The first thing that comes to your mind after the lights are turned on when the screening ends is that it was an amazing concept that somewhere down the line went awry for inexplicable reasons.
But it is also not that the film turns completely bland.Its just about the expectations, the movie itself creates mammoth expectations and to some extent fails to live upto them.
*THE PLOT:
Life in a.Metro** is a movie about a few characters living in a Metro(Mumbai in this case) and there lives that are intertwined with each other.There is a married couple facing marital problems and there married life being in dumps.Also the husband is having an extra marital affair with an office employee, there is a an employee who is keen on resorting to shortcuts to make it big in life.and uses his flat’s key to oblige his seniors for their sexual expeditions who in turn favour him through their reccomendations for promotions.Then their is a thirty something single and virgin girl(oops woman!) who is keen on finding a right guy for herself even if thats through some marriage portals. She meets a thirty something guy(38 actually and pretends to be 35.) who also desperately wants to get married and have sex.
Also in the story is an old romantic pair, where the man comes back from abroad to be with his long parted love to spend the last few yrs of his life with her.
And in a nutshell its a story about all these people, with whom you can identify with in some way or the other, their problems, troubles and turbulations and how their life shapes up eventually.
*THE REVIEW:
*Life in a metro works for some reasons and does not for some other reasons.The first thing that goes in favour of metro is that all the characters are identifiable in some way or the other, the situations are familiar and seem straight out of life.
Metro is not a bad film at all.Infact Metro starts off brilliantly and it just seems that you are in for a cinematic treat.But just when all seems well and you have enjoyed the first few reels and are enganged in the goings on the film starts to lose its sheen. The interest is replaced by restlessness in some cases simply because the story loses its edge and is not all that interesting any more.Also there is a sense of deja vu in some cases, like where Konkana catches her boyfriend red handed and his true identity is disclosed- you have seen it before in page 3 and with the same actor.
Also there are some stories that are convincing and some are not so convincing and they are in this order strictly-
The story that tops the list is definitely Irrfan khan-konkana sen.It wont be wrong to say that this story- although not the core and crux of the film, is the life of the film.This story provides the audience with some of the most interesting moments in the film especially when they both are shopping for irrfan’s marriage and also the penultimate scene when they both are having beer on the beach, sitting in the rocks.
Also not far behind is the kay kay- shilpa track. They seem to be the most realistic and straight out of life people.
Then there are the Kangana-Sharman and Shiney Shilpa prions that are both good except for the way they end.It is at this point where you realize that the writer who is anurag basu himself got conventional and went for stereotypical endings in both the cases.They seem to be too formulaic and the kangana-sharman part atleast is too filmy.The writer simply played a little to safe here.The culminations to these stories could have been much more impactful had the writer been a little more brave.
And one plot that needs a special mention is the Dharmendra-Nafisa ali part not because it is exceptional but because of the way it has been manhandled.This is the story that starts off exceptionally well(probably the best beginning amongst the lot) and ends in the most bizzare manner as if it was rushed up probably because the director went short on ideas as to what should be its beffiting end. This plot ranges from being the most refreshing(the station scene where dharmendra crosses tracks and jumps up the platform to meet nafisa) to being the most over the top(when they both elope on a bike).This plot could have been the highlight of the film had better attention been paid to its writing and conceptualization.
As far as the performances are concerned, the film is embellished with some superior performances, and they form the highlight of the film. Irrfan khan and konkana alongwith shilpa shetty are sure to win accolades for the film.Infact this is unarguably the best performance of shilpa shetty to date. Not far behind are kay kay, sharman joshi, dharmendra an nafisa ali in that order respectively.Shiney ahuja does not get much scope.Kangana is the only one that lags behind to a certain extent.She can not speak english to save her lifeand it can safely be said there could have been many better replacements for her.This role just wasnt meant for her.
The direction is another ace for the film and Anurag basu proves that GANGSTER was not a fluke, but the writing could have been much better.
The music of the film is pleasant but comes nowhere near that of gangster’s.
On the whole with METRO Anurag Basu had the chance to make a path breaking movie, but he failed to catch it completely and faltered with the writing.Still the movie is worth a dekko.