Meenaxi: Tale of 3 Cities (2004) Online

Meenaxi is one of those rare movies. It blurs the boundaries of real and imaginary so beautifully that you are left awestruck at the end. It makes you wonder what is real and what is fictitious? Is it a dream or is it real? It weaves between the two so magnificently you are left wondering if any two people will ever come to the same interpretation of the movie. In a bollywood world where the audience is beaten to death by watching the same boy-meets-girl story recycled countless times, coupled with cheesy dialogues, artificially good/bad characters, leaving absolutely no room for imagination or interpretation, Meenaxi comes as a breath of fresh air. I was shocked to see the rating to be as low as 6. There is nothing that is below par about the movie. The visuals are stunning, with the colors playing a riot at times, and being understated & mysterious on other occasions. The story is mesmerizing. The songs are brilliant. The acting of both Tabu and Raghubir Yadav is excellent as usual. Kunal Kapoor did leave a bit to be desired though, at least for me. Probably it is too abstract for a section of the audience. But anybody who is pessimistic about the quality of Hindi cinema should see Meenaxi. Even though I am not a great fan of M.F.Hussain, but the quality of his artwork in the movie is undeniable. To think it was only his second movie makes you wonder at the overall talent levels of these artists. Go watch the movie with an open mind, and you will see something new too.

It is sad that such a brilliant film went unnoticed by many people. Meenaxi is one of the best Indian movies. Though the screenplay seems confusing, it is in the class of movies like 'A beautiful mind' and 'Memento'. A depiction of the confusion between reality and mental projection is very difficult and M.F. Hussain has done it in a superb manner. It takes more than a man of average psyche to understand this film.

Other than the story and the direction, the music by AR Rahman is absolutely brilliant and the visualizations are really great. Overall, a must-watch for the mavericks out there.

M.F.Husain, who has written and directed this movie, is a well renowned artist from India. Meenaxi is just as colorful and bright as his paintings.

The title of the movie is a bit misleading. Even though the story travels through three cities, the movie itself is not about the three cities. It is about a creator and his relationship with his characters, especially the pivotal muse.

Raghubir Yadav is a perfect fit for the character of the famous author, Nawab, who often gets so lost in his stories that he forgets about himself and everyone around him. Tabu, as his inspiration and the central character in his story (Meenaxi), is more than competent in her role. Kunal Kapoor, the new comer displays tremendous maturity.

In all, the movie underscores the point that for a committed author (or any creative artist, for that matter), the line that divides reality and the fantasy world of his creation is almost imperceptible. The movie ends with a question - "Is life nothing more than a thought? Or is it a search for that thought?"

The direction and narration are brilliant, if a bit self-indulgent. One got the feeling that the whole movie might have been more gripping if the length was shorter. But then, Husain was probably constrained by the requirements of an Indian audience.

The songs, by A.R.Rahman, are sheer genius and so is the background score. The cinematography explodes with color and movement and combined with the well-blended music, elevates the movie's experience to a higher plane.

A must see movie, even if you have never seen Indian movies before. This is about as good as movies get.

Meenaxi: Tale of 3 Cities is indeed a story which takes us to three cities viz. Hyderabad, Jaisalmer & Prague and depicts the life and culture of all three cities on the screen.

The movie starts off with Nawab (Raghubir Yadav), a Hyderabadi Novelist who is suffering from writer's block. At a press conference, he admits that he has written a story but doesn't know how to culminate. He then narrates how the story started. His story's central character is Meenaxi (Tabu) whom he meets at a Qawali (the controversial Noor-un-ala song). Thereafter, Meenaxi follows Nawab to his house and forces him to write an interesting story on her. He accepts her challenge on one condition that she shouldn't interfere in his story.

The Nawab conceives a story which takes place in Jaisalmer, where Meenaxi is Meenakshi, a desert bloom and the car Mechanic Kunal (Kunal Kapoor) is the soft-spoken, well-behaved Kameshwar. The story starts with Kameshwar meeting Meenakshi near the railway station and coincidentally, she is his Aunt's friend's niece. They again meet at a party and he is instantly attracted her. Then, the villain enters, an old friend of Meenakshi, Karan, who dumps his girlfriend and proposes Meenakshi. But she is already attracted to Kameshwar so denies his proposal. After reaching home, she realizes that her uncle (Sharat Saxena) has already sought a groom for her and she is confused.

