Vishaal
Bard-waj’s Mirchand of Varanasi is not only one of the best movies he’s made in
the last six months, it’s also an absolutely stunning literary achievement by
someone we can only gape at in dumbstruck awe.
One catches an
early glimpse of the auteur at work in the opening sequence. Irfan Khan who
plays Mirchand tells Anayat Khan (played by Shaahid Kapur) ‘I’ll give you a
loan only if you create communal harmony in India’, a subtle nuanced tongue-in-cheek
dig at India’s volatile communal situation. Anayat Khan, not to be left behind
retorts ‘The loan is to buy bason ka laddoo’. Doesn’t take a genius to catch
the reference to Shakespeare there – bason for Bassanio – Wow!
Anayat Khan’s
ship sinks in Palk strait – Sri Lanka’s human rights’ situation has never been
captured as metaphorically as this – a staggeringly clever take, and he's unable to repay the loan.
Anayat, the Poor
Shia (Portia?) has to now defend himself in court – an audacious reduction of
wasteful characters and plot. The detailing of the court is exquisite, with a
large black board saying ‘Court’ in white letters. Anayat defends himself
gamely, his speech peppered with unrelated statements about various important issues thereby distracting the judge.
Mirchand is
willing to accept repayment in kind but Anayat, in a hat-tip to the original, says he may take exactly one kg of laddoo and no more – which sort of backfires
because Mirchand does do that – a clever departure from the original,
nonetheless. The audience is visibly stunned at the denouement and also at the
fact that the Bard trilogy now officially has 4 movies so there’s no stopping
Vishaal from adapting another of Shakespeare’s works.
