Mr. and Mrs. Iyer
Encyclopedia
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer is a 2002 Indian drama film written and directed by Aparna Sen
and produced by N. Venkatesan. The film features Aparna Sen's daughter Konkona Sen Sharma
as Meenakshi Iyer, a Tamil
Iyer
Brahmin
who is a Hindu. Rahul Bose
portrays the character of Raja Chowdhury, a Muslim
wildlife photographer
. The story revolves around these two lead characters during a fateful bus journey amidst the carnages of a communal strife in India. Zakir Hussain
, an Indian tabla
maestro, composed the background score and music for the film; Goutam Ghose, a film director himself, was the cinematographer.
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival
in Switzerland
and was showcased at other prominent film festival
s. The film opened to Indian audiences on 19 July 2002. It was met with critical acclaim upon release, and won several national and international awards, including the Golden Maile award at the Hawaii International Film Festival
and the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
in India. The film, which was also released as a DVD
, had English as its predominant language with a sporadic use of Hindi
, Tamil
, and Bengali
.
. Reports of major incidents from the 11 September 2001 attacks, the murder of Daniel Pearl
, the Iraq War to the 2002 Gujarat violence
and terrorism in India
flash across the screen. This is followed by a saying,
The story is set in September 2001. It starts as her parents drop Meenakshi Iyer (Konkona Sen Sharma
) at the bus station
. Meenakshi and Raja Chowdhury (Rahul Bose
) get introduced to each other through a common friend just before they embark on their journey. Raja, a wildlife photographer, is requested by Meenakshi's parents to look after their daughter and baby grandson, Santhanam.
The passengers of the bus include a boisterous and highly enthusiastic group of teenagers, a couple of Sikh
gentlemen, an elderly Muslim couple, a grouchy woman, a young couple high on romance, a mentally-challenged boy and his mother, and some card-playing men. While the bus negotiates the hilly terrain, Meenakshi is forced to interact with Raja in order to pacify the restive baby. The other passengers assume that they are a married couple. The bus faces a roadblock and the bus driver attempts a detour. However, soon the bus is stopped by a queue of paused vehicles. Within some time, news arrives that Hindu
mobs are rampaging against Muslims after a Hindu village was burned down in sectarian violence.
The situation turns serious as policemen arrive and announce that curfew has been imposed; all the passengers are ordered back to their vehicles. Here is where Raja reveals his Muslim identity to Meenakshi. As someone who comes from a high caste
and a conservative Brahmin
family, Meenakshi shudders at the very fact that during their travel she drank water offered by Raja, a Muslim. "Please. Don't touch me" is her shocked reply. After the police exit to scout other areas for arson, one rioting Hindu mob arrives and forcibly enters the bus. They begin interrogating passengers about their religious identities and when in doubt, they even resort to check if the person is circumcised
.
In order to protect himself from them, one of the passengers—Jewish and hence circumcised—points out the old Muslim couple to divert the mob's attention. The mob's leader drags the old man and his wife out of the bus. One teenager resists this, but she is thrashed by the leader. As Raja attempts to rise in revolt, Meenakshi plants Santhanam on his lap, ordering him to hold the baby with an intent to shield Raja's Muslim identity. The mob asks about their identities, and Meenaksi tells the leader that Raja and she are Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. After this chilly encounter, the passengers spend the night in the bus.
In the morning, the passengers trek to the nearby village to seek accommodation. Raja and Meenakshi, identifying themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, fail to find any accommodation. However, a police officer bails them out by providing shelter at an abandoned forest bungalow. During their stay at this bungalow, they discover each other's beliefs and understanding of religion. They are provided with the single usable bedroom available in the bungalow. Meenakshi refuses to share the room with Raja, and curses herself for coming along with a stranger. After confronting her on her outdated prejudices about caste and religion, Raja angrily tells her "this is 2001, no one believes like that anymore." Raja allows her the comfort of the bedroom and prefers to sleep outside. The next morning when Meenakshi does not find Raja, she gets worried and angry as to why he left Santhanam and her in such a place. Soon, she feels relieved to find Raja sleeping outside. After they reach a restaurant in the nearby village, they meet up with the teenagers on the bus. Meenakshi tells them that Santanam is a Sagittarius - his birthday is on the 20th. Later, they encounter the same police officer who previously helped them, and he volunteers to transport them to the city the next morning. That night, as they witness a horrific murder by one of the mobs, a shocked Meenakshi is comforted by Raja.
Once in the city, they board the train towards their destination. An unspoken love and a strong attraction is evident between them, keeping behind all their differences. At their destination station, the real Mr. Iyer (Meenakshi's husband) arrives to receive his wife. Raja and Meenakshi bid an emotional farewell to each other.
, a noted actor and director of the Bengali cinema
, made her debut as a director with 36 Chowringhee Lane
(1981), a film in English. Nearly twenty years had elapsed since 36 Chowringhee Lane when in July 2001 she started writing the script for her second film in English, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. She hoped to pen a simple romantic story, but it turned out to take the shape of a saga of relationship in the backdrop of sectarian violences. Sen came up with the background of the story in the aftermath of 9/11 and the 2002 Gujarat riots
. In an interview, Sen stated that the omnipresent, circumstantial violence in the film was only to serve as a strain in the script which aimed to show how the relationship evolves between two people who are forced to be together under trying times. She stated that the time frame of the film was set at some time after the attacks on the Parliament of India
on 13 December 2001.
