Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye (MKWJA) was meant to be a unique story about a neglected wife, the destruction of her dreams and then the revival of her ambitions. It was also supposed to be about women empowerment and the importance of a woman standing her ground in a marriage instead of suppressing her feelings. While Madhureeta Anand is not new to the directorial world, MKMJA is her first take at directing a full-fledged Hindi movie. Even though her choice of movie title was robbed from the popular love story Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, she did promise that the story was unique. Read on to find out if this movie was a pleasant khwab…or not.
Maya (Raima Sen) is married to Vikram (Arbaaz Khan). While Vikram is busy with work in the busy city of Delhi, he leaves his middle-class wife to tend to their young daughter and manage the house. While Maya has given up her hobby and aspirations to sing at her husband’s insistence, she is quite happy with her mundane existence. One day she overhears a conversation between Vikram and his girlfriend. It is then that she realizes that all her sacrifices have gone to waste. Maya takes comfort by spilling her heart out to her neighbors who conjure up the idea of an ideal man in her head. She takes the conversation back home and her imagination creates the ideal fantasy man for her. She slowly starts to gain back confidence in herself as a woman and singer through her perfect man Jai (Randeep Hooda) who appears in various avatars, and encourages her to live up to her dreams. Maya finally steps up to the plate and joins her neighbor’s band as the lead singer. The story continues to demonstrate how Maya overcomes her fears and confronts her husband.
Quite simply, MKWJA is a disappointment. At various points during the flick, I gazed at my watch hoping that the movie would end and put me out of my misery. For a documentary writer and director, Madhureeta Anand shows no spark or understanding of Bollywood scripts. There are too many holes in the screenplay, which leaves the viewer confused, and scratching their heads. Raima Sen plays a dutiful housewife who dotes on her husband and yet he feels the need to complain all day long. Reason? Additionally, in this day and age, why on earth does Raima’s character succumb to her husband and throw her singing career down the drain? Of course, we never find out the answer to that question too.
Raima Sen is a bundle of talent. Her filmography is full of so many fabulous performances including Choker Bali and Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd but she has to make better choices with her scripts. However saying that, her performance is the best of the lot in MKMJA. She plays the repressed housewife with ease and grace. Arbaaz Khan does well as the cheating and demanding husband. Randeep Hooda and his avatars attempt to be humorous but instead they become extremely repetitive. However, he does well in terms of creating a different look with every avatar.
MKMJA is a letdown in all aspects. It fails to tell a story, fails to entertain and will definitely fail to bring in any viewers or money. While audiences are looking for more innovative ideas and scripts, it does not mean that they will accept anything that is not executed correctly. Anand has to conduct better research before she writes and directs her next movie.
Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye puts you in a trance from which you find it very hard to wake up. Take my word for it, skip this nightmare!
