Review of movie Mere Pyare Prime Minister

×

Rating:3/5

Open defecation is a huge problem facing India, and has already been addressed in a film last year. So when Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra decides to come up with another film on the same subject, you might hope he may have something more to say. Does he? Almost. While the previous film was a love story where a husband works at building toilets for his wife, here, we have a young boy named Kanhu (Om Kanojiya) who wants to do the same for his mother. In his quest for his slum to have a toilet, he writes a letter to the Prime Minister and travels to Delhi from Mumbai, with his motley crew Ringtone (Adarsh Bharti) and Nirala(Prasad), to hand deliver the letter to the PM.

The first thing that the filmmaker avoids is to politicise the issue like other films about the subject have done, which in itself is a commendable thing. He focuses on the story instead which elevates the film from being a propaganda machine.

The strongest part of the movie is the casting. The young actors do a solid job and totally steal the show. Anjali Patil, too, as the ster-yet-loving mother plays her role really well and her performance is top notch. The music buy Shankar Ehsaan Loy is breezy and perfectly suits the mood of the film, so do the lyrics by Gulzar.

The weakest part of the film seems to be the story. Their journey to Delhi that the kids partake in, could have been made a bit more interesting, considering it is a big deal for a bunch of juveniles to make such a long journey, but the filmmaker doesn’t spend a lot of time there. Also, the fact that even after selling hashish in the slum and posing as dead bodies to fleece tourists and make money, the kids still have their wonder and innocence intact. Minus these small hiccups, the film is a sweet, slice-of-life drama about a kid who loves his mother and wants her life to be just a little bit better.