Meenaxi in Hyderabad criticizes that the story is boring and she burns the manuscript. Nawab goes on to write another story set in Prague. Here, Meenaxi is a modern girl Maria who works as a waitress at a restaurant. She meets a writer, played by the Nawab himself, who wants Maria to act as his protagonist and tell her story to him so that he can write a good novel. The writer tells her that she has to meet Kameshwar from India who will come here to meet Professor Crasa and tell what all happened between them. But he later feels that he is not doing the correct thing and asks Maria to stop acting for him. But she is hesitant to leave the story incomplete. Meenaxi in Hyderabad doesn't like this story either and she, angrily, leaves the Nawab.

The story is a bit confusing, a bit abstract on the screen but still, it is the best way to depict the story. Hussain shows his expertise in direction with a number of sequences, like where Meenaxi forces Nawab to write a story on her, Meenakshi in Jaisalmer goes to meet Kameshwar but doesn't tell him anything about her marriage arranged by her uncle, the way Meenaxi burns the manuscript, etc. The background score is superb. It is in sync with the culture of the three cities. My favorite ones are the one played when Meenaxi runs away from Kameshwar, when Maria stands at the platform holding a placard for Kameshwar and the Ni-sa-sa-sa Ni- re-re-ni-sa-re track used for Hyderabad.

The film rests on three actors mainly and all of them do a good job with Tabu standing at the first place. She portrays three different characters with effortless ease. Her accents are different too, the chaste Hyderabadi Hindi for Hyderabad, elite, poetic Hindi for Jaisalmer and the babyish tune with English lines in between Hindi for Prague. She looks extremely beautiful in the film, draped in ethnic clothes and acts very well too. The way she teases both the men in the film is superb. This is one of her finest performances. Raghubir Yadav is under the skin of the confused writer who faces criticisms from his muse. And newcomer Kunal Kapoor does a great job – a perfect debut. The rest supporting cast is appropriate.

The dialogues are very well penned. The chaste urdu used for Hyderabad may not be easily understood by the viewers but still, it works. The dialogues of Jaisalmer are poetic and may confuse the viewer. Hopefully, the dialogues for Prague are straight and easily understandable. But what really stands out are the dialogues spoken by Raghubir in the end of the film, they are just superb.

The cinematography of the film is the real gem. Each and every frame is so well planned that it appears to be a painting. It captures the essence of the cities very well. And it is mainly because of cinematography and background music, that the film holds a confusing look throughout and it is what takes the graph of the film sky high. Santosh Sivan is the real winner this time. The songs are very well picturised, choreography is superb.

The screenplay is entertaining and captivating in most parts. It depicts how a writer can imagine real characters around him in a different way. For instance, Kunal is a drunkard, rough and a womanizer while Kameshwar is a soft-spoken and a well-behaved man. The same way, he imagines Nawab's aunt as Kameshwar's aunt in Jaisalmer and the gardener as the driver. The characterization of the various characters is superb. The end strikes as a thunderbolt. Immediately after Meenaxi leaves Nawab, the qawali (noor-un-ala) comes back and Nawab realizes that still the qawali was going on and he was just dreaming that the qawali dancer came to meet him, he wrote two stories on her, etc. And now this story which he conceived at the qawali, of a mysterious girl, is incomplete and he doesn't know how to complete it. The story is simply extraordinary.

On the whole, Meenaxi is an experiment going the right way. It is not just a story; it is like a poem, a teaser, which forces the audience to keep their thinking caps on throughout. Let me warn you, the movie is not for those ordinary viewers, it is for those who relish experiments, who are intelligent to grasp the hidden meaning in the film.

Meenaxi - is the story of a famous novelist Nawab (Raghubir Yadav) who has lost inspiration and is unable to write. He sees/imagines a beautiful perfume seller Meenaxi (Tabu) and tries to write a story around her character. The love interest is portrayed by Kunal Kapoor, a wannabe musician who repairs cars for a living. The story is presented in fragments with the reality (?) of the imagined Meenaxi in whites, grays, blacks and a distinct Deccani Urdu accent mixed in with the fictional Meenaxi in full blown vibrant Rajasthani colors and a suave sophisticate royal accent, and the fictional Maria as a Western girl living in a nunnery in Prague.

A word of caution to the reader - I am a fan of Renaissance art, of the well executed and exquisitely painted scenery or portraits and do not much enjoy abstract art. Meenaxi is absolute abstract art. I can see what MF Hussain tried to accomplish and think he achieved his aim extremely well but the story (well there isn't much of one) fails to engage me or touch me as it is too abstract. Having said that, I do see the visual artistry in this film and the excellent performances. Santosh Sivan is a master cinematographer and this could be his crowning achievement. The movie is like walking through a gallery of beautiful paintings, you want to stop and admire every frame. I will touch on this more when I talk of the songs.

