Sometimes I just don’t understand India. That’s not to say that
“East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet”;
Bollywood itself is a spectacular example of East and West meeting,
going out for coffee, and finally falling in love despite the
disapproval of East’s stern but loving father (Amitabh Bachchan).
Still, every now and then I’m forcibly reminded of the cultural gulf.
For instance, at times the romantic hero in a film will behave in ways
that are viewed by the other characters as romantic, but which strike
the viewer (or at least this jaded American viewer) as downright creepy.
It’s not as if the concept of the stalker is unknown, either; there
are several Indian films on the subject, many of them starring Shahrukh
Khan. The lines of acceptable behavior are not where I expect them to
be , though, and it’s hard for me to see just where they’ve been drawn.
So with a movie like Mast (1999), with its overenthusiastic
but always well-intentioned protagonist, it’s best to just accept that
the hero is romantic and not at all creepy, at least within the world of
the film.
Kittu (Aaftab Shivdasani) is a devoted fan of Mallika (Urmila Matondkar), a famous Bollywood actress. So devoted that his bedroom walls are literally covered with Mallika posters. So devoted that he takes an entire week off of college in order to attend every showing of her new movie. So devoted that he’s completely oblivious to the fact that his platonic gal-pal Nisha (Antara Mali) is madly in love with him. Remember, kids, romantic and not at all creepy.
Word on the street is that Mallika’s new movie is a flop. Kittu loves it, though. He loves it so much that, during the first screening, he imagines Mallika (dressed as Sridevi) stepping off-screen to perform a dance number with him. When he returns home, though, little sister Nikki (Sheetal Suvarna) teases him for a while, then drops the bad news: grades have come out, and Dad (Dalip Tahil) wants to see him. It seems Kittu has failed every subject except poetry. (And let me just say I’m very grateful to the movie for sparing us having to hear Kittu’s poetry, since I know exactly what it’s all about.) Dad lays down the law: No more movies! Kittu is to go directly to college every day, and then come straight home.
At school the next day, a depressed Kittu tries to explain to Nisha just what Mallika means to him, while remaining completely oblivious to just what he means to her. And when he comes home, he locks himself in his room and talks to his Mallika posters, asking her to appear to him just once. (Romantic and not at all creepy, remember!) He’s so earnest that he actually begins to hallucinate; Mallika drags him into the poster, and they dance. When Nikki comes in, though, the hallucination ends, and he chastises her for chasing Mallika away. Romantic and . . . I can’t do it. It’s just creepy. It seems Nikki agrees, since she runs off to tell Dad that Kittu has gone off the deep end. (I like Nikki. She’s sane.) Dad takes down all of the Mallika posters, and Kittu runs off to Mumbai.
In Mumbai, Kittu meets a rickshaw driver (Snehal Dabi) who, it turns out, ran away from home as a young man in order to find Sridevi, only to discover that she had married Boney Kapoor. The rickshaw driver takes him to Mallika’s house, but of course he can’t just go in and meet her. As he walks away dejected, the staff of the cafe next door (including Rajpal Yadav) tease him about the fact that, well, he’s a small town boy who traveled to the big city thinking he could just waltz in and meet a major celebrity. It’s good-natured teasing, though, and soon Kittu is given a job and a place to stay by the cafe owner, Usman Bhai (Neeraj Vora). This leads to the chance of a lifetime - Kittu is asked to deliver a pizza to Mallika’s house, and he catches a brief glimpse of his beloved star.
The first time we get a solid look at the real Mallika, rather than a hallucination, she’s running through a twisted forest being menaced by twisted pastel gnomes. It’s all a part of the shooting for her next movie, of course, and when the cameras are off, she finds a chair and sits down. When a reporter sits next to her and starts asking questions, all she can really say is “Ask my Uncle”; we see that the real Mallika is painfully shy, and nothing like the girl in Kittu’s fantasies. When Uncle Toluram (Govind Namdeo) arrives to chase off the reporter, we see why; Toluram is seems to control every aspect of Mallika’s life, and has whittled her self-esteem away to nearly nothing.
