Reviews & Ratings for
मटरू की बिजली का मंडोला (2013)

Cinema is not just huge entertainment but also what you are left with when you walk out of the theatre. MKBKM is a movie desperately trying to be the latter but ended up as one-time-watch-entertainer. Vishal Bharadwaj is a skilled director and first tym tried to make a satire.Witty comic moments is an important ingredient in a satire but sadly in this movie a drawback.VB overdid the comedy and so the moments that were supposed to hit hard at your heart and make u think turned up to be boring(Apart from shabana Azmi's Speech).Unnecessary songs and overstretched climax just made the condition worse.Still there are things that made the movie enjoyable and better than many bollywood movies,watch it for
-Pankaj Kapoor's performance,Vicious Shabana Azmi and Tipsy Anushka
-Memorable characters(The blind kid and Gulaabi Bhains)
-Epic comic moments (The well and helicopter scene "bencho bencho")
ONE-TIME-MUST-WATCH

Einstein once said, "A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem." Ironically Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola is plagued by the antipodal of this statement. Full marks to Vishal Bharadwaj for attempting a satire, a path rarely tread by Bollywood, owing to the complexities associated with one. And this film clearly picks out, What 'NOT' to do while attempting a pasquinade.
Harry Mandola, (Pankaj Kapoor) is plagued by a disorder that eerily resembles a bi-polarISH disorder of some sorts. A rich industrialist, tired of his alcoholism and blinded by his rapacity for money, Harry shows his true empathic nature only under the influence of liquor. Bijlee (Anushka Sharma), Harry's only daughter is to be soon married off to her college sweetheart Baadal (Arya Babbar). Harry's trusted driver,Matru (Imran Khan), a lawyer by profession, on the other hand has fallen in love with Bijlee, head over heels.
Barring Pankaj Kapoor and Shabana Azmi, the rest of the cast fails pathetically. The first half keeps getting more and more redundant as the film progresses. One can feel that the songs have been hammered into the script for cheap humor, except maybe one or two at the most.
A satire demands a perfect balance between witty humor and the gravity of film. MKBKM lacks wit and is overly dependent on humor. The audience is left perplexed by the end of the film, having little clue as to what the director wants to show.
No matter how weak the performance of the main cast, shoddy acting can always be compensated by some good cinematography, which again seems to be missing.

A brave, but wasteful effort.