| Meenakshi || Fish eye lens |

 

5 Minutes read 

Watching Mr. and Mrs. Iyer few days ago  — why isn’t this film on any of our streaming platforms? — the film’s victory lies not in the scenes that show hate, but in its subtlety and the hope it determinedly rests upon our humanity. Meenakshi and Raja’s relationship is a tightrope act, In a world of Kabir singh  and Pyaar Ka Punchnaama, Bose’s Raja had aged surprisingly well. He’s both tender and stern as he helps Meenakshi with the baby but also puts her in her place when she attempts to flaunt her caste purity at him. 

Meenakshi’s conflict is writ large on her face through Sensharma’s performance: she is aghast at how Raja touches his mouth to the bottle when drinking water, and she is a giggling mess when he cracks a joke. 

She struggles between the conservatism that she’s been socialised into and her emotional intelligence. When she wakes up to find her hand resting on his, she snatches it away, but not before a smile slips out. 

In 2022, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer remains not only relevant but also charming for its refusal to be categorised into easy clichés. Not once does Meenakshi come across as an unhappily married woman. 

Neither do Raja and Meenakshi make any plans to meet again or put a label on their vague relationship. I

nstead, they remain connected by the memory of living through a life-changing experience that could have been horrifyingly traumatic, had it not been for the companionship that Meenakshi and Raja provided one another.