Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

Play trailer Poster for Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola Released Jan 11, 2013 2h 31m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
33% Tomatometer 9 Reviews 44% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
A boozy industrialist (Pankaj Kapur) plans to marry his free-spirited daughter (Anushka Sharma) to the son of a corrupt politician, but the young woman has other ideas.
Watch on Hulu Stream Now

Where to Watch

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

Critics Reviews

View All (9) Critics Reviews
Shubhra Gupta The Indian Express The film passed me by in the first hour. It enticed me back again in the second half. But not enough to make me forget the inert prologue, which is minus drama, which is Bhardawaj's true forte. Rated: 2/5 Mar 21, 2019 Full Review Simon Abrams Village Voice Save for a couple of visually engaging dance numbers, mostly shot with hand-held digital cameras, MKBKM is dishearteningly banal. Jan 15, 2013 Full Review Robert Abele Los Angeles Times Judicious editing could have helped consolidate the joyfulness at the expense of occasionally repetitive narrative flab, but for the most part "Matru" is neatly energetic, a mix of screwball whimsy and softball seriousness. Rated: 3/5 Jan 15, 2013 Full Review J Hurtado ScreenAnarchy Mixes Politics With Romance And Does Justice To Neither Nov 6, 2017 Full Review Shilpa Jamkhandikar Reuters Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is a disappointing film, one that could have been so much more. Jun 6, 2017 Full Review Simon Foster sbs.com.au A technically proficient widescreen opus that shifts, jarringly, between a generic love-triangle rom-com, a farcical political black comedy and a preachy message-movie. Some fragmented images and well-played moments leave an impact; most don't. Jan 16, 2013 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (50) audience reviews
Audience Member With an improper mix of serious story line and humor , the movie is a big let down with the performance of the cast not being very impressive Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member excellent performances by the lead actors and events that are very representative of the real situation in India for farmers Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member i may be biased because im a fan of the two main characters and it is a comedy. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member One line summary: The corrupt and entitled versus the poor and disenfranchised in rural India. --------------------------------- This starts out in class warfare mode, extremely rich landowner, Harry Mandola, versus indigent farm workers. Bijlee is Harry's daughter. Baadal, the son of one of Harry's political ally Chaudhari Devi, presents her with a dance number complete with Zulu tribes people from South Africa. Matru is one of Harry's trusted workers, but he's a lower class worker. He's not so happy with Bijlee spending so much time with Baadal. To add to the comedy elements, Harry has a history of excessive drinking, and he swears off toward the beginning of the film. Then he gets the DTs (delirium tremens), and starts seeing shocking pink water buffalo and the like. Harry's doctor's receptionist is a large woman who likes to wear pink. There's an ongoing joke in which she is referred to as the pink buffalo. Chaudhari Devi has been a government official for 20 years, and has helped Harry get his way in exchange for this and that. At a party, Harry takes up drinking again. He calls Baadal in idiot, and trusts Matru to keep him from falling. Baadal seems to be Devi's emasculated son; she tells him how to think. Nice. Baadal does, however, come up with the idea of destroying all the farmers' crops with a chemical that is a pesticide at low doses, and an herbide at slightly higher doses. The land grabbers intend to poison the land for years, which will enable them to acquire the farmers' land at much lower costs so that they can do construction instead of farming. How does this play out? Will Bijlee go with Matru, whom she has known for 20 years, or Baadal, whom she has known for 5, mostly at school? How will the movement of the disenfranchised poor versus the rich and corrupt turn out? ------Scores-------- Cinematography: 10/10 Lovely. Sound: 10/10 Very good. Acting: 9/10 Imran Khan was very good. Pankarj Kapur was excellent. Anushka Sharma and Arya Babbar were rather good. Screenplay: 8/10 Frequently funny, often touching. A bit long, though. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Promos of this flick look very promising with - reed thin and glowing Hollywood like caricatures of Imran and Anushka, Pankaj Kapoor dipped in full-on rustic flavor, an innovative pink buffalo, and top of it the association of ace director Vishal Bhardwaj who knows and delivers his kind of cinema (read rustic) with meticulous ease. But the movie seems like a carelessly strewn necklace of different beads - some small, some big, some different, some flashy and some absolutely new. You definitely cannot ignore the necklace, but at the same time you cannot call it beautiful in conservative, designer or experimental category! No one can question Pankaj's acting, but many may not make any sense out of his Haryanvi drawl. However couple of his Haryanvi scented dialogues are really hilarious. Imran has not been able to impersonate the Haryanvi dude both in accent and persona. Otherwise this would have been one of the characters he would have been remembered by for a long time. But this new kid on the block definitely possesses most honest and beautiful set of eyes. Anushka's characterization is rather unclear. Dancing without inhibition may look beautiful, but uninhibition portrayed through dancing does not. Shabana Azmi has done this movie fully laced with botox. But she seems to be the only actress herein who has somewhere displayed the sentiment which Vishal wanted to be portrayed via the film. Special mention needs to be given to Arya Babbar for holding well to his character throughout the film, something which you cannot say for the lead pair. Some scenes in this movie are really new and well written, but you can only admire them as beads and not as a part of the necklace. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member The backdrop is different and Mandola is a likeable, new type of character for Hindi movies. Paresh Rawal is fantastic and Anushka continues to impress. All that said, the story keeps going nowhere and turns ever more illogical for little reason. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho 33% % Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho Watchlist All Is Well 8% 26% All Is Well Watchlist Anita & Me 75% 59% Anita & Me Watchlist Tees Maar Khan 8% 19% Tees Maar Khan Watchlist Peepli Live 86% 72% Peepli Live Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis A boozy industrialist (Pankaj Kapur) plans to marry his free-spirited daughter (Anushka Sharma) to the son of a corrupt politician, but the young woman has other ideas.
Director
Vishal Bhardwaj
Producer
Vishal Bhardwaj
Screenwriter
Vishal Bhardwaj, Abhishek Chaubey
Distributor
FIP
Production Co
Fox Star Studios, Vishal Bhardwaj Pictures Pvt. Ltd., VB Pictures
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
Hindi
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 11, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 23, 2017
Runtime
2h 31m
Most Popular at Home Now