In an interview at the screening of this film at the Locarno Film Festival, Sen revealed that Konkona had not only come up with the title of the film but she had been deeply involved in the research that went into the making of the film. About the cinematographer Gautam Ghose
, Aparna Sen said that they had a good rapport with each other and that Ghose, himself an acclaimed director, was one of the best cinematographers she knew. Ghose, in reply, said that he hoped to give his best for the film and thus contribute to their friendship.
and Split Wide Open
made Aparna Sen feel that he was a good, controlled and intelligent actor. After a costume and a makeup test, he was chosen for the character of Raja Chawdhury. Sen admitted that Bose's work was up to the mark, and working with him was a wonderful experience. As expressed in an interview of Sen, Konkona Sen Sharma's abilities as a sensitive actress fetched her the role of Meenakshi Iyer. Konkona's interest in Indian films made in English, and her inhibitions about doing the usual commercial song-and-dance films, made her choice of working in this film easier. Sen had penned the elderly Muslim woman's character bearing Surekha Sikri
in mind. Eventually Sikri and the author and playwright Bhisham Sahni
were cast to play the roles of the Muslim couple in the film. Santhanam, the infant son of Meenakshi Iyer in the film is Sen's grand niece.
Aparna Sen chose English as the film's narrative since the characters are linguistically diverse. She had to make sure that the characters spoke in English with their regional accent. In fact, Konkona admitted in an interview that playing the role of a Tamil Brahmin did not come easy. Her mother, Aparna Sen, forced her to visit Chennai
(where the major language is Tamil) for two weeks to research her character. She also said that she had learned many characteristics, nuances and mannerisms native to Tamilian
housewives. She took a close look at Iyer
lifestyles and customs in and around Mylapore
, a cultural hub in Chennai. She attempted listening to recorded conversations in Iyer households to get a suitable Tamil accent.
foothills of northern West Bengal
. The producers provided a state-of-the-art camera from Chennai's Prasad Studios to ensure that the shooting crew was technically better equipped. Rupali Mehta, from Triplecom Productions, the co-producer for the film oversaw the crew of over 100 complete the production schedule in 50 days. The production team
resorted to certain cost-cutting measures to ensure they committed less mistakes. For example, they had organised a workshop for the actors to avoid mistakes while filming.
While filming in Jalpaiguri
, Sen got embroiled in a controversy for damages caused to the forest bungalow, a heritage property, where a portion of filming was done. She admitted that, to give the bungalow a haunted look, they "... sprayed slush on the walls and plastered cobwebs all over the place." However, she claimed that the place was cleaned up after the completion of their shoot.
, two scenes were removed by producers from the version of the film screened in the city of Mumbai
. One scene showed a Hindu man saying—using profanity—that Muslims should be sent back to Pakistan
; the other featured a policeman using obscenities with a communal
undertone. The police felt both scenes were too "provocative" for a "communally sensitive" city. However for the rest of India, the film was screened in its entirety.
The film had only modest box office
success; domestically, it made 7.3 million rupees
in its first release. However, thanks to its low budget and the spread of multiplexes in India, it brought in some revenue. Furthermore, the contemporary trend in the Indian television channels is to showcase films within months of their release. This trend helped modest box-office successes such as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer to get additional thrust to their financial returns. Indeed, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer was one of the first films that led to reworking of the business models for small films in India. In addition, Triplecom Productions sold the dubbed
version in Italy for $20,000. A trade analysis by Rediff.com
suggested that small-budget films such as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer did not compromise on marketing budgets, instead they put efforts in marketing themselves more innovatively.
. It ran for 3 minutes longer than its runtime of 120 minutes at Locarno. Though it missed out on the Golden Leopard Award at Locarno, it won the Netpac Jury Prize along with two other films. The film won the Golden Maile award at the 22nd Hawaii International Film Festival
, the Audience Award for the Best Feature Film at the Philadelphia Film Festival
, and the best screenplay award at the 2003 Cinemanila International Film Festival
.
In 2003, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles chose to open with Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, while New Zealand's first Asian film festival in 2004 chose to close its 10-day fest with it. The India International Women's Film Festival had a special retrospective to Aparna Sen for Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. The film was also showcased at the Pusan International Film Festival
, Regus London Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival
, International Film Festival of India
, Braunschweig International Film Festival, and High Falls Film Festival. At the International Film Festival of Las Palmas
in the Canary Islands
, it won the Gold prize, awarded to the best film screened that year. Rahul Bose said that when the film was showcased at the Geneva festival, it was seen and liked by Kofi Annan
, the United Nations Secretary-General
.
Back home in India, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer won the Golden Lotus Award for best direction
, the Silver Lotus Awards for best actress
, the best screenplay
, and the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
at the 2003 National Film Awards
ceremony.
