Life in a ............. Metro
45 years ago, my cousin rejected an otherwise perfectly matched tambram girl in marriage, just for the reason that she was a nurse. me, being a young teenager then, could not understand his reason, 'well she cleans the private parts of men & sees them naked'. to me, then, as is now, nursing is one of the nobler professions in the world, and i would have had no hesitation to have married a nurse.
fortunately, in this movie, female virginity is not what it was, atleast the way it is portrayed. apparently indian men have become more sensible. somewhat. may not quite. maybe two rules for the two genders?
that is the beauty of this movie. it displays the varying values, which is what current india is.
the movie is made up of 4 stories.
the most sweet syrupy is dharmendra/nafisa ali (god she is so beautiful). it is a story of love lost, and recovered after 40 years. it is also probably dharm's first onscreen deep kiss. such things did not happen when he was in his prime. the reaction of nafisa's son on her decision to live-in with dharm is hilarious. i guess it would have been mine too, knowing how out of focus and false values, most of us, emigrant indians have.
the most satisfying couple irfan khan (ever my favourite - how does such an ugly guy get so successful? proves that bollywood can do better if it really wants) /konkona sen sharma. the girl is simply loveable. my wife likes her, and till this movie i was somewhat hesitant in my grading of her. she gets an A+ in this movie.
sharman joshi/kangana raunut is melodramatic & is the weakest link in the movie. this part is a take off of that great hollywood movie, 'the apartment' which introduced shirley maclaine to us, and fred macmurray/jack lemmon in the lead men role. kk menon is the bad guy here, equivalent to fred macmurray, but like all indian men, gets away with murder (atleast close to it)
the main story with shilpa shetty/kk menon & shiney ahuja is so-so. this is my first shilpa movie, and i did not find her acting of the calibre of vidya balan or rani mukherjee or priyanka chopra. she looks like a modern version of sharmila tagore, and has the same set of mediocre acting skills. good she married rich. kk menon has a role cut for him. some guys are keant for villain roles and kk is one. shiney is ok, but i cannot get over the fact that he is spending time now in jail for raping his servant maid. what an idiot!! i am for once, impressed with indian justice, and for one of the few occassions, where money could not buy justice.
i could never understand, why those 4 guys interrupt the flow of the movie constantly with their singing. the songs could have been played in the background, as there is no lip sync ops in this movie. i guess it is a chance for this band led by pritam. anyway it is the first of its kind for a desi movie.
konkona and irfan got awards for their role in best supporting roles.
i liked the movie. would recommend atleast one visit for any time. enjoy