One wrong step makes all the difference 





When marriage turns into a playhouse

 

NAME: Mounao Thoibi

CAST: Bala, Bonny, Roshan (Introducing)
PRODUCER: Thoi Thoi

DIRECTOR: Romi Meitei
GENRE: Drama

              Among the various young directors who deal with social issues through films, Romi Meitei is one of them. Use of traditional folk music as background score is one of his trademarks besides tragic endings. Emagi laman singamdre, Khujingi Mami, Thengmankhre Thabalse are few of his successful films which deal with contemporary social issues. In Mounao Thoibi, he highlights the ill effects of immature marriage to the society and the girl herself.

            The story centres on Pheijao, an over aged bachelor who frantically searches for a beautiful young girl to be his bride, with the help of his two friends- Bormani and Oscar Manihar. Luckily they find Thoibi, a young mischievous ignorant girl, and her two friends who are high school students, returning home. They decide to lure one of the young girls using gifts as they were young and immature teenagers. Thoibi who did not accept the love interest of Malemnganba, her senior and topper of the school, falls in their trap and Pheijao elopes with her. As she was too young, her family disowns her. Their relation becomes tangled post marriage.

            The film highlights the present trend of immature marriage of young girls and the ruins that follow post marriage. Moreover the film deals with men like manipulating the life of young girls instead of giving proper guidance. Here the roles of the parents in keeping their child on the right path are also shown. Besides scolding, children need friendly conversation and moral advice whose lack can lead to Thoibi’s life. Like in the film Thoibi’s father only scolded and did nothing to correct his spoilt child. And the mother never tried to correct her daughter’s mistakes; she only let it pass by. Although Thoibi was naughty and immature, Pheijao and his friends were selfish and thoughtless. His father and Thoibi’s father in law lack the wisdom of an old man as he could not mould young Thoibi in the right form who was like wet clay.

            The comic characters of Bormani and Oscar Manihar and their hilarious dialogues hold the whole film together without them the film could have fallen apart. The first half keeps the audience busy with non-stop comedy, Thoibi calling out the CM’s name as ‘Ibobiiiii….’ at the irregular power supply, Manihar speaking wrong English, calling Kate Winslet as Kate Whisky, used of witty proverbs were all good. But amidst these good points, there were many loopholes which could have been filled up with little effort. Jenny and Russia are popular make-up artistes of Manipur; however they failed to give a realistic image of the characters, Thoibi looked too grown up and Pheijao given too much powder. The music at the casting was good but there were frequent rupture of background music at various points. Then the appearance of Pheijao’s aunty was left meaningless as she never appear again whose character could have developed in the story. Again the frequent appearance of a man during Pheijao’s wooing of Thoibi need explanation. And lastly the guest appearance of Abenao as Pheijao’s second wife looked beautiful but her costume manager failed to notice that in Meitei tradition a young bride wears bright coloured dress, not a grey dress.

            All the actors played their part sincerely including the new boy Roshan. However as a director Romi failed to meet the expectations. Altogether the film is entertaining but could have work harder. Though Pheijao and Thoibi made equal mistakes, only Thoibi got the punishment including pheijao’s mistakes. This is something the society needs to think about. The story reminds the Meitei proverb ‘Our teeth don’t last eating immature fruit’.

Get hold of this film to enjoy the naughty acts of Thoibi and her friends and the funny dialogues of Manihar and Bormani.