How surprising there are so few reviews of this film on Amazon. The movie Mr. & Mrs. Iyer is about a Muslim man & a Hindu woman & her child who are thrown together during a bus ride to Calcutta, India that is halted by local religious riots.
As a man & a woman & her infant prepare to board a bus their friends & family seeing them off introduce the man & woman to each other. The man thanks the woman's father for helping him to obtain a pass into a forest where he will be taking wildlife photographs. In return, the family, who thinks he is Hindu because his nickname is Raja, asks him to watch over their daughter, Meenakshi, & her infant as they travel alone to meet her husband. As Meenakshi struggles with her infant on the bus Raja helps her & ends up sitting next to her & eventually discloses he is Muslim. She is repelled, but when Hindu militants board the bus & interrogate the passengers to identify the Muslim men, Mrs. Iyer claims the man next to her is her husband, Mr. Iyer, in order to save his life.
The development of the Raja & Meenakshi's reliance on each other &, eventually, their friendship is subtle, intelligent, & compelling. The storyline is assisted by great scenery & a nice soundtrack with no musical numbers. I expected the storyline to be more political & violent, but it centers on how a few people's opinions & prejudices can change. This is the one of the best films I have seen come out of Indian cinema & I look forward to seeing more movies like Mr. & Mrs. Iyer come out of Mumbai/Bollywood.
If you like this movie, you may also enjoy the films Earth & Water directed by Deepa Mehta & Hey Ram directed by Kamal Hassan. |
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer dvd movie.