STORY

A story of star-crossed lovers battle misogyny, hate and caste tensions amidst a politically-charged environment.

REVIEW

Contrasting sneakers with garish, loud Punjabi kurtas is Juuliet Shukla (Pia Bajpai) a feisty girl in Mirzapur, UP who bullies anything that moves —from the local bus conductor to her childhood friend Mirza (Darshan Kumar). She throws her weight around town as she is the darling sister of Dharamraj (Priyanshui Chatterjee), a powerful local goon who wants to marry her off to the son of another powerful politician, the very randy Rajan Pandey (Chandan Roy Sanyal). Mirza (Darshan Kumar), on the other hand, is a hitman; a total opposite to Juuliet’s brash personality —calm, composed and the best shot in town.

At its core, ‘Mirza Juuliet’ is a formulaic film that climbs on the shoulders of other successful films set in small towns such as Gangs of Wasseypur, Tanu Weds Manu. Right from its opening sequence, it borrows the chase scene from Gangs of Wasseypur along with the song ‘Mohabbat Ka Misuse’ and fails on both counts. The chase scene is badly edited and the song tacky enough to be irritating. It also tries to show the ill-treatment of women in small towns, but ends up being crass in the process, sinking under the weight of the misogyny it creates.

Pia Bajpai looks stunning, but her character is so aggressively loud, you fail to connect with her. Darshan Kumar, as a hitman gives a decent performance but his character development becomes unbelievable. He dodges every bullet putting Keanu Reeves from the Matrix to shame and when he does get shot, it only makes him angrier and faster to the chagrin of the baddies which include the entire town!