Govind Nihalani
, an Indian film director wondered if Mr. and Mrs. Iyer could have been sent to the Oscars
instead of the regular song-and-dance entries. Eventually, Film Federation of India, the apex organisation that sends the nation's official entries to the Oscars, did not find any film worth sending for the 76th Academy Awards
.
commented in his review in The New York Times
that "The well-acted romance, as the two principal characters are thrown together by unanticipated events, is hard to resist, even though the answer to the crucial question it raises is all too conveniently deferred time and again." However, he added that Mr. and Mrs. Iyer "... is not a subtle film ..." The Chicago Reader also said, "Sen is anything but subtle in populating the bus with a cross section of class and ethnic types ... but the friendship that blossoms between the leads is tenderly depicted and hints at a solution to sectarian strife" TIME
magazine praised Aparna sen for her "... attention to detail ..." that "... skillfully captures the characters' idiosyncrasies." The Village Voice
said, "The actors appear game, yet director Aparna Sen, who conceived the film in the wake of September 11, resorts often to hokey pseudo-lyricism and prefers sound-bite ballyhoo to sociological depth." Metacritic
, a website with a medley of reviews by American critics, gives the film a score of 50/100, meaning mixed or average reviews.
In his review, Derek Elley of Variety
remarked that the film had "... the awkward, issue-driven dialogue and wavering direction, showing influences from both the arty and commercial. [The] two leads just about scrape through." Although The Hindu
review praised the director for "... handling (these) scenes in an understated, muted fashion ..." giving "... them the power to disturb and haunt you." it questioned certain aspects of the film, stating, "Though the flutters of the heart have been treated with finesse—sometimes a little too prudishly, pandering
, perhaps, to middle class
morality—we are never entirely convinced that love could blossom between Meenakshi Iyer and Raja Chowdhary." Indeed, Sen was criticised for contriving cinematic situation not quite fitting to the real world, "Can a married woman with a baby in arms fall in love with a total stranger that she meets on a very short bus journey, however extraordinary the situation may have been? Having decided to drive them to each other's arms, Sen thinks up situations, which are terribly contrived ... Sen's story and script are found wanting elsewhere too. The police officer, who plays the good Samaritan, appears so unreal in the world of rancour that Sen creates ... [She], probably in her over enthusiasm, lets her own emotions derail her."
Konkona Sen Sharma, who had not been widely seen outside Bengal
before the release of the film, received particular praise for her performance, "... the movie clearly belongs to Konkona Sen Sharma ... who as Meenakshi [Iyer] gets so beautifully into the psyche of a Tamil Brahmin ... she emotes just splendidly: when her eyes well up at the thought of parting with Raja [Chowdhary], when she gently rests her head on his shoulders in the train, and when her expressions suggest the faintest hint of love, we know that here is a great actress." A Rediff.com
review said, "... Konkana, a youngster, bowls you over with her silently sledge-hammering portrayal of Meenakshi Iyer, a conservative Tamilian Brahmin housewife ... [Her] eyes tell a thousand untold stories." An Australian critic said that the film, with "wonderfully nuanced performances by Sensharma and Rahul Bose, whose love affair is as innocent as the lyrical, lingering soundtrack. Mr and Mrs Iyer is a gentle film, whose simple and haunting love story will appeal to the romantic traveller."
The "... attractive lensing by Gautam Ghose
(a director in his own right) and atmospheric scoring by Ustad Zakir Hussain
..." were well received. "Looking through the eyes of Gautam Ghose's illuminating lens, Aparna Sen builds a miniature, but epic, world of tremendous inner strength. In her first seriously politically committed film, Sen takes on the issue of communal conflict with the surging humanism
of Gabriel García Márquez
, painting words on celluloid ... If [Zakir] Hussain creates sounds within the seesaw of silences and screams, cinematographer Gautam Ghose creates a lucid contrast between the silently majestic Himalayan
hinterland and the fundamentalists."
, Tamil and Urdu. It is available in 16:9 Anamorphic widescreen
, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, progressive
24 FPS
, widescreen
and NTSC
format.
composed music for the film. For the first time in mainstream cinema, he sung for one part of a song. He said this in an interview and added that it was only after the track was recorded, the producers decided to go for Hussain's voice. Rahul Bose, who introduced Hussain to Aparna and Konkona, was instrumental in influencing Hussain to compose the background score
for the film.
The soundtrack consists of 5 songs:
Aparna Sen
Aparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Biography:...
and produced by N. Venkatesan. The film features Aparna Sen's daughter Konkona Sen Sharma
Konkona Sen Sharma
Konkona Sen Sharma is an Indian actress. She is the daughter of actress and filmmaker Aparna Sen. Sharma appears primarily in Indian arthouse and independent films, and her achievements in the genre have established her as one of the leading actresses of contemporary parallel cinema.Making her...
as Meenakshi Iyer, a Tamil
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
Iyer
Iyer
Iyer is the title given to the caste of Hindu Brahmin communities of Tamil origin. Most Iyers are followers of the Advaita philosophy propounded by Adi Shankara...
Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
who is a Hindu. Rahul Bose
Rahul Bose
Rahul Bose is an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, social activist, and rugby union player.Bose has appeared in Hindi films such as Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Jhankaar Beats. Time magazine named him "the superstar of Indian arthouse cinema" for his work in parallel cinema films like English,...
portrays the character of Raja Chowdhury, a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
wildlife photographer
Wildlife photography
Wildlife photography is the act of taking photographs of wildlife.Wildlife photography is regarded as one of the more challenging forms of photography. As well as needing sound technical skills, such as being able to expose correctly, wildlife photographers generally need good field craft skills...
. The story revolves around these two lead characters during a fateful bus journey amidst the carnages of a communal strife in India. Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain (musician)
Zakir Hussain , , is an Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer.-Early life:Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha. He attended St...
, an Indian tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
maestro, composed the background score and music for the film; Goutam Ghose, a film director himself, was the cinematographer.
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and was showcased at other prominent film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s. The film opened to Indian audiences on 19 July 2002. It was met with critical acclaim upon release, and won several national and international awards, including the Golden Maile award at the Hawaii International Film Festival
Hawaii International Film Festival
The Hawaii International Film Festival is a film festival held in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was started in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko and has been held annually in the fall for two weeks...
and the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
The Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration is a National Film Award - Silver Lotus, given to an Indian feature film director, for the best film relating to National Integration in India.The winners of the Award:-References:...
in India. The film, which was also released as a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, had English as its predominant language with a sporadic use of Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
, and Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
.
Plot
The film begins with an audio-visual collage of news reports on contemporary wars and terrorismTerrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
. Reports of major incidents from the 11 September 2001 attacks, the murder of Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed by Al-Qaeda.At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, and was based in Mumbai, India. He went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between...
, the Iraq War to the 2002 Gujarat violence
2002 Gujarat violence
The 2002 Gujarat violence describes the Godhra train burning and resulting communal riots between Hindus and Muslims. On 27 February 2002 at Godhra City in the state of Gujarat, the Sabarmati Express train was attacked by a large Muslim mob in a conspiracy. But some authentic sources deny the claim...
and terrorism in India
Terrorism in India
Terrorism in India is primarily attributable to religious communities and Naxalite radical movements.The regions with long term terrorist activities today are Jammu and Kashmir, Mumbai, Central India and the Seven Sister States...
flash across the screen. This is followed by a saying,
The story is set in September 2001. It starts as her parents drop Meenakshi Iyer (Konkona Sen Sharma
Konkona Sen Sharma
Konkona Sen Sharma is an Indian actress. She is the daughter of actress and filmmaker Aparna Sen. Sharma appears primarily in Indian arthouse and independent films, and her achievements in the genre have established her as one of the leading actresses of contemporary parallel cinema.Making her...
) at the bus station
Bus station
A bus station is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. It is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can stop...
. Meenakshi and Raja Chowdhury (Rahul Bose
Rahul Bose
Rahul Bose is an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, social activist, and rugby union player.Bose has appeared in Hindi films such as Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Jhankaar Beats. Time magazine named him "the superstar of Indian arthouse cinema" for his work in parallel cinema films like English,...
) get introduced to each other through a common friend just before they embark on their journey. Raja, a wildlife photographer, is requested by Meenakshi's parents to look after their daughter and baby grandson, Santhanam.
The passengers of the bus include a boisterous and highly enthusiastic group of teenagers, a couple of Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
gentlemen, an elderly Muslim couple, a grouchy woman, a young couple high on romance, a mentally-challenged boy and his mother, and some card-playing men. While the bus negotiates the hilly terrain, Meenakshi is forced to interact with Raja in order to pacify the restive baby. The other passengers assume that they are a married couple. The bus faces a roadblock and the bus driver attempts a detour. However, soon the bus is stopped by a queue of paused vehicles. Within some time, news arrives that Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
mobs are rampaging against Muslims after a Hindu village was burned down in sectarian violence.
The situation turns serious as policemen arrive and announce that curfew has been imposed; all the passengers are ordered back to their vehicles. Here is where Raja reveals his Muslim identity to Meenakshi. As someone who comes from a high caste
High Caste
High Caste was a Thoroughbred racehorse and stallion that was bred in New Zealand and was considered the best two-year-old in New Zealand after winning three of his four race starts. He was a good racehorse under handicap and weight for age conditions and combined this with wins in good races from...
and a conservative Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
family, Meenakshi shudders at the very fact that during their travel she drank water offered by Raja, a Muslim. "Please. Don't touch me" is her shocked reply. After the police exit to scout other areas for arson, one rioting Hindu mob arrives and forcibly enters the bus. They begin interrogating passengers about their religious identities and when in doubt, they even resort to check if the person is circumcised
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
.
