Rajpal Yadav
Rituparna Sengupta
Varun Badola
Kay Kay Menon
Not a very recent movie but definitely one to put in your Netflix queue. Main Meri Patni Aur Woh loosely translates into “Love comes in all sizes" and I’m not sure if this would count as a traditional Bollywood movie, it is in Hindi and takes place in Lucknow India, but there are no singing and dancing scenes.
To a lot of Americans I think this would be a good transition movie, for those that aren’t a fan of too much singing and dancing, because story wise, it's great.
We’ve got an insecure short man played by Rajpal Yadav who marries a beautiful and quite tall woman Rituparna Sengupta. Even though Yadav's character is financially stable and a genuinely good person, he cant seem to forget his, literal, shortcomings and, don’t get me wrong, I cant really blame him.
Usually short men can develop a Napoleonic personality, always feeling that they have to make up for their lack of height with flashy cars, lots of money and a generally aggressive attitude but, in this case, he’s more suspicious of every man around him. After he marries Segupta's character Veena, their honeymoon period is short lived. His best friend Saleem, played by Varun Badola, is suddenly too friendly, the rickshaw driver, who has always looked out for him, starts hanging around too often, offering his wife too many rides and the icing on the cake, Veena's childhood friend Akash played by Kay Kay Menon just happens to move next door. Akash is tall dark and handsome (well kind of) and Veena and Akash pick up their friendship where it left off, which consists of playful hitting and copious amounts of laughter over inside jokes. Obviously, Mitilesh feels left out, he feels threatened by Akash and tries every way possible to separate him from Veena but his efforts are futile because, after all, the guy lives right next door.
So, in the end, he gives up on the supposed inevitability of the two of them falling in love, he begins suspecting his wife of cheating on him with Akash and even follows her to prove his suspicions. There really isn’t any concrete evidence that she’s cheating on him but his insecurities get the best of him.
Rajpal Yadav does a great job of portraying an insecure yet loveable husband. You can’t help but root for him because he’s so tragically cute. I don’t think this movie is meant to be a comedy, but I laughed on numerous occasions. When he gets pushed in the dirt by a gang of young guys I think it’s supposed to be sad but boy oh boy was I laughing. I think I’ve watched this movie at least 20 times and what makes it especially unique is that there aren’t crazy big stars in this film. The story and acting is so good that it doesn’t need a name to make it memorable.
Article by the Diner's very own Bollywood reporter Kiva Ashby
