In cinemas now is the imperfectly perfect rom-com-drama Mr. & Mrs. Mahi, starring Rajkummar Rao and Janhvi Kapoor. The Sharan Sharma directed film, produced by Karan Johar, Zee Studios, Hiroo Yash Johar, and Apoorva Mehta, is garnering rave reviews. In fact, we gave it 4 stars!
The film tells the story of Mahendra and Mahima and their imperfectly perfect partnership, which fights against all odds to discover the power behind their dreams. Let’s set the scene with the trailer:
We have a very special interview with Rajkummar Rao and Janhvi Kapoor as they take us inside the film. Giving fabulous answers, each actor delves into their character, what it was like working together again, and so much more!
Talking about why he chose to do the film, Mr. Rao said, “I absolutely fell in love with the story; the moment I read it, I think I reacted very strongly to it, and I really enjoyed, you know what Sharan did with Gunjan, and I think he made a really beautiful film, and so I thought it would be a great combination because the story really connected with me. The character, the arc of Mahendra. There’s so much to do in it as an actor, and then seeing Sharan and his passion towards cricket and cinema, and of course, Karan Johar producing it, Janhvi acting along with me, and I thought it would be a great team just to, you know, do this together.”
In this incredible clip, Janhvi talks about her character, Mahima, and the arc of her story.
Touching on how he brought his character, Mahendra, in Mr. and Mrs. Mahi to life, Rao said, “We’ve had lots of reading sessions which are run, and I’ve had my solo sessions with Sharan because I wanted to hit the internal baggage and the trouble that Mahendra is going through in the film. Because, for me, to carry that baggage throughout the film was the most important thing as that’s the whole part, of course, apart from making the back story and everything that you do as an actor that goes with every film, but to hit the right note, you know, his relationship with his father, his mother, with Mahima, everything we had to really work upon together as a team.”
In the film, Janhvi’s Mahima is the one who plays cricket and the actress had to do a lot of preparation to play. “I think the first major challenge was, of course, learning the sport. I knew nothing about it and I’d never really picked up a bat to seriously play the sport. I think I’d underestimated how tough it is to become a cricketer and overestimated my own physical capabilities. So, I trained over the course of two years; I had two shoulder dislocations, one hairline fracture, one labrum tear, and a sprained ACL. So, I was a mess, but because of my coaches, because of I think how much belief I have in this story, in this script, in this film, because of my director who always pushed me, I think we really pushed through and made it to the finish line and the cricket in the film is something that I’m very proud about because I know how much we all slogged for it. I’ve given my sweat, blood tears. I was definitely having panic attacks every day and a few like muscles and bones as well.”
The duo were in a mutual admiration society, talking about working together again.
Janhvi said, “I think it was great; I think even while we were shooting for Roohi together, which was our first trip together, we kept talking about, you know, I wish we could do something where we get to interact more in a scene, and there’s more drama because in Roohi I was playing a ghost and just grunting and screaming at him throughout. So yeah, I’m so grateful that Mahi gave us this opportunity to really have so many beautiful moments on screen together, emotional scenes, romantic scenes with so much drama, and I really couldn’t have had a better partner than him to live this journey with because he gave me so much security and so much support and was so encouraging throughout.
Rao also praises their work together, “She has grown as an actor, a lot actually, from Dhadhak to now, and I’ve been saying it a lot, but it is certainly her best work to date. We share a great bond. We’re really good friends. We have a share of fun. We’re both really passionate about what we do, and we absolutely love making films and watching films.
The film is a blend of romance with the world of cricket, but it is more, says the actress, “Essentially the film is a love story and it’s a family drama and it’s a coming of age I think for both these characters. I think the cricket is just incidental, but for everything else to be believable, it was important that the cricket was top-notch. You really buy into the fact that Mahima is this gifted cricketer. Still, it could have been anything. She could have been a singer, she could have been a dancer, she could have been a volleyball player. It just needed to seem like she was passionate and gifted in that sport, and so essentially, it is a love story, and the cricket was incidental. But my director is very passionate about it, and I believe in being as sincere with the process as I could possibly be, and so we tried to give the cricketer all is well.”
In this special clip, Rajkummar shares why he thinks this unique combination of Bollywood and cricket will resonate with audiences!
Mr.& Mrs. Mahi is playing now. Be sure to check it out!
