MIRZYA: Epic poetry in motion

By Prachi Nagar on October 7, 2016 at 1:02 PM

Have you heard of Mirza-Sahiban, a popular folklore from Punjab? Well the legend of Mirza Sahiban has been one of the great tragic romances that have fired the imagination of folk poets and artistes throughout history. Penning down the script set up in Rajasthan is Gulzar in MIRZYA, which lands in theatres today, taking you some centuries back and recalling the famous mirzya-sahiban love epic.

The story goes that Mirza Jatt falls in love with Sahibaan while studying together as kids. But Sahibaan’s parents, unhappy with their love affair, decide to marry her off to another man. On the day of her wedding, Mirza elopes with Sahibaan on the historic horse, bakki. Once away, at a safe distance they decided to take rest and Mirza sleeps off despite the protests of Sahibaan. Meanwhile, Sahibaan’s brothers were out frantically searching for the couple. She fears that Mirza would kill them with his bow and arrows. Hence she breaks each of Mirza’s arrows while he lay asleep. When her brothers find them, they kill Mirza straight away while he remained puzzled as to why Sahibaan betrayed him. All this is juxtaposed with today’s era with Mohnish and Suchi, who were separated when the pre-teen boy is sent to a juvenile correction home for murder. Years later, Suchi returns from London to marry Prince Karan (Anuj). By a quirk of fate, she discovers her childhood friend, who now calls himself Aadil, in the palace stable. During her riding lessons, the curly-haired to-be princess discovers that the embers of her love for the stable-hand have not really died down.

What’s hot?

Mirzya marks the debut of Harshvardhan Kapoor (son of Anil Kapoor) and Saiyami Kher.
The movie has a range of music from time-defying eternal love to uncanny tragedy.
Acting and direction are equally
The movie is getting good word of mouth from the Bollywood.
If you are drawn to stories that are high on aesthetics with lyrical narratives, Mirzya is a portrait that deserves a long look.

Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has always been known to extract great music from his music directors, whether it was AR Rahman in films like Rang De Basanti (2006) and Delhi 6 (2009) or Shankar Ehsaan Loy earlier in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) and now they have surpassed their own high standards in Mirzya. The title track of the album, ‘Mirzya’ is beautifully helmed by Daler Mehendi, Pakistani Sufi singer Saieen Zahoor, Balochi folk singer Akhtar Chanal and the Nooran sisters on lead vocals. Teen Gava Hai Ishq Ke’ beautifully sung by Siddharth Mahadevan; the resemblance in uncanny, ‘Aave Re Hichki’ and ‘Doli Re Doli’ are all delightful folksy gems. ‘Chakora’ has Rajasthani folk meeting electronic vibes. It’s rendered by Mame Khan, Akhtar Channel and Suchismita Das with backing vocals by Shankar Mahadevan and Das and is another pleasant on the ears song.

Though not a musical in the literal sense, the songs take the story forward in ballet style. The visuals of the chorus dancers dressed in bright Rajasthani costumes is breath-taking.

You can completely imagine a rural, idyllic setting with all of these song as a backdrop, and don’t need to get the immediate connection with this film. What really catches your attention is the range of emotions in each song. It’s not the regular commercial stuff. There’s so much more character to each song, and one can only imagine how it would lend itself to a plot that deals with time-defying, eternal love but with equal tragedy. However, it takes serious talent and vision to have this kind of music in a commercial Hindi film, at a time when old indipop songs are given a Badshaah rap and re-released. For this, take a bow Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

What’s disappointing