Meenakshi Iyer (Konkona Sen Sharma) and her infant son, Santhanam, embark on a bus journey to return home, after visiting her parents. At the bus station, Meenakshi is introduced to Raja Chowdhury (Rahul Bose) by a common friend. Raja, a wildlife photographer, is requested by Meenakshi's parents to look after their daughter and grandson during the journey. The passengers of the bus include a boisterous group of youngsters, two Sikh men, an elderly Muslim couple, a young couple high on romance, a mentally challenged boy and his mother, and some card-playing men. The bus faces a roadblock and the bus driver attempts a detour, but is stopped by traffic jam caused by sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims in nearby areas.

Raja reveals his Muslim identity to Meenakshi. As someone who comes from a high caste and conservative Hindu Brahmin family, Meenakshi shudders at the very fact that during their travel she drank water offered by Raja, a Muslim. She is shocked and asks Raja to not touch her. Raja contemplates leaving the bus, but is forced to get stay inside by the patrolling police, who declare a curfew due to the riot. After the police leaves to scout other areas, a rioting Hindu mob arrives and forcibly enters the bus. They begin interrogating passengers about their religious identities and when in doubt, they even resort to check if the person is circumcised.

In order to protect himself from them, one of the passengers, who is Jewish and hence circumcised, points out the old Muslim couple to divert the mob's attention. The mob's leader drags the old couple out of the bus. One of the teenagers resists this, but she is assaulted by the mob. As Raja attempts to rise in revolt, Meenakshi plants Santhanam on his lap, ordering him to hold the baby with an intent to shield Raja's Muslim identity. The mob asks about their identities, and Meenaksi tells the leader that she is Mrs. Iyer and Raja is her husband. After this chilly encounter, the passengers spend the night in the bus.

In the morning, the passengers trek to a nearby village to seek accommodation. Raja and Meenakshi, identifying themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, fail to find any accommodation. However, the police officer, who was patrolling the earlier evening, bails them out by providing shelter at an abandoned forest bungalow. They are provided with the single usable bedroom available in the bungalow. Meenakshi refuses to share the room with Raja, and curses herself for coming along with a stranger. Raja confronts her on her outdated prejudices about caste and religion. After a brief quarrel, Raja allows her the comfort of the bedroom and prefers to sleep outside. The next morning when Meenakshi does not find Raja, she gets worried and angry as to why he left Santhanam and her in such a place. Soon, she feels relieved to find Raja sleeping outside. After they reach a restaurant in the nearby village, they meet the teenagers from the bus. The girls are excited and curious to know about Meenaakshi and Raja's love story. To keep their farce alive, both of them cook up an impromptu story right from how they met till where they went for their honeymoon. During their stay at the bungalow, they discover each other's beliefs and understanding of religion. That night, as they witness a horrific murder by one of the mobs, a shocked Meenakshi is comforted by Raja.

The next day, they reach a railway station with the army's help. There, they board the train towards their destination. At their destination station, Kolkata, Meenakshi's husband arrives to receive his wife. Meenakshi introduces Raja to her husband as Jehangir Chowdhury, a Muslim man who helped her (a Hindu woman) during the curfew. Raja hands over a camera roll to Meenakshi, containing the photos of their journey; they bid an emotional farewell to each other.

• Konkona Sen Sharma as Meenakshi S. Iyer – A traditional Tamil Iyer Brahmin traveling with her son, Santhanam, in the bus on her way to meet her husband. She meets a fellow-traveler, Raja Chowdhury, and gets drawn to him due to the surrounding circumstances.
• Rahul Bose as Jehangir "Raja" Chowdhury – A liberal Muslim by faith, he is a wildlife photographer by profession. With the imminent danger from the rioters, Meenakshi contrives a protective identity for him as her husband.
• Bhisham Sahni as Iqbal Ahmed Khan – An elderly conservative Muslim traveling along with his wife, Najma. He ends up as one of the victims of the sectarian violence.
• Surekha Sikri as Najma Ahmed Khan – The dutiful and loving wife of Iqbal, Najma perishes in the riots when she comes in defence of her husband.
• Anjan Dutt as Cohen – He is responsible for diverting the attention of the Hindu mob, in self-defence, towards the old Muslim couple. Thereafter, he is petrified thinking that he may also have been killed by the mob who could wrongly identify him as a Muslim, since he is circumcised.
• Bharat Kaul as Rajesh Arora – The police officer responsible for controlling and maintaining the law and order in the riot-stricken area. He gets acquainted with the bus passengers and helps the Iyer 'couple' find a place to stay during the curfew.
• Niharika Seth, Riddhi Basu, Richa Vyas, Eden Das, Jishnu Sengupta as Khushbu, Mala, Sonali, Amrita, Akash – An enthusiastic young group of friends riding the bus.

