NETFLIX

Dark and dud

Film: Brij Mohan Amar Rahe

Available on Netflix

Rating: 2/5

The aspirations of a lingerie shop owner in Delhi are big enough for him to keep taking huge sums of loan until he is stuck in a cycle of multiple loans, and the only way out is to end his own existence. Brij Mohan fakes his death to escape the realities of his life until reality catches up again and he is sentenced to death for his own murder.

That is the storyline of the Netflix original film Brij Mohan Amar Rahe, directed by Nikhil Bhat. Inspired by true events, it is one of those stories set in a Delhi neighbourhood with a premise that is idiosyncratic and fun. Filmmakers like Dibakar Banerjee (Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!), Abhinay Deo (Delhi Belly), Shoojit Sircar (Vicky Donor, Piku) have often explored the eccentricities of the Delhi-NCR region.

“It is a black comedy,” says Bhat. He believed that setting the film against the backdrop of Delhi will give a real feel to it. “The city has a lot of such stories. Also, how everybody is running after money and fame, these days. There is a lot of greed. There is too much aspiration. The entire story is fuelled by greed and the quest to make lives better.”

The advent of the streaming platforms have made sure that a lot of films with unconventional storylines are explored. Bhat says that they had not set out to make a black comedy per se, but the story led itself to one. “As living beings, we do not take ourselves too seriously all the time. Even grey situations in life can lead to humour,” he says.

The film has Arjun Mathur playing the role of Brij Mohan, and Nidhi Singh that of his wife. The actors seem mostly sincere and live up to the quirkiness, but at some point the film loses its grip, because of its execution. There are standalone moments in the film which are darkly funny, but on the whole it falls flat.

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