In the morning, the passengers trek to the nearby village to seek accommodation. Raja and Meenakshi, identifying themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, fail to find any accommodation. However, a police officer bails them out by providing shelter at an abandoned forest bungalow. During their stay at this bungalow, they discover each other's beliefs and understanding of religion. They are provided with the single usable bedroom available in the bungalow. Meenakshi refuses to share the room with Raja, and curses herself for coming along with a stranger. After confronting her on her outdated prejudices about caste and religion, Raja angrily tells her "this is 2001, no one believes like that anymore." Raja allows her the comfort of the bedroom and prefers to sleep outside. The next morning when Meenakshi does not find Raja, she gets worried and angry as to why he left Santhanam and her in such a place. Soon, she feels relieved to find Raja sleeping outside. After they reach a restaurant in the nearby village, they meet up with the teenagers on the bus. Meenakshi tells them that Santanam is a Sagittarius - his birthday is on the 20th. Later, they encounter the same police officer who previously helped them, and he volunteers to transport them to the city the next morning. That night, as they witness a horrific murder by one of the mobs, a shocked Meenakshi is comforted by Raja.
Once in the city, they board the train towards their destination. An unspoken love and a strong attraction is evident between them, keeping behind all their differences. At their destination station, the real Mr. Iyer (Meenakshi's husband) arrives to receive his wife. Raja and Meenakshi bid an emotional farewell to each other.
Cast
- Konkona Sen SharmaKonkona Sen SharmaKonkona Sen Sharma is an Indian actress. She is the daughter of actress and filmmaker Aparna Sen. Sharma appears primarily in Indian arthouse and independent films, and her achievements in the genre have established her as one of the leading actresses of contemporary parallel cinema.Making her...
as Meenakshi S. Iyer – A traditional TamilTamil languageTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
IyerIyerIyer is the title given to the caste of Hindu Brahmin communities of Tamil origin. Most Iyers are followers of the Advaita philosophy propounded by Adi Shankara...
BrahminBrahminBrahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
traveling with her year old son, Santhanam, in the bus on her way to meet her husband. She meets a fellow-traveler, Raja Chowdhury, and gets drawn to him due to the surrounding circumstances. - Rahul BoseRahul BoseRahul Bose is an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, social activist, and rugby union player.Bose has appeared in Hindi films such as Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Jhankaar Beats. Time magazine named him "the superstar of Indian arthouse cinema" for his work in parallel cinema films like English,...
as Jehangir "Raja" Chowdhury – A liberal Muslim by faith, he is a wildlife photographer by profession. With the imminent danger from the rioters, Meenakshi contrives a protective identity for him as her husband. - Bhisham SahniBhisham SahniBhisham Sahni भीष्म साहनी was a Hindi writer, playwright, and actor, most famous for his novel and television screenplay Tamas , a powerful and passionate account of the Partition of India...
as Iqbal Ahmed Khan – An elderly conservative Muslim traveling along with his wife, Najma. He ends up as one of the victims of the sectarian violence. - Surekha SikriSurekha SikriSurekha Sikri or Surekha Sikri Rege is Indian film, theatre and TV actor. She has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress twice, for her role in Tamas in 1988 and for Mammo in 1995.-Early life and background:...
as Najma Ahmed Khan – The dutiful and loving wife of Iqbal, Najma perishes in the riots when she comes in defence of her husband. - Anjan DuttaAnjan DuttaAnjan Dutta is a popular artist of the 1990s Bengali music scene defined by anyodharar gaan . Anjan Dutta's style of music is different from the others in the sense that it has simple tunes, one that is reminiscent of western folk music. His lyrics are simple and more natural...
as Cohen – He is responsible for diverting the attention of the Hindu mob, in self-defence, towards the old Muslim couple. Thereafter, he is petrified thinking that he may also have been killed by the mob who could wrongly identify him as a Muslim, since he is circumcised. - Bharat Kaul as Rajesh Arora – The police officer responsible for controlling and maintaining the law and order in the riot-stricken area. He gets acquainted with the bus passengers and helps the Iyer 'couple' find a place to stay during the curfew.
- Niharika Seth, Riddhi Basu, Richa Vyas, Eden Das as Khushbu, Mala, Sonali, Amrita – An enthusiastic young group of friends riding the bus.
Development
Aparna SenAparna Sen
Aparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Biography:...
, a noted actor and director of the Bengali cinema
Bengali cinema
Bengali cinema refers to the Bengali language filmmaking industries in the Bengal region of South Asia. There are two major film-making hubs in the region: one in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and the other in Dhaka, Bangladesh .The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890s, when the first...
, made her debut as a director with 36 Chowringhee Lane
36 Chowringhee Lane
36 Chowringee Lane is a 1981 film written and directed by Aparna Sen and produced by Shashi Kapoor. The film was very well received upon release. It stars Jennifer Kendal in a critically acclaimed role and Debashree Roy.-Plot:...
(1981), a film in English. Nearly twenty years had elapsed since 36 Chowringhee Lane when in July 2001 she started writing the script for her second film in English, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. She hoped to pen a simple romantic story, but it turned out to take the shape of a saga of relationship in the backdrop of sectarian violences. Sen came up with the background of the story in the aftermath of 9/11 and the 2002 Gujarat riots
2002 Gujarat violence
The 2002 Gujarat violence describes the Godhra train burning and resulting communal riots between Hindus and Muslims. On 27 February 2002 at Godhra City in the state of Gujarat, the Sabarmati Express train was attacked by a large Muslim mob in a conspiracy. But some authentic sources deny the claim...
