Malaal seems strangely out of joint. Set in the 90s, complete with nods to Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Titanic , it’s the kind of old fashioned love story where it’s still the family that proves to be the hurdle in the way of the lovers. Haven’t we come a rather long way from that? At times, it seems as though director Mangesh Hadawale may have made the film just to feed his own nostalgia for the 90s cinema.
It’s the kind of love story that is all about “opposites attract”. Based on the Tamil hit, 7 G Rainbow Colony , Hadawale’s film has a quintessential tapori (who would have well been played by Anil Kapoor back then), the untamed, good for nothing but good-hearted Shiva More (Meezaan Jaffrey) fall in love with the new neighbour in the chawl, the prim and proper, miss goody two shoes Astha Tripathi (Sharmin Segal), who has been forced to move down in life after the family faces financial collapse. As per the well-worn formula they don’t see eye to eye at the start. He is into brawls, booze and gambling; she is studying to become a CA. Shiva is proprietorial when it comes to Astha, but she at least has voice enough to squeak, if not shout. She is also just the kind of nice girl who is given the onus of taming her wild man. Miraculously, she also makes a good man out of him, and lo and behold they fall in love.
But neither the moments of confrontations, nor of tenderness make any impact. The Marathi (insider) as against the UP/Bihar (outsider) politics coming in the way of love would have added some tension and topicality to the love but is set aside conveniently. It’s not just the love that feels inorganic, there something sanitised about the larger universe of the film. Jaffrey tries to convey intensity by wearing a singular scowl. He may dance and fight well but needs expressions to flit across the currently deadpan visage. After an initial spark of promise, Segal dims badly. So does the film.
