Mr and Mrs Iyer

Director Aparna Sen (36 Chowringhee Lane) discovers that good intentions don't always make good cinema with this pedestrian drama, which teeters between toleration treatise, self-conscious art house and mainstream entertainment. The scenario that pitches Muslim photographer Rahul Bose and widowed Tamil Brahmin mother Konkona Sensharma together is sound enough. Indeed, it should have become increasingly tense once the pair begin posing as a married couple, following a terrorist outrage, to save Bose from vengeful Hindu extremists. However, the dialogue is thuddingly deliberate and neither star looks comfortable with either the political or melodramatic pronouncements.