Life in a Metro - My views...

That modern India has become mature enough to make and positively accept movies that are a reflection of the current state of society has come as a pleasant surprise to me.

Yes, movies like Mother India and Zanjeer did depict the malaise that was prevailing in India at that time. But that was yesteryear. Movies like these have been few and far in between – Rang De Basanti being the most recent example.

Being such an integral part of the “metro” culture, it was possible for me to understand the characters pretty well – and I felt that given such a huge starcast, the director did an excellent job of etching the characters, played by an exceptionally talented star cast - Irrfan Khan and Kay Kay being the obvious standouts. Sherman Joshi was also given reasonable screen time to prove himself yet again. Need I mention Konkana Sen? She, Irrfan Khan and Kay Kay have become brands of quality cinema in India. Shiney was superb too…I only wish he starts doing roles which showed other sides of his acting skills. He seems to be stuck in the I-am-always-so-screwed-in-life roles.

The music is excellent and the way the band (Pritam) keeps appearing sporadically throughout the film is very stylish and entertaining. Someone mentioned that this was inspired by Woody Allen movies. Maybe, but this is inspiration in a very positive way. The camera work was decent, but then such films are not made with an emphasis on cinematography. One of the critical success factors of such multi-story movies is the editing. And full marks to this film for this. The editing was extremely crisp and the stories were seamlessly bound together.

But let me to cut to the chase (whew!), the film shows what’s happening in metro India – infidelity being the most pervasive theme throughout the film. It’s not as if infidelity is a new phenomenon, but yes I tend to think that current lifestyles make it easier, which is alos what the fim implicitly shows - the heavy workloads and crazy ambitions are causing people to enter a vicious cycle where people spend more time at their workplaces, and lesser quality time at home, disrutping their relationships and making them look for other avenues...

The film ends on a happy-happy note – but let’s not kid ourselves; do relationships in real life necessarily see the light at the end of a dark, tumultuous tunnel? You take the call!