A matriarchal bordello run by a confident dominating Madam meets a patriarchal world in Shyam Benegal’s classic movie.

Mandi is not your average brothel based movie, it’s actually a pretty light drama with a lot of humorous situations that cover up a dark despair.

Benegal pits two extreme types of societies against each other.

On one hand we have the brothel where whatever Madam says happens and on the other hand there is the “decent” world led by a bankrupt Municipal Chairman and a land grabbing businessman who wants to encroach upon the brothel.

Both these worlds have their own hierarchies in place with the ones at the top dominating the ones down the ladder.

The classic confluence of the two worlds is something worth noting, like, the concept of a “prized virgin” in both the worlds.

On one hand we have Zeenat, Smita Patil, the cherished virgin in the brothel who the Madam, played by Shabana Azmi is saving for a worthy customer.

On the other hand we have Malti, Ratna Pathak Shah, the virgin who is used as an instrument of striking a business deal by getting her married off to Sushil.

Both wishing for something else, both being denied it and both rebelling in their own way.

As usual Shyam Benegal uses the several turmoil in the lives of the bordello women to subtly expose the hypocrisy that exists around us.

The cast is brilliant, along with Shabana, Smita and Ratna you get to see Pankaj Kapoor, Anu Mail, Saeed Jaffery, Om Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Soni Razdan, Ila Arun, Satish Kaushik, Amrish Puri and several others who have earned a name for themselves.

Naseeruddin Shah as Tungrus is class apart. He is the only man in the matriarchal world who gets pushed around by every woman there.

Benegal manages to develop the numerous character traits of each individual with such a finesse within the span of 2 hrs 45 mins that you start relating to almost all of them.

Mandi is impactful without leaving you too emotionally wrung out and yet gets you thinking about the structures of the society that we live in.

#DaMoRating: 10/10

Disclaimer: The movie has been given 10/10 because I darent give it any less. I would have applied standard deduction as I usually do, but I was scared that the parrot in the movie would abuse me 🤕🤕