MIthai DVD Released

Debutant Prashant Kumar’s Mithai features a stellar cast featuring names like Bhushan, Kamal Kamaraju, Swetha Varma and Aditi Myakal on it. Most of these actors do their best to breathe life into characters, even those that are underwritten. But that is unfortunately not enough to make the film always work. Mithai starts off with superb potential but goes downhill as the film progresses, with only Rahul Ramakrishna, Priyadarshi and Bhushan saving the day.

Sai (Rahul Ramakrishna) is a corporate employee who loses his job, gets his house burgled and almost loses his fiancé, all in the span of a day. To make matters worse, everyone in his life – be it his boss, fiancé or even a long-lost friend Krishna (Ravi Varma) seem to treat him with nothing but disdain. His carefree friend Jani (Priyadarshi), who floats in the same boat as him, has no aim in life, much to the chagrin of his wife. Sai is soon thrown a challenge – to not get married unless he finds the burglar and he accepts, in hope that people finally begin taking him seriously. Both the friends embark on a madcap journey to find the thief.

The premise, while simple, sounds promising on paper and Prashant too makes it work for him in bits and pieces. Sure, the jokes don’t always land nor does the twist at the end really surprise anyone, but the downfall of the film truly lies in the parts where it seems to drag on and on, with scenes that do nothing to move the story forward. A musician Siddharth (Kamal Kamaraju) and his babe (Arsha) are introduced into the narrative, only for their scenes involving nothing but eating various delicacies and his girlfriend providing him and the audience gyaan on the origin of it, and a long, ridiculous scene involving detective Deepti (Swetha Varma) talking to her clients which isn’t even funny. There’s a lot more weaved into this tale, involving dream sequences, Sai’s inherited car, a donkey, a random man dressed in neon green always hovering around Sai and Jani and of course, the encouragement offered to the duo by the laidback Dude (Bhushan) who loves his pet goat Sundari.

Unfortunately for Prashant, he takes on too much for his debut film and only delivers sporadically. Mithai does have scenes that will stay with you, long after the film is done, especially when it comes to the philosophy that lies underneath all the mess. Rahul Ramakrishna, Priyadarshi and Bhushan deliver stellar performances, with the chemistry between the former two being the highlight of the film. Between the three, they deliver even the drabbest dialogues with élan, making the film not a complete loss. Aditi Myakal does her best in the limited screen time she has. The ever-dependable Kamal Kamaraju fails to make his madcap character work, nor does the debutant Arsha, with both coming off as bad caricatures in the tale. The music by Vivek Sagar is stellar, setting the mood for the film. The costume and art direction of the film dares to charter into a territory that TFI rarely veers into.

Go watch Mithai this weekend only if a tale of misadventure and some mindless fun is what you seek. Also watch this one especially for the leads, for they save the film whenever it needs it. Give this one a miss if quirky films that sometimes make no sense are not your cup of tea.