Mirza Juuliet, Review by Siraj Syed: ‘Sex peer’ or Shakespeare

Six timeless tales of doomed love continue to enjoy tremendous popularity in India, even in the 21^st century: Laila-Majnu, Shirin-Farhad, Sohni-Mahiwal, Heer-Ranjha, Mirza-Sahibaa and Romeo and Juliet. Of these, five are Indian or from the sub-continent and only Shakespeare’s R&J makes it from the foreign category.

India had its own Shakespeare, named Agha Hashr Kashmiri, who in the period 1920s-50s, translated a lot of the Bard's works into Persianised Urdu and even wrote a few original plays, many of which formed the oeuvre of silent and early talkie films in India (1928-45). Mirza Juuliet subverts the plot of Romeo and Juliet, adds an extra u to Juliet’s name, blends it with Mirza Sahibaa and transposes it into present day Uttar Pradesh, the northern Indian state, garnering very limited success for its laboured labour.

India is often described as a land populated by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, the four representing major faiths. Of course, these are then sub-divided into castes, and even fringe believers. Sikhism is the youngest faith among these four, and has its roots in mainly Punjab. The other three religions are scattered all over India. While five legends owe their genesis to what we can broadly call the India, Shakespeare’s works are all set in ancient to medieval Europe. Juliet was Christian, while Mirza, without any doubt, was a Muslim, according to the authors of these works.

Trying to be clever, Mirza Juuliet names its Hindu heroine Juliet (Piaa Bajpai), for no explicit reason, retains Mirza (Darshan Kumaar)’s Muslim identity, and has a Sikh TV anchor reporting on a religious conflagration, where a local Hindu leader is murdered, even as his group clashes with a rival Muslim procession, over right of way for emotionally charged mobs. How’s that for secularism? Turns out that the assassination was ordered by the deceased’s real brother, to gain sympathy, and pave the way, for his own good-for-nothing son (Chandan Roy Sanyal)’s victory at the local assembly elections at Kannauj, U.P.

The man who carried out the contract killing is a jail-bird who was offered the job by his mentor-benefactor, a senior police official. He is none other than Mirza, Juliet’s childhood heart-throb, whose parents were eliminated by another local goon, and who landed in a juvenile remand home after killing the parent-killer with his (killer’s) own gun. He is granted freedom from prison in exchange for the killing, his stay in the covering up as his alibi, and is on his way to his maternal aunt’s place to pick up the threads of his shattered life, when, guess what, Juliet climbs on top of the same bus that he is travelling in, the roof being the spot that becomes the rendezvous point for the doomed lovers to-be. Predictable twists and turns, unpredictable number of bullets and guns, later, most of the players are dead, and most of the audience in limbo.

Shanti Bhushan, the writer, is a name that might be extremely familiar to TV audiences, as might be the director, Rajesh Ram Singh, although the latter did direct a film ten years ago, called Khushboo: The Fragraance of Love (a là the extra u in Juliet, the extra a in fragra a nce is not a typo). Bhushan gets the rustic flavour incorporated alright, but there is little else in terms of compelling screenplay or dialogue.

As is the norm with folklore, origins of this love story are not very clear. A poet named Pillu or Peelu is credited as the narrator, in some reliable sources, which set the story in present day Faisalabad, Pakistan. Problem is... compounding the story, by adding a Mirza to the Romeo tale, imparts no value to the story whatsoever. If the facts of the tales are so well known, the only ways a writer or a director could sustain interest in its rumpteenth re-telling  were either by fictionalising it, or by power performances. Fictionalising, what little there is of it, is tame, and lead performances are distinguished. Despite stock-in-trade ploys, like slo-mo and jerky cutting, the lack of soul is apparent while wielding the megaphone.

It is fashionable to contrast the lead pair, the girl possessing traits like rustic, earthy, bold, bottle swigging, brazen, reading to experiment, and tomboyish, while the man is the strong, silent type, who will mow down a possé for his lady love, while insisting that men and women must not co-habitate, unless they at least plan to get married

Despite effort that shows, Darshan Kumaar (Tere Naam, Mary Kom, NH10, Sarbjit) and Piaa Bajpai (a star down south, but only her second major role in Hindi language films) remain superficial. Unconventional looking Kumar’s task is more arduous, as he has to convey a lot through silences and taut muscles, while the audience loves the spunky character slender Piaa gets to play, a few expletives to boot and the ‘cute’ manner in which she gets ‘sex’ and ‘Shakes’peare mixed-up. You needed artistes of stature much more than what Darshan and Piaa have to offer, to pull off Mirza Juliet. It is left to Chandan Roy Sanyal to put life into a boorish character, with some method acting that keeps him strictly in character, while allowing him the liberty of grimacing and contorting at will. Also impressive, as the chief antagonist, is (usually writer /lyricist) Swanand Kirkire.

Priyanshu Chatterjee, as Juuliet's eldest brother Dharmraj, is made to look like a cross between Tinnu Anand and Vindoo Dara Singh, with a physique to match the latter. He acquits himself well, though. Hemant Koumar and Yogendra Vikram Singh, cast as the other two brothers, named Bheem and Nakul (Mahabharat meets Mirza Sahibaa meets Romeo and Juliet!) and do justice to their roles.

Music by Krsna Solo, Cinematography by Ajay Pandey, Film Editing by Sahil Sai, Background score and theme music by Hitesh Sonik, Lyrics by Sandeep Nath and Vocals by Javed Ali, Asees Kaur and Krsna Solo himself are of standard gauge. Javed Ali’s voice evokes some magic.

Mirza Juuliet has its moments, and is not entirely unwatchable. Having said that, give me Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, over Sex Peer, the Juuliet of Kannauj, any day, any century, 16^th onwards.

Rating: **

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyHeAHJUuhc