I liked how the film finds excitement in Mahendra and Mahima's dull lives and transforms their humdrum existence into an ode to second chances, notes Sukanya Verma.
The two Mahis in Mr & Mrs Mahi are like those naive students who believe the teacher will let them keep the extra marks erroneously added on their marksheets as a reward for being honest enough to admit the mistake.
Despite the fallacy of such starry-eyed notions, there's an odd sincerity fuelling Director Sharan Sharma's sophomore fairy tale about a pair of head-in-the-clouds newlyweds. It's only poetic that their meet cute should come about in a cafe overlooking Jaipur's Hawa Mahal.
Unable to secure a selection on state level, Mahendra (Rajkummar Rao) is a failed club cricketer begrudgingly running his surly father's (Kumud Mishra) sports goods store whereas Mahima (Janhvi Kapoor) is a topper turned doctor so busy fulfilling her father's (Purnendu Bhattacharya) dreams she's forgotten all about her own.
Besides disapproving daddies and a deep love for cricket, both the Mahis (in an affectionate nod to cricketer Mahindra Singh Dhoni) share yet another thing in common -- foolish optimism.
He tells her he's a lame duck and she immediately laps up his candour as a character certificate and agrees to marry him. She reveals her talent around the bat and he's immediately convinced she's made for professional cricket and volunteers to coach her.
Their 'bat and ball jaisi jodi' is genuinely convinced they've made the right decision until the personal versus professional nature of their reasons rears its ugly head and bursts the bubble of compatibility.
Sharan Sharma's Shakespearean -- let me not to the marriage of two minds admit impediments -- impulses lay out a premise far more complex than it's willing to acknowledge or venture into. Instead, Mr & Mrs Mahi is happier letting its low stakes, straightforward conflict settle for a crowd pleaser conclusion.
Co-written by Sharma and Nikhil Malhotra, collaborating again after the winsome Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Mr & Mrs Mahi's middle-of-the-road tone reiterates the film-maker's preference for feeling over drama.
Problems resolve as quickly as they crop up if not eventually.
Be it the toxic parent-child relationship where a father openly favours his more successful son and leaves no chance to demean the black sheep in the family. The first scene is enough indication of how diametrically opposite their final scene will be. But in Kumud Mishra's plausible curmudgeon, the taunts cease to sound as overstated as they actually are.
Or the short-lived Abhimaan phase of Mr & Mrs Mahi that catches Mahima unawares, rendering her disappointment as inevitable as Mahendra's apology.
Husbands relegated to second fiddle status are prone to slip into an exploitative or insecure space in Hindi film history. Mahendra is a bit of both yet not entirely irredeemable. 'If I had talent like yours,' he admits to his own inadequacies yet also inherits his opportunistic father's trait to piggyback on another's glory.
Rajkummar Rao plays out the duality of his character with impressive nuance. The Mahi unfolding before his gullible wife and the one the audience is seeing through highlights Rao's slyness to the hilt. But there are scenes where he lets you into his vulnerability and a head booming with voices full of delusion and denial without uttering as much as a word.
There's a little over a decade's gap between him and Janhvi. It's visible too until the movie works around it to underscore the mentor-prodigy dynamic of their athletic objectives. As her trainer, he's always firm though never harsh. As her husband, he has a long, long, way to go.
Truth be told, Mr & Mrs Mahi feels more of Mahendra's coming of age than the combined realisation of late bloomers.
Mahima's choice of favourite books -- Emma, Jane Eyre, Eleanor and Park, a combination of Victorian era classics and young adult fiction are telling of the romantic she is. All the same, her timid persona is too passive to put up a real fight against her dictating dad or cunning husband.
Mr & Mrs Mahi doesn't really dwell into the politics of patriarchy but stops to note the difference between control and support shows in intent.
Janhvi's played quite a few shades of modest young women capable of quiet strength, Mahima is right up her alley. Her grace extends to her batting as well, which is just the right mix of self-conscious rookie and natural game. Can't say the same about the blandly choreographed local matches.
There's a lot to take with a pinch of salt about Mr & Mrs Mahi as well, especially developments rooted in la la land.
Like Mahendra's sudden eureka moment concerning Mahima's potential for stardom or her overnight success at what would takes years of training in six months or Mahendra's out-of-character social media shenanigans for comic relief or why Mahima's proud parents would propose an arranged marriage match glaringly inferior by their higher standards?
There are tiny details I liked just as much. The serene heart-to-heart about selfless love between Mahendra and his mother (Zarina Wahab), how he pays a tribute to her wisdom across the name imprinted on his jersey towards the end.
I liked how the film finds excitement in Mahendra and Mahima's dull lives and transforms their humdrum existence into an ode to second chances.
I liked how it manifests a coach's reprimanding words 'Last ball mein chakka maar ke Dhoni banjaoge?' into a learning for a husband discovering his greatest joy as his wife's cheerleader.
