Mr and Mrs Iyer …!
Aparna Sen beautifully directed the movie revealing the true nature of humanity over the communal hatred . It all started in the mid of a bus journey . Journey itself is a story carrying number of little stories in itself . That old couple Iqbal and Najma , peacefully traveling to Calcutta , remembering their young ages and admiring their togetherness over all these years . That group of students , dancing and singing together , instilling any dull journey with new passion , energy and life . That middle aged mother traveling with her mentally retarded son . Men playing cards and Meenakshi with her less than an year old son accompanied by Raja though stranger yet destined to travel together . Meenakshi was busy controlling her son Santhanan who was not being liked by most of the co travellers as he was crying . Meenakshi asked Raja for some help . Raja was calm , quiet and at peace . He offered help .
Things changed as suddenly the driver took another route to the destination because of blockage of the main road . The bus got stucked . There was an accident rather killing of some hundreds of men in a communal riots in the nearby village . Hindus were after Muslims . Communal hatred could be felt even among the co passengers . Meenakshi was shocked and scared to know that Raja was a Bengali Muslim , Jehengir Chowdhary . Certain orthodox elements were cleary highlighted in the story . Meenakshi also had disliking towards Muslims . She immediately apologized infront of God for sharing the same water with Raja who was now a muslim . Left with no option she had to take his help as she was alone with a small child . Some hindu elements entered the bus in search of any muslim . Mrs Iyer gave Raja the name of Mr Subramanian Iyer to save him . Alas , the old couple was killed !
The story beautifully too a new turn . Communal hatred was contrasted with growing feelings between Meenu and Raja . That’s is in between an orthodox brahamin Tamil and a liberal bengali Muslim . On the one hand people were killing each other on the basis of casts and religion . On the hand two entirely different religion were comming closer to each other . Gradually the similar color of being human is brought to the lime light. How Raja did not cared if she is Tamil or Muslim , how Meenu could gradually enlightened herself with the virtues of Raja beyond his religion . There was a development of love in the midst of hatred .
Mr and Mrs Iyer were deeply connected . They fantasized their first meeting and their honeymoon . They fantasized the green leaves , free woods , wild forests with no distinctions . The could live the world full of love and peace being surrounded by blood and swords . The last adieu was a togetherness for forever .