Inferiority complex can make one do funny things. It can also trigger off psychopathic tendencies. But, on a benign scale, the complex does give rise to a desire for setting up defence mechanisms that will be comic if their end results were not so tragic. Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh highlights this aspect in a genteel sort of manner.

Mithilesh is forty years old, working as the librarian in Lucknow University and is headed towards confirmed bachelorhood. So, what’s strange about it? Nothing really. He just doesn’t want to get married, although his younger siblings have already begun to raise families. Our man is happy being diligent at work and living the life of a carefree bachelor in his small apartment provided by the university.

He prefers reading books on different subjects and gain knowledge. But soon, the bliss in his cloistered world is marred by incessant demands of his mother and maternal uncle to tie the connubial knot for the sake of peace to his mother’s soul. The reluctant hero is dragged to Bareilly by the uncle to see the girl even if he decides to reject her ultimately.

On reaching Bareilly, Mithilesh finds his carefully constructed defences vapourising in the heat of Veena’s beauty. She is taller than him, a postgraduate in history and has deep interest in, and knowledge of, literature—both classic and contemporary. And, of course she is a cricket fan too, with Saurav Ganguly as her hero. The prospect of being rejected by "very, very choosy" Veena begins to gnaw at Mithilesh’s mind. However, Veena is charmed by this short-statured polymath’s naivet.

Soon the two get married amidst such comments as "the groom is ‘naata’ (shorty)" and "langoor ko mil gayee hoor" (the monkey is lucky to get a divine beauty as his bride). The commentators make sure that our man hears them all. No wonder he develops a complex. And hence the problem begins. Most of all in his mind.

His desperate attempts at keeping other males, including his best friend Saleem, at bay and to secure his wife’s attention only for himself lead him through tragic-comic situations.

Naseeruddin Shah’s voiceover sets the tone of the movie that opens to a panoramic view of Lucknow in the morning. Rajpal Yadav as Mithilesh is good and Rituparna Sengupta looks stunning as Veena—more importantly she has given ample proof of her talent as an innocent, gullible wife. Varun Badolia as Saleem and Vinod Nagpal as Mamaji impress but Kay Kay Menon as Akash steals every scene he is featured in.

However, having said this, this movie is a below par attempt that does not measure up to the qualitative family comedies churned out by Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee during the1970s and 1980s.

If Director Chandan Arora had given more thought to his craft, he could have made the movie more entertaining. True, Rajpal Yadav is no Amol Palekar and Vinod Nagpal is not in the same league as Utpal Dutt, but it is the job of a director to get the optimum out of his actors. This is where Arora has failed. The movie, the cleanest entertainer in recent times, does amuse in patches—evoking a smile here and a chuckle there, but fails to trigger a laugh riot. Better luck next time.

HOME