Saturday, 10 May 2014

Film Review - Mastram





Paperback  Writer

Film: Mastram
Cast: Rahul Bagga, Taea-Alisha Berry
Directed by: Akhilesh Jaiswal
Duration: 1 hr 38 mins
Rating: * *

In terms of the story, Mastram attempts to go where no film has gone before. It makes an effort to explore the behind-the-scenes story of the soft porn books that were published and were popular in the 80’s. But the screenplay by Akhilesh Jaiswal (of Gangs of Wasseypur fame) who has also directed the film, is all over the place. It artificially explores the emotions and mindset of a struggling writer and needlessly gets into the erotica bit.

For a film that is under 100 minutes, it had to be terse and to the point but alas, it is not.

Since it is a unique story, sure it had the potential but neither the dialogues nor the script delves deep enough to explore and make it convincing. Set in the 80’s in Himachal Pradesh, a newly married Rajaram (Rahul Bagga) is an aspiring writer. Pity no one will publish his novels because they are no good. Add to it, his married life is also slow to take off.

A reluctant publisher takes a chance on him by publishing one of his ‘steamy’ stories, lo and be hold, it sells like hot cakes taking Rajaram on the highway of prosperity. Because of the nature of books, he writes under the pen name of Mastram and barring the publisher, no one knows of his identity.

Mastram is strictly a story of an individual rather than a reflection of the process of soft core books. And even as a story of an individual it doesn’t score too many points.

The stories in those Mastram books knew exactly what they wanted to say, the same cannot be said of Mastram the film. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 11th May 2014
 

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