The next day, Usman Bhai arranges for Kittu to visit the set. After the obligatory song (and Kittu’s obligatory fantasy sequence) he sees Mallika sitting alone, and goes up to speak to her. All he can manage is vaguely coherent fanboy gushing, but Mallika is so starved for attention that she’s captivated by someone who actually seems to like her. Uncle Toluram shows up to chase Kittu away, and Kittu finally seems to realize that the real Mallika has a life and real problems outside of his fantasies.
That night, while Kittu is gazing wistfully up at Mallika’s room (romantic and not at all creepy), he sees two people arguing in silhouette. It soon becomes clear that Uncle Toluram is beating Mallika, so Kittu naturally climbs over the wall, breaks into her bedroom, and knocks her uncle out with a handily placed vase. Having assaulted a man in his own home, Kittu has to run, and he manages to convince Mallika to come with him. They hide out in the cafe for a while, but with the police tearing Mumbai apart, there’s only one real solution: they’ll go to Kittu’s house, and he’ll hide the major celebrity in his bedroom!
And of course wackiness ensues. The film wrings a bit of humor out of Kittu hiding a woman in his bedroom, and Mallika is enthralled by Kittu’s loving family, and then by Kittu himself. Of course there’s a complication, as Nisha (remember her?) is still in the picture; while Kittu is still oblivious, Mallika can see that she’s not the only one with feelings for him. And so we have a traditional Bollywood romance, as two very nice people compete over a third person, and noble self-sacrifice abounds.
Although Kittu is our hero, he really doesn’t have much of a character arc. Kittu is much the same at the end of the film as he was at the beginning. Nisha doesn’t really have enough screen time to show much character development; Antara Mali is cute in a Kajol sort of way, but Mast is not her showcase.
It is Urmila’s showcase, though, and she uses it well. There’s a real contrast between Kittu’s dream Mallika and the genuine article, and the real Mallika grows considerably as a person over the course of the film, from shy, cowed introvert to a woman who can speak her own mind. It’s that evolution that makes the film even vaguely plausible; the relationship works because Mallika starts with abysmally low self-esteem.
The songs are plentiful (three within the first half hour!) and generally very good. The characters are likeable, and Urmila puts in a very strong performance. In the end, Mast is a lot better than it has any right to be, as long as you keep telling yourself “romantic and not at all creepy.”
Kittu (Aaftab Shivdasani) is a devoted fan of Mallika (Urmila Matondkar), a famous Bollywood actress. So devoted that his bedroom walls are literally covered with Mallika posters. So devoted that he takes an entire week off of college in order to attend every showing of her new movie. So devoted that he’s completely oblivious to the fact that his platonic gal-pal Nisha (Antara Mali) is madly in love with him. Remember, kids, romantic and not at all creepy.
Word on the street is that Mallika’s new movie is a flop. Kittu loves it, though. He loves it so much that, during the first screening, he imagines Mallika (dressed as Sridevi) stepping off-screen to perform a dance number with him. When he returns home, though, little sister Nikki (Sheetal Suvarna) teases him for a while, then drops the bad news: grades have come out, and Dad (Dalip Tahil) wants to see him. It seems Kittu has failed every subject except poetry. (And let me just say I’m very grateful to the movie for sparing us having to hear Kittu’s poetry, since I know exactly what it’s all about.) Dad lays down the law: No more movies! Kittu is to go directly to college every day, and then come straight home.
At school the next day, a depressed Kittu tries to explain to Nisha just what Mallika means to him, while remaining completely oblivious to just what he means to her. And when he comes home, he locks himself in his room and talks to his Mallika posters, asking her to appear to him just once. (Romantic and not at all creepy, remember!) He’s so earnest that he actually begins to hallucinate; Mallika drags him into the poster, and they dance. When Nikki comes in, though, the hallucination ends, and he chastises her for chasing Mallika away. Romantic and . . . I can’t do it. It’s just creepy. It seems Nikki agrees, since she runs off to tell Dad that Kittu has gone off the deep end. (I like Nikki. She’s sane.) Dad takes down all of the Mallika posters, and Kittu runs off to Mumbai.
