A satirical take on the porn writer’s reality
Director: Akhilesh Jaiswal
Cast: Rahul Bagga, Tara-Alisha Berry, Istiyak Khan and Vinod Nahardih
In the 80s, there was a boom of the “horrors of a penny” north Mastram name. It feeds over a schoolboy fantasy and costs about Rs 10 max, offered a cheaper alternative of expensive foreign rags. The original script had a certain literary style sex and wrapped in euphemisms. Magazines that followed were raw and hardcore and remain so to this day. Indeed, the original writer of Mastram can be said to have begun the erotic revolution in India. Their efforts may seem tame today in the era of YouPorn but it was something like an underground icon in the pre-internet era.
Writer-director Akhilesh Jaiswal offers a fictional biopic of the original writer Mastram. Jaiswal’s imagination makes him a native of the small town of Himachal, a bank employee by profession, newly married and with aspirations of being a published writer. A disagreement with his superior see Rajaram losing his job at the bank, and nobody wants to publish their “normal” stories, throwing her vivid imagination in the murky waters of sexual fantasies and take home more of a prize catch. He starts to make money, but as porn was taboo at the time (and still is), can not confess about their craft chosen anyone.
The film could have crossed the limits of decency, for its subject. Not exciting, but it offers a cynical view of society as well to read porn, but its author is seen as a degenerate. What I needed was more conflict. Rajaram truly becomes Mastram when he imagines his wife is unfaithful. His fall from grace had to be explored further. Hardly undergoes a moral conflict and all too easily accepts his condition and goes on to write more.
Rahul Bagga seems so naive as to be Rajaram. It’s when he tries to be the smutty Mastram wobble. I had to bring more conviction to the dark sister Rajaram and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde quality to the performance lacked. Debutante Tara-Alisha Berry as the beautiful wife Himachali has its moments and hopefully will get better with experience.
Mastram may not be a perfect film, but it can be termed as, however, a bold attempt. The general idea is to get a ‘U’ experience in an ‘A’ certified film. Wait and wait for the money shot that never comes …