The acting is by and large very good. Tabu is excellent as the Hyderabadi and Rajasthani Meenaxi but fails to engage me as much as the Maria from Prague.. And she is amazingly beautiful and mesmerizing throughout the film. Kunal Kapoor is fair to good - a decent debut. Raghubir Yadav is brilliant - he gets under the skin of Nawab and is the most engaging character in the movie for me.

The direction is good - Hussain the artist obviously is the force driving Hussain the director. But I cannot help feeling that I might have enjoyed the film more if it was less abstract.

The music is quite good - there are many songs and I loved almost all of them.

Noor-un-Ala-noor is brilliantly choreographed and has some Middle Eastern overtones. Rang Hai is drenched in color and visually stunning. The song/dance in the potter's village seems very Satrangi Re (Dil Se) inspired to me. Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai is a pleasing number set in the desert with monochrome spots of color and Tabu looks divine. Chinnamma Chilakkamma - what on earth was that? I couldn't figure out why the song and episode was in the film at all. My favorite song is Badan Dhuan Dhuan - it is in the backdrop of a play in Prague, but but why is Maria singing in Hindi? I do not know who choreographed which song but they were all brilliantly choreographed.

In the end I give the film an 8/10 for the visually stunning spectacle and acting but I wish that it had been less abstract and had engaged me more as a story. Now I want to watch Gaja Gamini by Hussain and see why he makes these women inspired films...

Meenaxi is an art film revolving around the classic case of writer's block! Sometimes it becomes difficult to interpret a beautiful/masterpiece paintings in appropriate words, Meenaxi is a like a painting on a canvas so gaudy, magnificent, vivid, imaginative, very open yet very difficult to interpret in first instance! The thin line between reality and imagination is crossed several times but with such a pace that is impossible to catch. The characters are well built for each scenario, the story is well woven for each three niches. At times it seems as if you are reading a book and the characters are walking and wandering around here and there on the pages searching for the length of their survival. The imagination is much stronger than the reality but it's the reality that supersedes all the three fantasies and overlaps them. Three characters played by Tabbu are done with full justice. She looks very gorgeous, strong, very beautiful and confident.

It is interesting to see that how a Hyderabadi Meenaxi dictates the writer to develop characters for her based on her personality and when compare those characters with her own personality,she refuses to be the woman of the novel and comes out of the scenario, the whole novel writing process. She continues to be an enigma from start till end. No one else could do justice to the characters played by Tabbu. She is absolutely one of the most talented actresses of movie industry. When she is quiet, her eyes speak volume. Nawab, another powerful character played by Raghubir Yadav gives a remarkable performance. He is very confident and comfortable while playing the role of a novel writer. His expressions are accurate with a full control on his body language. Kunal Kapoor is stylish and confident. Working with two great actors on set (Tabbu and Raghubir) with full confidence and required expressions would not have been a piece of cake for him, but he managed it too precisely. Nadra Babber is adorable and convincing and portrays the great potentials of her character with grace. Music by A.R.Rehman is classy, melodious, apt according to the mood of the film. After DilSe, it's his second best work. "Noor-ul-aala", "Yeh Rishta", "Titli", "Do Kadam", "Rang Hai" are of top notch. Asha Bhonsle is very expressive in "Badan Dhuwan". Cinematography is breathtaking. The deserts of Jaisalmir and the scenes pictured in Prague are of top notch. Camera work is superb, although there are some minor technical mistakes but those could be ignored easily. M.F.Hussain was a real gem as a painter as well as a film producer. It's a must must watch for art loving people!!! My ratings 10/10...!

I thought Meenaxi was a self indulgent waste of time. The movie was poorly edited and artistic for the sake of being artistic rather being incorporated into the plot. Apart from the main protagonist, the quality of acting was mediocre and dialog was pithy. One of the two bright sparks was the choreography of the musical pieces, which were acrobatic and classical. Most importantly, they were a refreshing change from the usual bollywood crass belly gyrations. The other, positive (which is no reflection on the film makers) are the locations. It is hard to miss the beauty of cities like Jaisalmer and Prague. Overall, for some visual appeal and a cloudy plot-line, Meenaxi is watchable. But I would recommend getting on with household chores instead!