Mirzya

Cast: Harshvardhan Kapoor, Saiyami Kher, Om Puri

Rated: 4.5/10

Rakesh Om Prakash Mehra. Gulzar. Shankar Ehsan Loy. Anil Kapoor’s debutant son Harshvardhan. Saiyami Kher, a star niece. And, a story based on Punjab’s famous folklore of Mirzya-Sahiba.

What more could have been needed to make a splash, an expansive, romantic, musical, arty flash?

But Mirzya is a spectacular waste of a canvas, as stunning a waste as its otherwise stunning visuals. Why Mehra opted for a comprehensive slow-mo to exaggerate every action, every gesture in the film, why he chose to overpower a simple love story by overbearing canvas art is bewildering, as bewildering as Anil Kapoor’s decision to allow his son to debut in a film in which he was made to compete with the brilliance of a derived landscape drawn out of a colourful and earthy Rajasthan on one end and a stark but stupendous Ladakh on the other. Needless to say, the poor boy struggles to show himself up against such an intangible competitor.

The film also delves into two lifetimes of one love story, none of it making much sense, none of it making an impact except for making you ask questions to which there are no answers.

Yes, Gulzar is at his best and even the score is revetting. But all the seasoned song, dance and lyrics, not to mention the overdrive of the art director, fail to fuel this insipid, overly concocted romance, in no measure due to the lack of experience of its lead star kids.

Both Harshvardhan Kapoor and Saiyami Kher try hard to make some sense of this insanely beautiful film, try to complete the visuals of this super mount, Kapoor even managing to sport some moments of seasonality that you would put down to being hereditary. But the way he is made to hide his face behind unkempt hair, a needless beard and a lot of dirt and grime makes him quite the hidden boy he shouldn’t have been.

Can he act? We don’t really get to know simply because we couldn’t really make past his facial hair! Being a stable boy hardly means you need to be covered in dust — all the time and in a lot of it at that.

In fact, the entire film, every frame tries to score a point and thus comes across as genetically artificial even though beautiful to the eye. It’s the emptiness of the story that gets your goat. And, of course, the abject failure of such a highly decorated Bollywood team to deliver with purpose.

Hoping that Harshvardhan gets a simpler romance next time. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 9 October, 2016