Shimla Mirchi Does The Impossible: Makes Hema Malini Look Desperate

Ramesh  Sippy once made Sholay. He also made Andaz and Seeta Aur Geeta. All three are landmarks in  the great Hema  Malini’s  career.  I was waiting for the long-delayed Shimla Mirch , not only because  it marks the return  of   Ramesh Sippy  to direction after 24years(his last directorial Zamana  Deewana was  released in 1995) but also  because it re-unites the  gorgeous  Hema Malini with Sippy.

The trailer  gives  the entire plot away, piece  by piece. Rajkummar Rao, returning to the screen  after  his  stupendous  but undermined performance in Made In China , is a man shy  of  expressing his love  to  Rakul Preet Singh(whose clothes and  makeup look a wee over the-top).So he writes a love letter(yes, in today’s day and age, even keeping in mind the  film’s 5-year delay in release, it’s hard to believe) to  his  object of adoration. But it falls into  Rakul’s mother’s hand.

This begins the  courtship game of  errors , where one can see the divine Malini struggling to find her comic core.

It is extremely  brave  of her to take on a role way removed  from her comfort  zone. I mean, if you can believe that the Dream Girl(the original, not Ayushmann Khurrnana) can  run after Rajkummar Rao then  you can believe  anything.

Shimla Mirchi marks  a departure for  Hema  Malini from her image of  the unattainable  beauty. It is set  in  the quaints scenic town of Shimla and  was  shot there. The smalltown anbience  of   gossip giggles and  shock at unconventional  feelings is  well conveyed  in the trailer. While Hema Malini followed  by  Raj Kumar Rao make a  curious unlikely pair, the director Ramesh Sippy’s wife Kiran Joneja shows  up as a meddlesome Bua  advising Rao to  “show some balls.”

That’s  what  Shimla  Mirchi   seems to be doing . It seems  like a  ballsy concept with  the legendary Hema  Malini  desperately seeking  a  suitor.It’s  like Deepika Padukone  playing a  disfigured acid victim.