Between sweet and sour — Muramba

The sweet and sour of life between Break-up and Patch-up…about relationships and everyday joys. review of the Marathi movie Muramba. a Romcom.

“Its Chinmayee’s movie,”

“Its about a husband empowering his wife”

It was Hobson’s choice and off we went to Samrat for the movie. Somehow I expected an near empty theatre, and to my surprise it was a near full house, the audience ranged from young couples to senior couples to the “united Indian family goes to movies”

A well narrated crisp movie, in the first half it deals with the mundane ridiculousness of everyday life. while the second half brings the more pertinent issue out.

Traditional story telling is either about a person, or a event, this narrative is more focused on the event, “the breakup of Aalok and Indu” the narrative uses flashback to share the events that lead to the break up.

Chinmayee Sumeet as Janaki Aalok’s mother has given a restrained elegant performance. The concerned mother who is alternatively dominating and allowing her son space. Sachin Khedekar as Aalok’s father, who very subtly brings his son to his senses. Mithila Palkar as Indu the girl in love who wants to supportive, but needs to know what she is supporting and Amey Wagh as Aalok who is trapped in his own comfort zone.

Chinmayee and Sachin bring out the bond between the much married couple very well, the easy companionship the underlying protectiveness and respect comes through. Somewhere through the movie there is a feel that there is something else happening which Aalok with his blinkers about his break up is missing, it turns out to his parents wedding anniversary.

Indu on her scooter, Aalok on his bike, the Deshmukhs(Sachin and Chinmayee) in their car,  Janaki’s hurt when her son calls her, “a 10^th pass from Dharwad” with disdain, her own self-satisfied look when drives the family car through the safe roads of the housing colony, the detailing has been meticulous.

When Mr.Deshmukh calls his wife by her maiden family name “Ashtekar” it brought home some familiar family moments.

With English subtitles it made understanding the movie easy.

Muramba Well I say – ah movie for the family to see.