As far as dark comedies go, Mithya is superb. Yes, I know I might be eating my own words after some enlightened critic goes through a ton of unclaimed foreign DVDs, and comes out with the horrific fact that this indeed, was another lift. I pray that doesn’t happen and break my heart; so till that time, I will continue to applaud and recommend this movie to all cine-goers.

Ranvir Shourey (a delight to watch, finally, after Khosla ka Ghosla) is a small-time movie artist from Noida, who believes he can make it big, which is apparent by the way he enacts Shakespeare with gusto all to himself, often. He lives in a shanty, has practically no friends, and often spends his night armed with a couple of cigarettes, and a quarter of rum at the bandstand.

On one such night, he witnesses a gang-style shootout at close quarters, but is blissfully missed by the goons. Since he is a man with a conscience, and almost out of his wits, he visits the nearest police station. He is spotted by one of the rival gang members, and it turns out that his face is an exact match with that of Mumbai’s most notorious don.

A plan is hatched, and he is picked-up by the rival gang, who have an offer for him – they kill the don, and he takes the don’s place, and ultimately brings the don’s house down. Naturally, he is not too happy about this, but since he has no choice, he agrees to it. With the help of a little practice and some makeover, he soon starts to look and feel like the real don. Shortly, the don is killed, and our boy is eased into his place.

It’s a nightmare for him, since he didn’t exactly know how to react in most situations, and turns out that the don had a close-knit, loving family. This lack of expressions often leads to confusion and chaos, and the outcome is brilliantly constructed hilarious scenes. Eventually, he settles down in his role, and even gets a bit comfortable, much to the confusion of an exasperated, and angry gang.

Shourey is convincing throughout, and the background detail in the movie helps a lot. His portrayal of an often-broke, mostly-unlucky, and hugely talented actor is superb, and is either hilariously, subtly funny, or simply bittersweet. His body language is spot on, the dialogue delivery and the facial expressions are just right. As I said before, I really enjoyed watching him after a long time, because he disappointed me in Bheja Fry, and his role in Honeymoon Travels Limited was too miniscule to be noticed.

The women in the movie (Neha Dhupia, pretty, often chubby, but restrained and vacuous when need be; and Iravati Harshe, VERY pretty, and very talented, and very under-used) have a lot to do in the movie. While Dhupia plays the rival boss’s girlfriend with the right amount of oomph and sensuality, Harshe plays the don’s wife with ease. No melodrama, and to the point.

The rival bosses (Naseeruddin Shah, and Saurabh Shukla, who have done these kind of roles often now) are largely funny, thanks to Shukla’s contribution to the dialogues and the script. There is Harsh Chhaya (whose TV roles I don’t care for) who plays the don’s menacing brother, and Vinay Pathak (who is ALWAYS good), and an unidentified actor (I shall find out his name soon enough) who plays the sidekick, who are so very good in their respective roles.

The music in the movie is thankfully used as background music, and brings no interruptions in the total experience. The cinematography is just right, and doesn’t linger unnecessarily over the shots. Though the movie got a bit stretched after the first half for a while (by about 30 minutes), and that could have been avoidable, it doesn’t really hurt, because of the witty dialogues.

Rajat Kapoor has indeed come a long way after he co-directed (with almost 30 other directors!) Raghu Romeo on a shoestring budget. This is a director/actor movie, where the director clearly knew what he wanted, and he was lucky enough to get willing actors. I do hope to see more cinema like this, this year.

Don’t miss this movie in the cinema halls, and watch it again when the DVD finally comes out. I am really interested to see what went behind the scenes during the making. I do hope this movie works, since the movie has a really dark undertone, and some intelligent humor; I fear it might be given a miss by the general junta. Still, if the success of Bheja Fry is anything to go by, I would be delightfully and pleasantly surprised if the movie makes it big.

‘nuff said.