Rushed yet relevant: Bollywood film Mimi

Source: Wikipedia

Bollywood’s latest offering, Mimi, that focuses on surrogacy, was released on Netflix this week

A meaningful piece of art is always thought provoking. It stirs something within and helps us be better versions of ourselves.

It can enlighten, it can educate. But sadly, not all, in the name of art, do that or are able to achieve that.

There’s usually a message or a theme in an artist’s work. They might touch upon other issues or themes on the way but to expect that they’ll address and resolve all of them in the same work might be too idealistic.

Mimi touches a sensitive social issue that is still not talked about openly in the country. It’s a movie that aims to break certain stereotypes and discuss something that not many feel comfortable talking about, be it in urban or rural India.

Being a mainstream Bollywood movie, with names such as Kriti Sanon, Pankaj Tripathi and A R Rahman associated with it, the fact that it’ll reach the masses should be no revelation.

And when meaningful art reaches the right audience, it becomes better. It gets elevated to something that was always meant to be out in the open for everyone’s consumption.

Coming back to Mimi, does it have a message? Does it achieve that “meaningful” status in 2021?

Does it address a social issue that’s relevant?

Yes It does.

For me, the climax is what brings it all together. I kept wondering throughout the film, how they will resolve the issue at hand, but they do manage to do it.

Kriti Sanon gives a brilliant performance, while Pankaj Tripathi continues to impress and make the audience fall in love with the character he plays.

But Mimi also disappoint. When it uses terms like Down Syndrome and “normal baby” loosely. When it fails to do its research on the adoption process in India.

Another problem that I noticed was the protagonist’s decision to choose a child over her career but not much about how she came to that decision.

Some of the issues the film could have talked about but chose not to:

• Single motherhood
• Surrogacy and its nuances
• Down syndrome
• A woman’s choice of career over child

The orthodox family that turns supportive overnight and the Muslim divorced woman who seems to be living without any social pressure is a rare phenomenon if you look at real life in the country. But then I personally do know such people. So they do exist.

Yes they could have chosen to portray all the other challenges too, the ones they do mention hastily. But with a limited time frame, you got to focus on one. And that one message that they are trying to put across is the plight of orphans in the world. The issue of adoption. The fact that if we create a nation of all orphans in the world right now, it’ll rank 9th in population.

And that with a support system, anything is possible. As a mother raising her toddler in another country during a pandemic, I couldn’t help but get misty-eyed over the scenes that truly depict the statement “It takes a village to raise a child.”

So does Mimi deliver? It actually does, but in a hurried manner and without proper research.

For now, I feel hopeful that these issues are being discussed in a mainstream Bollywood movie.

Verdict? Watch this one for a laughter-filled emotional ride and a lot of food for thought.

I would love to hear your feedback. Write to me at anoushkabhartia@gmail.com

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