Mai

There is that old joke about this Parsee bawa (not a Sardar as is doing the rounds these days) who was asked what he would prefer – Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. The answer – Parkinson’s – because it is better to spill half your glass of whiskey than to forget where you have kept it in the first place.

Not so amusing for those who suffer from the latter I am quite certain.  As have so many movies in the past spoken about. But most of them predominantly from Hollywood.  A couple of Bollywood movies have touched upon it but none have really handled it like it has been on the other side of the earth.

 

Mai doesn’t change that trend.  The hype created around Asha Bhonsale’s debut in Bollywood kind of falls flat because it just doesn’t come upto the levels of sensitivity and intensity that has been exhibited from cinema around the world about this incurable disease.

 

Mai (Asha Bhonsale) is a mother of 4. A son and three daughters.  And it would seem that it is not correct for a mother to stay with her daughters (don’t ask me where that rule came from).  So it is upto the son (Navin Kaushik) to take care of her.  But when our man gets an offer from across the world, he has no choice but to ask his sisters for help. Or is there more to it than what the son says? Does he want to get rid of a forgetful mother?

 

Well, when the younger daughters wash their hands of the problem, the eldest (Padmini Kolhapure) steps in to take responsibility much to the disappointment of her husband (Ram Kapoor) and her daughter (Shivani Joshi) who has to give up her room for her grandmother. 

 

But that is just the starting point of the deterioration of pretty much everything that could go wrong at home.  It begins with small losses of memory and surprisingly deteriorates to a level where the losses lead to things like picking up objects and putting the blame on the domestic help and eventually total loss.

 

Asha Tai doesn’t quite live upto her billing. With all due respect, she should restrict herself to her immense strength that makes her – my personal belief – the best singer to have been born in this country.  She isn’t helped with bad direction or ill timed music. 

 

The only saving grace being the rest of the cast that does a pretty decent job with the acting – cant say that was credit to Mahesh Kodiyal though.  Overall a below par movie and vastly avoidable 4 on 10.

 

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/user/bigpictures?v=fmOBx6jS3Fc