Cast: Rani Mukerji, Randeep Hooda, Saqib Saleem, Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Director: Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee
Rating: 3/5
A treat for cinema lovers
100 years of Indian cinema, and 'Bombay Talkies' promises to be a tribute to what we call 'Bollywood'.
Four super-talented directors Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Dibakar Banerjee have come together to make 'Bombay Talkies', a treat for movie lovers.
Short story concept has never worked in Bollywood so far, but with such creative heads put together, one hopes that it would break the stereotype.
Karan Johar once again deals with the issues of 'homosexuality'; Rani Mukerji and Randeep Hooda play a career-oriented couple, who are leading a mundane life, but pretend to be happy. Their life changes when Rani meets a colleague at work (Saqib Saleem) and then, the unexpected happens.
Karan Johar, who is often labeled for making the same kind of movies, expands his horizons with 'Bombay Talkies'. 'Ajeeb daastan hai yeh' is the song that sums up the essence of his story; the voice of the street kid singing the song at the railway station will touch the hearts of the audiences.
Randeep is good, Rani looks real and plays her character well. Saqib is the surprise package; this is his third movie, and the actor who has proved his histrionics in the story, will certainly leave a mark with the audiences. Saqib is here to stay for a long time. Kudos to Karan for trying something different, though we must say that the storyline was quite in his comfort zone.
Dibakar Banerjee is known for making movies that are real and this time too, he deals with the life of a lower middle-class man played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Nawaz plays a man who has buried his dreams of becoming an actor to make ends meets and support his wife and daughter. However, one fine day he gets an opportunity to play an extra during a Ranbir Kapoor shoot, and that turns out to be the happiest moment of his life. Dibakar's story is based on Satyajit Ray's 'Patol Babu Film Star', and Nawazuddin Siddiqui does full justice to the beautiful story. He once again proves his prowess, especially in the scene when he narrates the entire incident to his daughter.
Zoya Akhtar is known for commercial cinema, and for the first time she has opted to do real cinema. Zoya has scripted the story about a little boy, who does not fit the profile of a cookie-cutter kid, who is generally inclined towards sports, instead the character wants to break the conventional rules for a growing kid, and dreams of being a dancer. Zoya deals with a very sensitive issue, but is not able to do justice to the subject as somewhere you feel the story is half-baked.
Anurag Kashyap is one of the most promising filmmakers, and his story 'Murabba' captures the essence of India where stars are considered to be no less than God for their fans. His story starts in Allahabad where a son played by Vineet Singh starts his journey to Bombay to fulfill the last wish of his father played by Sudhir Pandey. The scene when Big B appears is shot quite beautifully and Anurag manages to extract great performances out of Vineet Singh and Sudhir Pandey. The best story was definitely saved for the last.
The 'Bombay Talkies' song in the end is the perfect cherry on the cake, and it has covered stars from different generations. However, Salman, Ajay, Kajol, Abhishek and Aishwarya, some of the biggest names are missing from this tribute song which would leave a sour taste among the fans.
Overall, 'Bombay Talkies' is a nice film, a different one for sure.