sen Sharma as Mrs Iyer bagged the Best Actress' award. Now, just over a decade later, Sen is set to dust off old memories as she plans to make a sequel to the celluloid saga.
Speaking at an interaction at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which screened Sen's recent runaway hit, Goynar Baksho, the director revealed that she was considering a sequel to the film that portrayed the coming together of two strangers — a Hindu and a Muslim — in the backdrop of communal unrest. When CT got in touch with her, she said, "Yes, it's true that I'm looking forward to a sequel to Mr and Mrs Iyer. It's still in the planning stages and I don't know if this will be my next project. Of course, Konkona and Rahul Bose would reprise their roles."
This news should get tongues wagging in tinseltown, since anticipation will be high for the sequel. Mr and Mrs Iyer launched Konkona on the national stage. The mother-daughter director-actor jodi went on to deliver many nuanced, well-crafted films, like 15 Park Avenue, Iti Mrinalini and this year's superhit, Goynar Baksho.
Though not much is known about Part II, industry sources say that Sen, who wrote the original script, has started penning the story and that it might be about the two strangers meeting after a gap of 10 years. Sen, who has delivered numerous masterpieces, is venturing into the sequel zone for the first time. Here's looking forward to it.
Hopefully it won't reverse the subtlety of the romance from first. share