. In an interview, Sen stated that the omnipresent, circumstantial violence in the film was only to serve as a strain in the script which aimed to show how the relationship evolves between two people who are forced to be together under trying times. She stated that the time frame of the film was set at some time after the attacks on the Parliament of India
2001 Indian Parliament attack
The 2001 Indian Parliament attack was a high-profile attack by Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists against the building housing the Parliament of India in New Delhi...
on 13 December 2001.
In an interview at the screening of this film at the Locarno Film Festival, Sen revealed that Konkona had not only come up with the title of the film but she had been deeply involved in the research that went into the making of the film. About the cinematographer Gautam Ghose
Gautam Ghose
Goutam Ghose is one of the most acclaimed film directors of modern India. Born in Calcutta. Graduated from Calcutta University....
, Aparna Sen said that they had a good rapport with each other and that Ghose, himself an acclaimed director, was one of the best cinematographers she knew. Ghose, in reply, said that he hoped to give his best for the film and thus contribute to their friendship.
Casting
Rahul Bose's work in English, AugustEnglish, August (film)
English, August, made in 1994, is Indian film director Dev Benegal's first feature film. This film ignited the next generation of Indian cinema and is acknowledged as a landmark in contemporary Indian cinema...
and Split Wide Open
Split Wide Open
Split Wide Open is a 1999 Indian film and is Dev Benegal's second feature film after English, August. The film primarily deals with the Water conflicts in the slums of Bombay, and paedophilia, and also looks at the subversive sexuality in modern India and how the notions of morality are challenged...
made Aparna Sen feel that he was a good, controlled and intelligent actor. After a costume and a makeup test, he was chosen for the character of Raja Chawdhury. Sen admitted that Bose's work was up to the mark, and working with him was a wonderful experience. As expressed in an interview of Sen, Konkona Sen Sharma's abilities as a sensitive actress fetched her the role of Meenakshi Iyer. Konkona's interest in Indian films made in English, and her inhibitions about doing the usual commercial song-and-dance films, made her choice of working in this film easier. Sen had penned the elderly Muslim woman's character bearing Surekha Sikri
Surekha Sikri
Surekha Sikri or Surekha Sikri Rege is Indian film, theatre and TV actor. She has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress twice, for her role in Tamas in 1988 and for Mammo in 1995.-Early life and background:...
in mind. Eventually Sikri and the author and playwright Bhisham Sahni
Bhisham Sahni
Bhisham Sahni भीष्म साहनी was a Hindi writer, playwright, and actor, most famous for his novel and television screenplay Tamas , a powerful and passionate account of the Partition of India...
were cast to play the roles of the Muslim couple in the film. Santhanam, the infant son of Meenakshi Iyer in the film is Sen's grand niece.
Aparna Sen chose English as the film's narrative since the characters are linguistically diverse. She had to make sure that the characters spoke in English with their regional accent. In fact, Konkona admitted in an interview that playing the role of a Tamil Brahmin did not come easy. Her mother, Aparna Sen, forced her to visit Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
(where the major language is Tamil) for two weeks to research her character. She also said that she had learned many characteristics, nuances and mannerisms native to Tamilian
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
housewives. She took a close look at Iyer
Iyer
Iyer is the title given to the caste of Hindu Brahmin communities of Tamil origin. Most Iyers are followers of the Advaita philosophy propounded by Adi Shankara...
lifestyles and customs in and around Mylapore
Mylapore
Mylapore is a cultural hub and neighborhood in the southern part of the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. Earlier, Mylapore used to be called Vedapuri....
, a cultural hub in Chennai. She attempted listening to recorded conversations in Iyer households to get a suitable Tamil accent.
Filming
The production commenced in December 2001. Sen chose to keep the geographical setting unstated in the film because she felt that it was a journey that could take place anywhere. The film was shot in the HimalayanHimalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
foothills of northern West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. The producers provided a state-of-the-art camera from Chennai's Prasad Studios to ensure that the shooting crew was technically better equipped. Rupali Mehta, from Triplecom Productions, the co-producer for the film oversaw the crew of over 100 complete the production schedule in 50 days. The production team
Production team
A production team is the group of technical staff who produce a play, television show, recording, or film. Generally the term refers to all individuals responsible for the technical aspects of creating of a particular product, regardless of where in the process their expertize is required, or how...
resorted to certain cost-cutting measures to ensure they committed less mistakes. For example, they had organised a workshop for the actors to avoid mistakes while filming.
While filming in Jalpaiguri
Jalpaiguri
Jalpaiguri is a city in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of Jalpaiguri district, and the divisional headquarters of the North Bengal region.-History:...
, Sen got embroiled in a controversy for damages caused to the forest bungalow, a heritage property, where a portion of filming was done. She admitted that, to give the bungalow a haunted look, they "... sprayed slush on the walls and plastered cobwebs all over the place." However, she claimed that the place was cleaned up after the completion of their shoot.
