Subhash K Jha looks back at the Parineeti Chopra and Ayushmann Khurrana’s Meri Pyaari Bindu released eight years ago. Plus, as a bonus, in a throwback interview from 2017, we hear from Parineeti Chopra about the film, working with Ayushmann, and what it was like to sing for the film.
Sometimes, a debutant director shows a spark that never quite lights up the screen. In Meri Pyaari Bindu, which completes eight years this week, displays a keen eye for Kolkata’s eccentricities: the trams and the fast-food lanes, the Durga idol silhouetting the hero’s suicide attempt, the loud boisterous parents of the Bengali protagonist Abhi…. so-called, so that the theme song of his love story could be ‘Abhi na jao chod kar ke dil abhi bhara nahin.’
There is a lot to ‘get’ in Meri Pyaari Bindu, including its corny cross references to films about unrequited love like Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Muskhil and Nikhil Advani’s Katti Batti. Then there is the film’s Padosan-inspired title. The film’s most embarrassing sequence has Abhi’s parents enacting the Kishore Kumar song in a car park.
Parineeti Chopra playing the unstable, undependable runaway bride to the stable, dependable, rock-steady dulha material of a hero, explains that she was named after Saira Banu’s character in the evergreen comedy Padosan.
“Why couldn’t he name me Saira? So much sexier,” she drawls into Abhi (na ja chhod kar)’s ears as they zigzag in an old Ambassador car through the Kolkata of the 1980s. This is life in the fast lane, where middle-aged Bengali men speak of Satyajit Ray in the same breath as Bindu’s on-screen vamping.
The cultural mishmash ceases to be amusing after a while. Clearly, Akshay Roy has a lot of fun picking out nostalgic nuggets from our musical past. ‘Aaiye Meherbaan Dekhiye Jaan-E-Jaan’ plays on a black-and-white television set as some poor man hangs by the roof adjusting the antenna. This is a scene straight of a promotional film on Doordarshan’s glorious era. It is correct historically and culturally, but lifeless. Ditto, the film which is as immaculately assembled in a retro huddle as Suprotim Sengupta’s writing permits. But the proceedings are as dull as ditch water, with scene after scene serenading nostalgia with no room for the characters to grow beyond stereotypes.
Take Abhi’s Bengali parents. They are clownishly Bengali, screaming and bustling as though Kolkata was on fire. This is not an authentic Bengali household. It is how we see a Bengali household when the Bengali writer detaches himself from the milieu and language to the extent that he can no longer peer into the cultural dynamics without appearing touristic.
There is something distinctly stilted and artificial in the way the songs define the central relationship. Both Ayushmann Khurrana and Parineeti Chopra are musicians. It is therefore surprising that their keen appetite for the melodies of the past do not render themselves to any substantial or coherent commitment to creating a film about a quirky girl and her devoted next door neighbour who serves her purposes, whatever they may be.
Parineeti did this far better in Hasee Toh Phasee.
Khurrana as the hangdog lover boy is passably watchable in this dreadfully vapid non-romance about an annoyingly self-centred chick who needs to exercise some self-discipline (unless she thinks Kangana Ranaut in Queen is a role-model) and a guy who needs to get himself a life. The film goes through several decades of fads and fashion changes until it comes to a screeching halt with a finale that is as pointless as the prattle and preening that goes on for the most tiresome two hours of your life.
I almost wished director Akshay Roy had livened up the proceedings with some unpretentious sleaze instead of the unintentional cheesiness that runs through the film with stubborn impunity. At one point in the meandering saga of star-crossed non-lovers, we see Abhi’s roommate glued to the Grand Finale of Bigg Boss while Abhi tries to deal with the mess in his life.
In an interview with Subhash K Jha on the eve of the release of Meri Pyari Bindu, Parineeti Chopra was gung-ho about turning singer. “Honestly, that’s the main reason I did this film. The nostalgia factor hit me hard when I was reading the script. It was a film I had to do. All of us have stories on how particular songs affected our lives. We relate to certain people and relationships through certain songs. The retro songs really attracted me to the film. When audiences see Meri Pyaari Bindu, I hope they connect with the songs and the theme of the reclamation of a precious past, that’s slipping out of our hands. When we were growing up, music was the only window we had to the world outside our homes. I am passionate about music myself. I am a trained singer, so I can enter the world of a song with more understanding than the untrained singer or listener. When I listen to a song, I try to understand it emotionally and technically. I go into its melody, tempo, percussion, etc. I go into a song with some authority in my own humble way. I play an aspiring singer. So all the portions of the film where I have to sing/hum are done by me. That adds to the credibility. But of course, I’ve sung my own song in Meri Pyaari Bindu. My journey as a singer has started. I feel I can contribute to the world of music, though it is too early to say how much that contribution would be. Now that my song ‘Maana Ke Hum Yaar Nahin’ is (being) liked so much, I want to sing more songs. I am yet to hear anyone say that they didn’t like it. I mean, it’s such a breezy melody and so easy on the ears. Everybody connects to it. The success of ‘Maana Ke Humk has given me the confidence to work more closely on my music. I am now going to work on my next song. Ayushmann Khurrana has actually been one of the most beautiful aspects of my musical journey. I’ve learnt a lot from him. I am emotionally connected to him. He is the one who encouraged my musical inclinations. He kept saying that out of all the actors, I am the one who needs to pursue my musical ambitions. He is such an emotional part of my journey. When the song ‘Maana Ke Hum’ was released, he was right there next to me, sharing the moment. I can say he is one of the three boys in the film industry I am close to.”
