Meenaxi : A tale of three 'ceetees'.

(From The Times of India)

The claps, whistles and high fives began before the film did. At a private screening of M.F Husain's magnificent Meenaxi, the mood was upbeat from the word go. Husain himself was the first to applaud as the titles rolled. Why not? At 88, he is entitled to revel in his own genius. As he himself stated after his last effort (Gajgamini), "It is my vision, my dream, my money. I am entitled to do as I please with it."

Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities has been produced by 'Culture of the Street Films'. But it is essentially a baapbeta show with Husain's mercurial son Owais taking the credit as 'associate director/writer', with Owais's wife Reima Faiza billed as 'producer'. Perhaps one should not make the mistake of comparing Meenaxi with Gajgamini, or Tabu with Madhuri. But comparisons are inevitable. Both are a labour of love., and an extension of an artist's divine sensibility that obviously drives him to explore the limitless possibilities of the medium he loves the most - the visual one.

As cinema, Meenaxi works far better than Gajgamini. Meenaxi is a far more cohesive and coherent narrative which holds viewer-interest sufficiently to make you anticipate the next unexpected turn in the loosely-constructed storyline. If at times, you find yourself as bewildered as poor Raghubir Yadav who plays the protagonist (a ...