MAD, SAD AND BAD
UK, 2009, 90 minutes, Colour.
Meera Syal, Nitin Kinatra, Zubin Vala, Andrea Riseborough, Leena Dhingra, Ayesha Dharker, Tony Gardner.
Directed by Avia Luthra.
A slight comedy drama that is set amongst Asians, mostly of Indian background, in London – although it does not give so much emphasis to the detail of the Indian community. The family could be from anywhere.
Actually, the comedy is often quite bitter. The family is dysfunctional. Father, an alcoholic, is long since dead. Mother is a self-centred drinker and tantrum-puller who dotes on her oldest son, tolerates her younger son and has no time, nothing kind to say to or about her unmarried daughter who lives with her. Mother is dead at the end of the film – and from her voiceover commentary, we realise that she has not improved on her way to the afterlife.
Oldest son is a psychiatrist who is something of a sex- addict who gets some comeuppance. Younger son is a writer of sit-coms, involved with an English girl, wanting to do something better with his life (and judging from his silly finale, a musical about cheese, he has not yet achieved this). Far more sympathetic is the daughter, a quiet, reluctant middle-aged woman, insulted always by her mother but who has an innate niceness about her. She is played by Meera Syal, writer and actress.
Not essential viewing but it has moments of humour and moments of revelation about self-centredness.
1.A British slice of life? Comedy? Realistic and contrived?
2.The London settings, the Indian community, the wider community? Drawing on Indian customs, relationships, expectations? The universal appeal as well?
3.The death of the grandmother, the reaction of her children, her lying in state? Their reactions to her – and the flashbacks in the time preceding her death?
4.The mother, the death of her husband, her selfishness, her relying on Rashmi, yet ridiculing her? Her love for Hardeep? Spoiling him? No criticism of him? Her criticisms of Atul – and his being with an English woman? Her life, her tantrums, her health, her drinking and collapse? Her ousting Rashmi from the house? Her collapse in the supermarket? The family gatherings, relying on her son the psychiatrist as a doctor? Her death? Funeral? Unloved?
5.Rashmi as the centre of the film, age, her place in the family, with her brothers, put upon by her mother? Unmarried? Her mother arranging dates, her going to the meal, her discussions with the date and deciding they had nothing in common? Her work, her devotion to the children? A nice person? Her mother ousting her, finding a place to stay? Her response to her mother’s death?
6.Hadeep, the psychiatrist, spoilt? His liaisons? His brother saying he was a sex addict? His encounters with Julia, coming on to her, her reaction? Stalking her at the club, the bouncers, his being mugged? His discussions with his brother? Helping his mother? His reaction to her death?
7.Atul, the younger son, the comedy writer? His being something of a sad sack? His relationship with Julia, the tension? Self-preoccupied? Reactions to his mother? Meeting Roxy, the friendship with Graham and playing squash with him? Roxy going to the studio, her attraction to the director, the relationship? Atul and his spying? His response to Julia and her criticisms? His mother, the reaction to her death?
8.Julia, her relationship with Atul, on and off, her work, the reaction to Hadeep?
9.Roxy, the ingenuous Indian, her relationship with her husband? Going to the studio, wanting some excitement, her response to the director, the relationship with him? The break? Tony, wealthy, the funeral business, playing squash, spying on his wife? The reconciliation?
10.The comic aspects of these characters and their life? The bitter tone of some of the comedy and of the drama? The scenes from Atul’s sitcom and the way they reflected the film?