Development

Aparna Sen, a noted actress and director of Bengali cinema, made her debut as a director with the English film 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981). Mr. and Mrs. Iyer was her second film in English. She hoped to write a simple romantic story, but it shaped out to be a relationship drama in the backdrop of sectarian violence. Sen came up with the background of the story in the aftermath of 9/11 and the 2002 Gujarat riots. In an interview, Sen stated that the omnipresent, circumstantial violence in the film was only to serve as a strain in the script which aimed to show how the relationship evolves between two people who are forced to be together under trying times. She stated that the time frame of the film was set after the attacks on the Parliament of India on 13 December 2001.

In an interview at the screening at the Locarno Film Festival, Sen revealed that Konkona was involved in the pre-production research, and she suggested the title. About the cinematographer Gautam Ghose, Aparna Sen said that they had a good rapport and that Ghose, himself an acclaimed director, was one of the best cinematographers she knew. Ghose, in reply, said that he hoped to give his best for the film and thus contribute to their friendship.

Casting

Rahul Bose's work in English, August (1994) and Split Wide Open (1999) made Aparna Sen feel that he was a good, controlled and intelligent actor. After a costume and a makeup test, he was chosen for the character of Raja Chawdhury. Sen admitted that Bose's work was up to the mark, and working with him was a wonderful experience. She told in an interview that Konkona Sen Sharma's abilities as a sensitive actress fetched her the role of Meenakshi Iyer. Konkona said that she chose this film as she was interested in Indian films made in English, and was reluctant to do regular commercial films. Sen had penned the elderly Muslim woman's character bearing Surekha Sikri in mind. Eventually Sikri and the author and playwright Bhisham Sahni were cast to play the roles of the Muslim couple in the film. Santhanam, the infant son of Meenakshi Iyer in the film is Sen's grand niece.

Aparna Sen chose English as the film's narrative since the characters are linguistically diverse. She had to make sure that the characters spoke in English with their regional accent. Konkona admitted in an interview that playing the role of a Tamil Brahmin did not come easy. The director forced her to visit Chennai (where the major language is Tamil) for two weeks to research her character. She also said that she had learned many characteristics, nuances and mannerisms native to Tamilian housewives. She took a close look at Iyer lifestyles and customs in and around Mylapore, a cultural hub in Chennai. She attempted listening to recorded conversations in Iyer households to get a suitable Tamil accent.

Filming

The production commenced in December 2001. Sen chose to keep the geographical setting unstated because she felt that it was a journey that could take place anywhere. The film was shot in the Himalayan foothills of northern West Bengal. The producers provided a state-of-the-art camera from Chennai's Prasad Studios to ensure that the shooting crew was technically better equipped. Rupali Mehta, from Triplecom Productions, the co-producer oversaw the crew of over 100 complete the production schedule in 50 days. The production team resorted to certain cost-cutting measures to ensure they committed fewer mistakes. For example, they had organised a workshop for the actors to avoid mistakes while filming.

While filming in Jalpaiguri, Sen got embroiled in a controversy for damages caused to the forest bungalow, a heritage property, where a portion of filming was done. She admitted that, to give the bungalow a haunted look, they "... sprayed slush on the walls and plastered cobwebs all over the place." However, she claimed that the place was cleaned up after the completion of their shoot.

Following objections from the local police, two scenes were removed by producers from the version of the film screened in the city of Mumbai. One scene showed a Hindu man saying—using profanity—that Muslims should be sent back to Pakistan; the other featured a policeman using obscenities with a communal undertone. The police felt both scenes were too "provocative" for a "communally sensitive" city. However, for the rest of India, the film was screened in its entirety.

The film had only modest box office success; domestically, it made 7.3 million rupees in its first release. However, thanks to its low budget and the spread of multiplexes in India, it brought in some revenue. Furthermore, the contemporary trend in the Indian television channels is to showcase films within months of their release. This trend helped modest box-office successes such as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer to get additional thrust to their financial returns. Indeed, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer was one of the first films that led to reworking of the business models for small films in India. In addition, Triplecom Productions sold the dubbed version in Italy for $20,000. A trade analysis by Rediff.com suggested that small-budget films such as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer did not compromise on marketing budgets, instead they put efforts in marketing themselves more innovatively.

Special screenings and awards

In 2002