In Mumbai, Kittu meets a rickshaw driver (Snehal Dabi) who, it turns out, ran away from home as a young man in order to find Sridevi, only to discover that she had married Boney Kapoor. The rickshaw driver takes him to Mallika’s house, but of course he can’t just go in and meet her. As he walks away dejected, the staff of the cafe next door (including Rajpal Yadav) tease him about the fact that, well, he’s a small town boy who traveled to the big city thinking he could just waltz in and meet a major celebrity. It’s good-natured teasing, though, and soon Kittu is given a job and a place to stay by the cafe owner, Usman Bhai (Neeraj Vora). This leads to the chance of a lifetime - Kittu is asked to deliver a pizza to Mallika’s house, and he catches a brief glimpse of his beloved star.
The first time we get a solid look at the real Mallika, rather than a hallucination, she’s running through a twisted forest being menaced by twisted pastel gnomes. It’s all a part of the shooting for her next movie, of course, and when the cameras are off, she finds a chair and sits down. When a reporter sits next to her and starts asking questions, all she can really say is “Ask my Uncle”; we see that the real Mallika is painfully shy, and nothing like the girl in Kittu’s fantasies. When Uncle Toluram (Govind Namdeo) arrives to chase off the reporter, we see why; Toluram is seems to control every aspect of Mallika’s life, and has whittled her self-esteem away to nearly nothing.
The next day, Usman Bhai arranges for Kittu to visit the set. After the obligatory song (and Kittu’s obligatory fantasy sequence) he sees Mallika sitting alone, and goes up to speak to her. All he can manage is vaguely coherent fanboy gushing, but Mallika is so starved for attention that she’s captivated by someone who actually seems to like her. Uncle Toluram shows up to chase Kittu away, and Kittu finally seems to realize that the real Mallika has a life and real problems outside of his fantasies.
That night, while Kittu is gazing wistfully up at Mallika’s room (romantic and not at all creepy), he sees two people arguing in silhouette. It soon becomes clear that Uncle Toluram is beating Mallika, so Kittu naturally climbs over the wall, breaks into her bedroom, and knocks her uncle out with a handily placed vase. Having assaulted a man in his own home, Kittu has to run, and he manages to convince Mallika to come with him. They hide out in the cafe for a while, but with the police tearing Mumbai apart, there’s only one real solution: they’ll go to Kittu’s house, and he’ll hide the major celebrity in his bedroom!
And of course wackiness ensues. The film wrings a bit of humor out of Kittu hiding a woman in his bedroom, and Mallika is enthralled by Kittu’s loving family, and then by Kittu himself. Of course there’s a complication, as Nisha (remember her?) is still in the picture; while Kittu is still oblivious, Mallika can see that she’s not the only one with feelings for him. And so we have a traditional Bollywood romance, as two very nice people compete over a third person, and noble self-sacrifice abounds.
Although Kittu is our hero, he really doesn’t have much of a character arc. Kittu is much the same at the end of the film as he was at the beginning. Nisha doesn’t really have enough screen time to show much character development; Antara Mali is cute in a Kajol sort of way, but Mast is not her showcase.
It is Urmila’s showcase, though, and she uses it well. There’s a real contrast between Kittu’s dream Mallika and the genuine article, and the real Mallika grows considerably as a person over the course of the film, from shy, cowed introvert to a woman who can speak her own mind. It’s that evolution that makes the film even vaguely plausible; the relationship works because Mallika starts with abysmally low self-esteem.
The songs are plentiful (three within the first half hour!) and generally very good. The characters are likeable, and Urmila puts in a very strong performance. In the end, Mast is a lot better than it has any right to be, as long as you keep telling yourself “romantic and not at all creepy.”
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