The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Scrooge McDuck

Vishal Bhardwaj, writer-director of Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013), is perhaps best known for his trilogy of Shakespeare adaptations, Maqbool, Omkara, and Haider, as well as the absurdist psychological horror film No Smoking and the children's films Makdee and The Blue Umbrella.  That means he's responsible for some of my favorite movies, as well as Rangoon.  It also means that he has a very distinctive and quirky style, so even an ordinary plot about star-crossed lovers can go to some strange places.

The Mandola of the title is Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapoor), a wealthy landowner with a drinking problem.  It's not that he's a mean drunk.  Quite the reverse, really; Drunk Harry is dangerously irresponsible but also charming and deeply sympathetic to the local farmers, who are being exploited by Sober Harry, who is ruthless and only cares about his ambitions and his daughter Bijlee (Anushka Sharma).

Bijlee is a lot like your typical Bollywood heroine at the start of the movie; she's young and carefree and nothing will ever change her.  She has a lot more tattoos than the average Bollywood heroine, though, and she knows exactly what she wants.  Bijlee plans to marry her college friend Baadal (Arya Babaar).  It's a love match rather than an arranged marriage, but it still suits Sober Harry, since Baadal is the son of the spectacularly corrupt politician Chaudary Devi (art film superstar Shabana Azmi), who is Harry's partner in an upcoming land deal and also his secret girlfriend.

Drunk Harry, on the other hand, recognizes that Baadal is an idiot, and wants Bijlee to marry Matru (Imran Khan.).  Matru is officially Harry's driver, but his real job is to keep Harry out of trouble, and especially to keep Harry from drinking more than four drinks in a night.  Matru is really bad at that part of his job, but he is an effective sidekick for Drunk Harry, and he is quite good at getting Harry out of trouble, even when he leads the local farmers in a protest against himself.

That's the romantic track, but it's not the whole story.  The village of Mandola (named after Harry's family) has fallen on hard times after several years of crop failures, and all of the local farms are heavily mortgaged.  Harry wants to buy up the land and have the area declared a Special Economic Zone, which will enable him to build the factories and shopping malls of his dreams, and Chaudhary Devi wants to use the deal to further her political career, and wants Baadal to marry Bijlee in order to gain control of Harry's money.  Harry and Chaudhary Devi both get Shakespearean soliloquies to explain their motives, but Baadal does not, and has to settle for bragging about the evil plan to his very much not on board fiance..  

The villagers haven't given up, though, and they receive mysterious letters providing both hope and practical advice from someone calling himself Mao.  Mao's identity is a carefully guarded secret . . . for the characters, that is, because it's almost immediately obvious to the audience that Mao is Matru, who trained as a lawyer before becoming Harry's driver, and who spends a lot of time talking about how the land should belong to the people who work on it.

But wait, there's still more plot!  In order for the evil scheme to succeed, Harry has to stay sober.  The trouble is, if he goes for too long without a drink, he starts to hallucinate, seeing the pink buffalo from the label of his favorite brand.  It also quickly becomes apparent that the only person who can stop Sober Harry is Drunk Harry, which means that Matru is going to need a lot of pink paint.

The film has to walk a fine line with the Drunk Harry/Sober Harry dichotomy, and I think they're mostly successful.  Drunk Harry is dangerous, breaking buildings and cars and airplanes, and causing chaos wherever he goes.  he's nicer than Sober Harry, but he's not reliable.  Drunk Harry is an outlet for Harry's neglected conscience, but he's not a viable long term solution, and the movie does recognize that.

Beyond that . . . well, this is a weird movie, but it's a weird movie with tremendous style, an unassuming romantic comedy with the rhythms of a Shakespearean tragedy, a focus on the stern parent rather than the young lovers, and an invisible pink buffalo.