Contemplating unanswered echoes of ‘Mr and Mrs Iyer’

More often than not, a film leaves you marred with questions, and you ponder over all the ifs and buts of what will unfold next. The film "Mr and Mrs Iyer", along with all the emotions it invokes, is one that forces us to wonder about the 'what ifs'.

This 2002 Indian English-language drama film was written and directed by Aparna Sen and features Konkona Sen Sharma and Rahul Bose in lead roles. The background score was composed by the Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain while director Goutam Ghose was on board as the cinematographer.

The movie begins with Meenakshi (Konkona Sen Sharma), a married Brahmin woman, meeting Jehangir Chowdhury (Rahul Bose), a Bengali Muslim wildlife photographer during a bus journey. As communal riots unfold in their area, Meenakshi pretends that they're a couple to save Jehangir's life. Later Jehangir shows extraordinary care and dutifully stays with Meenakshi and her toddler son in a forest bungalow until he takes them to their destination, in the end. When leaving them with Meenakshi's husband, he walks away as Meenakshi watches him go. 

Nevertheless, during the journey and the duo's stay at a forest bungalow, Meenakshi evolves out of her fundamentalist communal beliefs which she held originally. We find out how she stays with her in-laws who are extremely strict and that her husband could be aloof. She feels appreciated and seen by Jehangir and is mesmerised by the stories of adventurous trips he'd had. 

The chemistry Jehangir and Meenakshi share can leave us awestruck. And we imagine what would have happened had they met prior to Meenakshi's marriage. That possibility feels feasible, too, given her father is an officer at the forest department. Would they have transgressed the boundaries set by the society then? Is her marriage, to which she is perhaps more stuck than committed, the sole reason why she chose not to leave with Jehangir? Or would she have thought about her parents?

A possibility of us pondering about the mundanity that might have settled in their marriage occurs too. Meenakshi states how her husband is often out on tours. Would it always have been feasible for her to accompany Jehangir on his audacious and exotic photography trips? If not, then what guarantees that their marriage wouldn't have turned out as empty as the one she stays in? Is their romance beautiful only because it's transient? 

What draws Jehangir to Meenakshi is difficult to put into words. It could be naivety, beauty, dutifulness, or even her helplessness. But this cinema oddly reminds me of "Parama" (1985), also by director Aparna Sen, where the protagonist, a married woman, develops feelings for a charming photographer, only to be ostracized by her family and forsaken by her husband. We wonder if a similar fate would have awaited Meenakshi had she left with Jehangir. We wonder if Jehangir wants a typical marriage. We know that Meenakshi wants to stay with her child and the feelings she develops seek fruition. But what could have happened had the adventurous soul of Jehangir gotten tired of remaining settled in marriage?

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I can only imagine how Meenakshi will continue to live, given the emotions she develops for Jehangir. It is easy to imagine the further pain and aloofness she is likely to face at her in-law's house. She would perhaps center her life around her son. Given she knows the details of Jehangir, would she contact him later to reconnect?

We don't know. We only see the stinging pain Meenakshi feels as Jehangir walks away. As mere audiences, the compulsion of the story makes us wish he wouldn't leave even though we don't know what will happen if he doesn't.