Movie Review: Mastram

Director: Akhilesh Jaiswal

Cast: Rahul Bagga, Tara-Alisha Berry, Vinod Nahardih and Istiyak Khan

In the ‘80s, there came a boom of ‘penny dreadfuls’ by name of Mastram up North. It fuelled many a schoolboy fantasy and costing around Rs 10 max, offered a cheaper alternative to costly foreign rags. The original writing had a certain literary flair and cloaked the sex in euphemisms.  The magazines which followed were crude and hardcore and remain so to this day. In effect, the original writer of Mastram can be said to have started the erotica revolution in India. His efforts may appear tame today in the age of YouPorn but he was somewhat of an underground icon in the pre-internet era.

Writer-director Akhilesh Jaiswal offers a fictional biopic of the original writer of Mastram. Jaiswal’s imagination makes him out to be a native of small town Himachal, a bank clerk by profession, newly married and having aspirations of being a published writer. A disagreement with his superior sees Rajaram losing his bank job and as no one wants to publish his ‘normal’ stories, he casts his vivid imagination into the murky waters of sexual fantasies and brings home many a prize catch. He starts earning money but as porn was taboo back then (and still is), can’t confess about his chosen trade to anybody.

The film could easily have crossed the bounds of decency, given its subject. It doesn’t titillate but offers a cynical overview of a society where its alright to read porn but its writer is seen as a degenerate. What it needed was more conflict. Rajaram truly becomes Mastram when he imagines his wife to be unfaithful. His fall from grace needed to be explored more. He hardly undergoes a moral conflict and all too easily accepts his condition and moves on to write more stuff.  

Rahul Bagga looks naive enough to be Rajaram. Its when he tries to be the smutty Mastram that he falters. He needed to bring more conviction to the dark twin of Rajaram and the Jekyll and Hyde quality was missing from the performance. Debutante Tara-Alisha Berry as the beautiful Himachali wife has her moments and hopefully will turn better with experience.

Mastram might not be a perfect film but can be termed as a bold attempt nevertheless. The overall impression is that of getting a ‘U’ experience in an ‘A’ certified film. You wait and wait for the money shot which never comes...