24 frames per second

Mr and Mrs Mahi is a curious mixtape of a film. At one level, there’s little that feels original except the specific plot device of a husband who wanted to be a cricketer discovering that his wife could be a great one.

There’s a bit of Dum Laga ke Haisha and Bawaal in how a sad sack husband finds his groove. A bit of every sports movie where an underachieving player finds a second wind as a coach. A bit of every movie where kids grow out of their parent’s shadow to find their own dream. A bit of… You get the idea.

But the big disappointment isn’t that the film feels somewhat unoriginal, but that it wastes a good premise. The central conflict of the film is interesting: a woman who starts off being a doctor because her dad told her to, ends up feeling like she became a cricketer because her husband told her to.

Logically the payoff for this ought to be her agency. What you get is her agency mansplained to her. What the hell!

The trouble with the writing is compounded by the fact that Mr Mahi is played by Rajkumar Rao, and his parents are played by Kumud Mishra and Zarina Wahab, while Mrs Mahi is played by Jahnvi Kapoor.

Her filmography has been perhaps the most interesting amongst those of the “nepo kids”. Dhadak, Gunjan Saxena, Good Luck Jerry, Mili, Bawaal… Even if you assume that being Boney Kapoor and Sridevi’s daughter had something to do with her getting these roles, you gotta give her props for what’s not in this list. Nothing here is eye candy.

But the trouble is, she manages to project weakness better than strength, in roles that require her to do both. To use an analogy apt for this film, she hits a lot of ones and twos but I am yet to see her clear the fence. I hope the quality of her performances catches up to that of her roles rather than the other way around.