Release and reception
Following objections from the local policeMumbai Police
The Mumbai Police is the police force of the city of Mumbai, India. It has the primary responsibilities of law enforcement and investigation within the limits of Mumbai. The department's motto is ""...
, two scenes were removed by producers from the version of the film screened in the city of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. One scene showed a Hindu man saying—using profanity—that Muslims should be sent back to Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
; the other featured a policeman using obscenities with a communal
Communalism (South Asia)
This article deals with the use of the word communalism in South Asia, as a name for a force separating different communities based on some form of social or sectarian discrimination...
undertone. The police felt both scenes were too "provocative" for a "communally sensitive" city. However for the rest of India, the film was screened in its entirety.
The film had only modest box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
success; domestically, it made 7.3 million rupees
Indian rupee
The Indian rupee is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India....
in its first release. However, thanks to its low budget and the spread of multiplexes in India, it brought in some revenue. Furthermore, the contemporary trend in the Indian television channels is to showcase films within months of their release. This trend helped modest box-office successes such as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer to get additional thrust to their financial returns. Indeed, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer was one of the first films that led to reworking of the business models for small films in India. In addition, Triplecom Productions sold the dubbed
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
version in Italy for $20,000. A trade analysis by Rediff.com
Rediff.com
Rediff.com India is a news, information, entertainment, and shopping portal. It was founded in 1996 as "Rediff On The NeT" and is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi and New York City, USA....
suggested that small-budget films such as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer did not compromise on marketing budgets, instead they put efforts in marketing themselves more innovatively.
Special screenings and awards
In 2002, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer was chosen as India's official entry at the Locarno International Film FestivalLocarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
. It ran for 3 minutes longer than its runtime of 120 minutes at Locarno. Though it missed out on the Golden Leopard Award at Locarno, it won the Netpac Jury Prize along with two other films. The film won the Golden Maile award at the 22nd Hawaii International Film Festival
Hawaii International Film Festival
The Hawaii International Film Festival is a film festival held in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was started in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko and has been held annually in the fall for two weeks...
, the Audience Award for the Best Feature Film at the Philadelphia Film Festival
Philadelphia Film Festival
The Philadelphia Film Festival is held annually in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Until 2009 it was generally held during the first weeks of April....
, and the best screenplay award at the 2003 Cinemanila International Film Festival
Cinemanila International Film Festival
The Cinemanila International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Manila, the Philippines. It was founded by Filipino filmmaker Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz in 1999....
.
In 2003, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles chose to open with Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, while New Zealand's first Asian film festival in 2004 chose to close its 10-day fest with it. The India International Women's Film Festival had a special retrospective to Aparna Sen for Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. The film was also showcased at the Pusan International Film Festival
Pusan International Film Festival
Busan International Film Festival , held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan , South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia...
, Regus London Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival
Mill Valley Film Festival
The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute. Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a non-competitive environment for exhibiting independent and world cinema.Founded in 1978 by MVFF...
, International Film Festival of India
International Film Festival of India
The International Film Festival of India , founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually in the beach town of Goa, in the Western Coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common platform for the cinemas of the world to project the excellence of...
, Braunschweig International Film Festival, and High Falls Film Festival. At the International Film Festival of Las Palmas
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival is an international film festival that is held in Las Palmas in the island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. The festival takes place every year...
in the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, it won the Gold prize, awarded to the best film screened that year. Rahul Bose said that when the film was showcased at the Geneva festival, it was seen and liked by Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
, the United Nations Secretary-General
United Nations Secretary-General
The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....
.
Back home in India, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer won the Golden Lotus Award for best direction
National Film Award for Best Directing
The National Film Award for Best Direction winners are given below. Satyajit Ray has been awarded the maximum number of times in this category....
, the Silver Lotus Awards for best actress
National Film Award for Best Actress
The National Film Award for Best Actress is an honor presented annually at the National Film Awards of India to an actress who has delivered the best performance in a leading role within the Indian film industry...
, the best screenplay
National Film Award for Best Screenplay
The National Film Award for Best Screenplay winners:-References:...
, and the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration
The Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration is a National Film Award - Silver Lotus, given to an Indian feature film director, for the best film relating to National Integration in India.The winners of the Award:-References:...
at the 2003 National Film Awards
National Film Awards
The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it is administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals since 1973.Every year, a national panel...
ceremony.
Govind Nihalani
Govind Nihalani
Govind Nihalani is an Indian director, cinematographer, and also a screenwriter and film producer. He has been directing Hindi films since the late seventies, and worked in the television medium.- Biography :...
, an Indian film director wondered if Mr. and Mrs. Iyer could have been sent to the Oscars
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
instead of the regular song-and-dance entries. Eventually, Film Federation of India, the apex organisation that sends the nation's official entries to the Oscars, did not find any film worth sending for the 76th Academy Awards
76th Academy Awards
The 76th Academy Awards ceremony honored the best films of 2003 and was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST, February 29, 2004 . The show was produced by Joe Roth and was hosted for the eighth time by comedian Billy Crystal.The...
.
