Communal conflict on the basis of caste or religion is a common phenomenon that is deeply rooted within almost any south Asian country. Whereas socio-cultural diversity ought to be celebrated, it is often transformed to be a tool for instigating violence. Aparna Sen created a miniature but epic world of incredible inner strength in her first politically committed film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, tackling the subject of intercommunal conflict with the soaring humanism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, painting words on film.
A married Hindu woman named Mrs. Meenakshi Iyer (Konkona Sensharma) and a photographer named Raja Chowdhary (Rahul Bose) are depicted in Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002) in a very realistic and artistic way, with terrorism serving as the backdrop.
Just before the journey began, Raja and Meenakshi with her child, Santanam, were introduced by common acquaintances in the lonely and stunning hill country. Raja has consented to take care of Meena. When the bus unexpectedly runs across a roadblock, it is revealed that Hindu mobs are raging against Muslims as a result of the burning down of a Hindu village. Raja informs the high-born Brahmin Meena that he is a Muslim just before violent fanatics’ board the bus and drag the elderly man off to death.
Meena, however, pulls him back into his seat as he stands to face the intruders and introduces them to the attackers as the Hindu couple Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. Then the circumstances force them to spend some time alone together, which results in the development of a deep bond between them and, ultimately, a very realistic climax.
The movie gives you the impression that you are a third stranger on the bus with them, and as the plot develops, an unspoken link forms between you and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer.
The movie "Mr. and Mrs. Iyer" is not subtle, and most curiously -- to put it mildly – for a sermon on tolerance, it turns to history's perpetual scapegoat, a Jew, when it needs a character who is willing to betray another to save his own skin (Anjan Dutt, playing a petrified Jew, gives away the elderly Muslim couple to the riots and sobs, "They would have killed me. I don't have foreskin").
Mr. & Mrs. Iyer have an incredibly revealing and interiorized integrity to this simultaneity of sighs and groans. In addition to calling for an end to the war between Palestinians and Israelis and between Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland, Aparna Sen's film draws attention to sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims in India.
Even though the resolution to the important subject it poses is all too conveniently postponed repeatedly, the well-acted romance between the two main characters who are pushed together by unexpected events is difficult to resist. The National Award for Best Director should have gone to Aparna Sen since she did a fantastic job and deserves it. She did a terrific job writing the screenplay, and the exchanges between Mr. and Mrs. Iyer are sharp and authentic. The movie never becomes dull; on the contrary, it only gets more captivating with each new frame.
Goutam Bose's cinematography is incredibly realistic, and I believe that the most of the time, he employed natural lighting to capture the scenes. Our eyes are drawn to the splendor of the untamed trees, mountains, and riverbed.
A background soundtrack doesn't just provide music to the scenes; the movie employs a skilled musician who knows when to keep quiet and when to let the music speak for itself. In this way, the background music complements the characters' feelings and the scene's ambiance. The tracks are enjoyable to listen to, especially the title song with its distinctive combination of guitar and flute that accentuates the visuals. When Mr. Iyer photographs pictures of numerous objects, including the broken dentures of the dead old Muslim guy in the bus, a gazal by Ustad sultan khan is just calming, and the meaning of the song matches the circumstance.
Without slipping into the gap between the two, Mr. & Mrs. Iyer successfully combines social commentary and cinematic certitude. This is Aparna Sen's most technically sound piece of work to date. Cinematographer Gautam Ghose draws a sharp contrast between the silently gorgeous Himalayan hinterland and the fanatics, while Hussain generates sounds between the silently majestic wilds and the fundamentalists. There’s a quote from the movie “Constantine” where Gabriel the angel said to John Constantine, the protagonist, “It’s only in the face of horror, you find your nobler selves.” Even though Mr. and Mrs. Iyer took a path of subtlety which unveiled the story with somewhat different turning points than just a narrow scope for humanitarian point of view, it sure did the justice to the quote.
Zarin Tasnim is a student of literature at Ulab.
