Mumbai Matinee Hindi Movie
Life would be so uninteresting if it weren't peppered with the cameo characters that abound in it. People come, people go but the self carries on and, with it carries on life.
Late Anant Balani's laugh-a-minute flick Mumbai Matinee is about life generally - the specific problems of a 32-year-old virgin Debashish Chatterjee (Rahul Bose) notwithstanding.
It isn't so much a film about Chatterjee and his obsession about losing his virginity as it's about the people he gets to meet in the process. From Baba Hindustani - a fraud holy man (played outstandingly by Vijay Raaz) to Nitin Kapoor - a flop film producer (a Saurabh Shukla you're sure to fall in love with) to a Bengali police inspector (TV star Prithvi Zutshi in a charming cameo performance).
Unlike other Hinglish films, the character actors do not get sidelined in order that the hero be given more screen time. The film, in fact, is enlivened because Baba and Kapoor weave the plot around Chatterjee - as they aid him towards The cause - albeit a little underhandedly. Chatterjee is filmed on the sly by Kapoor while being coerced to exercise by the Baba and the footage used to make a porn film!
The film is runs houseful shows, Chatterjee turns a film star overnight and his virginity declared a national treasure - much to his consternation. He gets thrown out of job, his rented pad and to add to the mess the media arrives in the form of beautiful Sonali Verma (Perizaad Zorabian) who not only listens to him but also ends up falling in love with our man.
The film takes its time to pick up in the first half but holds it own thanks to a most memorable Raaz and a very endearing Shukla, with Bose barely managing a passable performance. Frankly, his stuttering, unconfident stance of a 32-year-old virgin fails to convince. Compared to him the one film old Raaz appears more at ease. Except for a few hand-held stylised shots, the camera remains static and unintrusive, letting the character take centrestage, unlike a lot of other Hindi films these days which concentrate on style rather than content.
Zorabian, as the investigative journalist has little else to do but flutter eyelashes in the overall context of the film but she manages to do just that - and how! She is, however, more than a notch above the Bollywood bimbette brigade. To be fair, she has the makings of a good actress and will in time give some of the others a run for their money.
The film ends on a happy note but not before Balani has ensured that a slice of Mumbai's life is captured perfectly on screen. And like Chatterjee says 'there are no rules in Bombay. So, anything is possible'. Indeed it is... and thank God it is.