Reviews
Lawrence van GelderLawrence Van Gelder
Lawrence Van Gelder is an American journalist and instructor in journalism who has worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. Until 2010 he was senior editor of the Arts and Leisure weekly section of The New York Times...
commented in his review in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
that "The well-acted romance, as the two principal characters are thrown together by unanticipated events, is hard to resist, even though the answer to the crucial question it raises is all too conveniently deferred time and again." However, he added that Mr. and Mrs. Iyer "... is not a subtle film ..." The Chicago Reader also said, "Sen is anything but subtle in populating the bus with a cross section of class and ethnic types ... but the friendship that blossoms between the leads is tenderly depicted and hints at a solution to sectarian strife" TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine praised Aparna sen for her "... attention to detail ..." that "... skillfully captures the characters' idiosyncrasies." The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
said, "The actors appear game, yet director Aparna Sen, who conceived the film in the wake of September 11, resorts often to hokey pseudo-lyricism and prefers sound-bite ballyhoo to sociological depth." Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, a website with a medley of reviews by American critics, gives the film a score of 50/100, meaning mixed or average reviews.
In his review, Derek Elley of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
remarked that the film had "... the awkward, issue-driven dialogue and wavering direction, showing influences from both the arty and commercial. [The] two leads just about scrape through." Although The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
review praised the director for "... handling (these) scenes in an understated, muted fashion ..." giving "... them the power to disturb and haunt you." it questioned certain aspects of the film, stating, "Though the flutters of the heart have been treated with finesse—sometimes a little too prudishly, pandering
Pandering (politics)
Pandering is the act of expressing one's views in accordance with the likes of a group to which one is attempting to appeal. The term is most notably associated with politics...
, perhaps, to middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
morality—we are never entirely convinced that love could blossom between Meenakshi Iyer and Raja Chowdhary." Indeed, Sen was criticised for contriving cinematic situation not quite fitting to the real world, "Can a married woman with a baby in arms fall in love with a total stranger that she meets on a very short bus journey, however extraordinary the situation may have been? Having decided to drive them to each other's arms, Sen thinks up situations, which are terribly contrived ... Sen's story and script are found wanting elsewhere too. The police officer, who plays the good Samaritan, appears so unreal in the world of rancour that Sen creates ... [She], probably in her over enthusiasm, lets her own emotions derail her."
Konkona Sen Sharma, who had not been widely seen outside Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
before the release of the film, received particular praise for her performance, "... the movie clearly belongs to Konkona Sen Sharma ... who as Meenakshi [Iyer] gets so beautifully into the psyche of a Tamil Brahmin ... she emotes just splendidly: when her eyes well up at the thought of parting with Raja [Chowdhary], when she gently rests her head on his shoulders in the train, and when her expressions suggest the faintest hint of love, we know that here is a great actress." A Rediff.com
Rediff.com
Rediff.com India is a news, information, entertainment, and shopping portal. It was founded in 1996 as "Rediff On The NeT" and is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi and New York City, USA....
review said, "... Konkana, a youngster, bowls you over with her silently sledge-hammering portrayal of Meenakshi Iyer, a conservative Tamilian Brahmin housewife ... [Her] eyes tell a thousand untold stories." An Australian critic said that the film, with "wonderfully nuanced performances by Sensharma and Rahul Bose, whose love affair is as innocent as the lyrical, lingering soundtrack. Mr and Mrs Iyer is a gentle film, whose simple and haunting love story will appeal to the romantic traveller."
The "... attractive lensing by Gautam Ghose
Gautam Ghose
Goutam Ghose is one of the most acclaimed film directors of modern India. Born in Calcutta. Graduated from Calcutta University....
(a director in his own right) and atmospheric scoring by Ustad Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain (musician)
Zakir Hussain , , is an Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer.-Early life:Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha. He attended St...
..." were well received. "Looking through the eyes of Gautam Ghose's illuminating lens, Aparna Sen builds a miniature, but epic, world of tremendous inner strength. In her first seriously politically committed film, Sen takes on the issue of communal conflict with the surging humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
of Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
, painting words on celluloid ... If [Zakir] Hussain creates sounds within the seesaw of silences and screams, cinematographer Gautam Ghose creates a lucid contrast between the silently majestic Himalayan
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
hinterland and the fundamentalists."
DVD
The DVD, which released on 2 June 2004, has subtitle options in English, Hindi, PunjabiPunjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
, Tamil and Urdu. It is available in 16:9 Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, progressive
Progressive scan
Progressive scanning is a way of displaying, storing, or transmitting moving images in which all the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence...
24 FPS
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
, widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
and NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
format.
Soundtrack
Ustad Zakir HussainZakir Hussain (musician)
Zakir Hussain , , is an Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer.-Early life:Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha. He attended St...
composed music for the film. For the first time in mainstream cinema, he sung for one part of a song. He said this in an interview and added that it was only after the track was recorded, the producers decided to go for Hussain's voice. Rahul Bose, who introduced Hussain to Aparna and Konkona, was instrumental in influencing Hussain to compose the background score
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
for the film.
The soundtrack consists of 5 songs: