Review of Mithya

Mithya (2008)
7/10
Johnny Gaddaar it ain't!
16 April 2008
I compare Johnny Gaddaar(JG) and Mithya thus: Neha Dhupia and Rimi Sen were equal in their characters and how they engaged. Then Mithya had Suhasini Mulay as the mother while JG had Rasika Joshi - Mulay was better than Joshi. But JG had the ace in the hole Ashwini Khalsekar while Mithya had that woman who played the wife - round goes to Khalsekar - she was brilliant in JG. The other cast - Ranvir was better than Neil by quite a bit, but I will take Dharam over Naseer Bhai this time, and the rest of the gang was much much better in JG.

JG had rocking music, I do not recall if Mithya had much of anything - round to JG. JG also had better dialogs, better situations. Even though both were howdunits and not whodunits, JG never lost the plot and stayed consistently within the genre in a most engaging way. Mithya veered from black comedy, to family drama, to tragedy to a philosophical treatise. The consistent and relentless nature of JG was a huge plus.

Now comes the plot/story itself. Both films drew heavily on action/thriller cinema of the 60s and 70s. But JG was most innovative in the plot as it also was going for a pulp fiction kind of feel. Mithya took the story of Chandra Barot's Don, and percolated it through many different genres to prepare this pastiche. I found it decent, but in the end unengaging and a little confused. JG is worth many a repeat watch, this one ain't. I am sorry to see this film do better than JG at the box office - JG was the winner IMHO.
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