Mithya comes like a breath of fresh air. Director Rajat Kapoor shows the wonders that one can achieve with a plot that owes its inspirations to many sources but still manages to take off in a brilliant fashion. He makes, what can only be only be termed a comic-crime thriller. The director manages to weave together both the elements of comedy and a crime thriller and come up with a movie which surprises you by its sheer audacity, all carried through to the end with a quirky sense of humour. He is ably supported by a cast, which consists of the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, surely some of best actors of contemporary Hindi cinema.
Like quite a few of the movies made in recent times, Mithya too has Bollywood as the backdrop for its action. The protagonist of the film is VK (Ranvir Shorey), a struggling actor, who has migrated to Mumbai's greener pastures in search of fame and money. This wannabe actor witnesses a murder one night and reports it to the cops. He now finds himself a hunted man by the underworld. They manage to kidnap him as he has an uncanny resemblance to an underworld Don, Raje (Ranvir Shorey again). The man who has him kidnapped, Gawde (Naseer), is the head of a rival gang. They keep him prisoner for a while, where he finds comfort in the hands of the ganngster's moll (Neha Dhupia). But before he can get too comfortable, he is told that the reason he has been kidnapped is because Naseer wants to plant him in the rival gang and work for him. VK has little option but to agree. The plot takes many quirky twists and turns from here onwards as VK is drawn into a vortex of crime and deceit.
It is a clever plot scripted by Saurabh Shukla and Kapoor. Its brand of humour is quirky, whimsical, and black at its best. The film's journey straddles many moods, beginning from the purely comic, to the heartbreakingly poignant. And playing out this drama is perhaps one of the best band of actors that one has seen in a while. And it's not just the Naseers that one is talking about, but the likes of Saurabh Shukla, Vinay Pathak, Iravati Harshe, Harsh Chhaya and Brijendra Kala. Of course, leading the marquee is Ranvir Shorey, the protagonist.
The actor carries the film on his shoulders and is superbly supported by the rest of the cast. Kapoor gives him a role which he can literally sink his teeth into and he does it with a rare relish and delight. The actor has already proved his mettle in films like Mixed Doubles, Bheja Fry and Khosla Ka Ghosla among others. In his avatar as the struggling actor, he is simply amazing as he goes about playing Hamlet in his dingy apartment, much to the annoyance of his neighbours. He invests the role of the actor with so much poignancy and pathos. There are many brilliant scenes in the film but there are a couple which are worth talking about. The scenes between the slain gangster's wife (Iravati Harshe), mother (Suhasini Mulay) and his children with Ranvir's character are truly evocative. Also evocative is the scene between Ranvir's character and the film producer. The actor outshines the rest of the cast and stands head and shoulders above them. He displays superb timing in the comic scenes and his acting has a clarity which is brilliant to say the least. Ranvir inhabits the soul, body and mind of VK and makes it his own. He finally seems to have come into his own as an actor.
Naseer plays the role of ageing Don with an age-old ease and expertise. Keeping him good company are Saurabh Shukla, Vinay Pathak, and Brijendra Kala, who is the surprise in this ensemble cast. Neha Dhupia as the gangster's moll is adequate. But it is the very talented Iravati Harshe, who stands out with her controlled performance. The scenes between her and Ranvir are definitely more compelling than the ones between Ranvir and Dhupia's character.
Mithya stands out for its audacious script and screenplay, the direction and the superb acting by the cast. However, the musical score of the film hardly merits any mention. But it's the sheer brilliance of the scripting and the acting which outshines every other aspect of the film. In the final analysis, the real hero of this film turns out to be not Ranvir Shorey but director Rajat Kapoor. In Mithya, he displays a rare touch and a mastery over the medium which surely needs to be applauded.
