Weekend is here once again. Picture ka mood bana and off we went for a movie. and what better a film for me than a film about my city. Metro. Actually the full name of the film is "Life in a Metro.". In this, film Metro is Bombay. The film deals with lives of people living in the Metro.
Metro the film, will shock you, It will bring out a smile, It will make you sad and also bring out a burst of laughter. Moreover it will force you to think. This film does not have Govinda..
So, please remember to take your brains with you when you go to watch this film..
Lets start with the star cast. This is more of an Actor's film rather than a Star's film. Lots of good actors in this. We have stalwarts like Kay Kay Menon, Irfan Khan, Konkana Sen, Shiny Ahuja.. Then we have Sharman Joshi, Kangana and last but not the least, our girl Shilpa Shetty. ( :-) :-)... OK stop smiling ... back to the review, please.. )
In fact the film start with Shilpa in the first frame...Everything should have a good start, eh?? ;)
The casting is good. Each one fits the role they play and they all have played it well. The film also has Dharmendra and Nafisa Ali. The film needed a beautiful 'older' woman and we do not have anyone who can fit the role apart from Nafisa and opposite her they wanted a recognized face.. a man who has an onscreen appearance of a person who can speak his mind,... can add a bit of star value and Dharmendra get the passing mark for it and fit in.. The crew is ready.. Pull up the anchor..Ahoy!! Welcome aboard.. Lets sail......
A brief introduction of the characters. Lets start with the person who will make you sit up and smile (if not laugh), each time he would appear on screen.. Irfan Khan.
Irfan (Monty) is desperately seeking bridegroom. Actively looking.. Very actively looking.. A person who speaks a nanosecond after he thinks. You would think why does he have to say all that he thinks.. He can keep some things to himself..:)).. People like him we meet often.. and its people like him that are like the little slices of raw mangoes (kairi) in the bhelpuri of our life. :-)..
If Irfan is actively looking Konkana Sen, is not far behind.. All of 28yrs and desperate to settle down. Konkana has the services of Shaadi.Com going for her.. Shaadi.com by the way is one of the sponsors for this film. Konkana undoubtedly one of the most brilliant actress of our times, shows what a brilliant actress she is by getting into the characters and giving such a natural performance. She could be called today's Smita Patil.. but she is better.. she can do comedy too...
Sharman is a call centre executive determined to move ahead in life.. Win the rat race of life and
Kangana is the girl he is in love with,.. Kangana is his colleague.. Kangana too is good in her part...
Shiny Ahuja is a budding theatre actor who tries to find love in a married woman. A lone man without a actual counterpart in this movie..:-) Shiny as usual is good..
Kay Kay is a top manager in a call centre... Married, has a cute kid and a beautiful devoted woman for a wife.. Life is perfect... But Kay Kay is still searching for happiness... and he finds that
happiness in the company of a 20-something girl. In whose company he "Feels young again".. From 10000 feet bird's eye view, A wonderful, devoted wife, A great job, Cute kid - Life seems to be perfect.. So what is he searching more for??? What he had already was perfect..Perfection ko improve karna muskil hota hai.. But why the hell is he trying to improve perfection!!!!!!!!!!!! Earthlings Earthlings.. they want more and more and more and more.. Thank God I am from Mars.
Shilpa Shetty(Shikha) plays Kay Kay's wife.. A devoted wife and mother... ...and still she is kept wanting for the respect and love she deserves and seeks from her partner for life..
Shikha too at some point of time, derails, and goes to seek love elsewhere.. but comes back on track at the right time... Shikha is what we can call the modern day Indian woman, with all the values intact... boleto like having all the qualities inherited from base class CBlackAndWhiteDays_Indian_Woman and having new elements of modernity too. In real life..people like her are difficult to find these days.. Maybe that's what makes them special...:-)
Shilpa Shetty's best performance till date.. She as usual looks stunning..She look wonderfully slim in the sari... This is one more mangalorian who seems to have given up on "kori-rutti" long long back.. Kuch pane ke liye kuch khona padta hai.. And what greater sacrifice for a mangalorian, than staying away from 'Kori Rutti' ;-)
By the way all girls look splendid in sarees.. and when they have long hair.... but when you ask .. why don't they wear sarees more often.. "Oh!! Its so cumbersome to wear.. to difficult to carry on".. Why don't they keep long hair.. "Oh! its so difficult to maintain".... Excuses..Excuses…oh!! Come on girl!!!. (Can you please get back to the review please!!!!! Distracted fellow!!!!!)..
Ok back to the review...
Metro the film, will force you to think about a lot of things.. everyday issues.. It depicts the real life problem we face….like.. What do we need out of a marriage?? what do we need from life? Are we compromising our values to get what we want?? Are these needs really and truly what we need??
Serious topic but surprisingly made very light by interlacing with lots of fun... Difficult to believe? I agree.. but the truth nevertheless..One more thing which strikes when watching the film and I heard Sunil Shetty say it once.. "Previously, people were loved and things were used.. Nowadays things are loved and people are used".. So aptly describes the situation today...Well said Anna.
Bottomline: Metro is quite entertaining.. Go for it..... he is certainly in a rush... He would do all it takes to win.. and reach his dreams..Sharman would make you laugh as usual, he will shock you too.. you will pity him and also appreciate his dream.. all this when you have 7 other characters to watch.. Sharman does a great job.
Guru : A term used to refer a teacher. Indeed this film does teach us a couple of things. Guru comes from the renowned Madras Talkies. A production house which has given us great films like Roja, Bombay, Yuva and now GURU. A couple of decades ago a man thought of making a film with some 20 odd children as the main cast. Handling children is always difficult and making a film with them was a challenge in itself.. The film released and went on to become a classic. Baby Shalini became a household name. The film was ‘Anjali’ and the maker, Mani Ratnam. If this person can make a classic with more than a dozen children, what would he do of he makes a film with seasoned and professional actors such as Abhishek, Mithun and Aishwarya? He would create a masterpiece and name it GURU.
I believe (with my limited understanding of films) that one of the most important things in any good film is the casting. Mani Ratnam is a veteran in making good films and get this right straightaway. Guru needed a person who is street-smart (someone like Bunty), who had a fire inside him burning, much like a rebel.. (like Lallan in yuva). A person who can appear to be in control and have a screen presence. Now with all these things who could possible fit the bill… Abhishek, I believe fits it quite right. When you see him on screen it appears that someone has taken a backup of 
Amitabh a couple of decades ago and now has restored him back now…. J Unrealisitic backup and restore eh.. You are right.. For such magical things we have Mani Ratnam and for other realistic backup and restore we have Symantec BackupExec. ;-) I think this has to be Abhishek’s best performance till date. Even better than ‘Lallan’ in Yuva. Mithun comes back in a big banner film after a long time. You think of it, its rather funny eh. The person who was called ‘Garibon ka Amitabh’ now share the same screen space with asli Amitabh’s son.. ….. Mithun does not need to give yet another National award winning performance (he has already given two national award winning performances). Actually he does not have much scope. But whatever he has got, he has delivered with conviction.
Madhavan and Vidya Balan are there too.. They have relatively smaller parts, but these natural actors do full justice to their roles.
Then there is our girl, Ashie. I would not write much about her or it may come out as baised… ;-)But again no one could have fit the role better than her. The film starts with Guru in an empty stadium saying something. This scene is revisited at the end. So at this moment do not pay attention to Abhishiek, instead pay attention to A R Rehman’s voice in the background. What he has to say forms the crux of the film. Guru is a story of a boy who fails academically and opts to go abroad to work; much to the dislike of his father who is a headmaster of the school and wants his son to complete and do well in his studies. Guru gets the permission from his dad and goes to Turkey. Here Life teaches the lad many things in its real time classroom. No theory.. all hand-on practicals.. and the lad learns well. Guru comes back to India and marries Sujata. Ashie is ‘Sujata’ in this film. Guru has big dreams and comes to Bombay to fulfill them. He struggles to gain foothold in this city of dreams and goes on to become one of the topmost businessmen of the country. This is the story from say… a 10000 feet high bird’s eye view. I would hate to tell you more and take the thunder away.. So go watch the movie… Thumbs Up .. taste the thunder… Rather than telling the story, I would like to write about some other things which would help you to appreciate the film more. Let me try and bring it out for you. 
The film’s 1st song is in Instanbul, Turkey. We have Mallika shaking all she has to the tunes of “Maiyya Maiyya”. I do not think anyone could have suited better for this song than her.. As I told casting is perfect. ;-) The tune is close to Arabic and apt for the locale. A.R.rehman scores..
The next song has our girl singing in the rain in a village in some part of Gujarat.. Mani has converted our local village to a visual spectacle and to add to that he has put Ashie in that.. Visual SEE PLUS PLUS.. Ashie looks just as innocent as the role requires.. Singing and playing in the rains…You will love this song.. Its been shot beautifully. Songs are placed at the right places.. there should be 4 songs in all. 3 are good.. You can take your break during the 4th song (‘Ek pe ek free’). The rest of the while you are going to be glued to your seat..
Mani is a expert in keeping the viewers glued to their seat when they are watching his movies... for everything else.. we have Fevicol… The level of detailing that has gone in making this movie is remarkable. I could not find a single item in the film that could have been available, in India, only after 1980. All the things, places, sets used; depict the time when the movie is set, appropriately. Madhavan wears bell-bottoms. His shirt pocket has flaps – a popular trend seen during late 70’s- early 80’s. Vidya balan is usually in salwar kameez. Abhishiek Bachchan wears safari when he is not in suit. The phone instruments used have the rotary dial. The local number written on top of the phone has 4 digits. Understandably as at that time phone was not a household things.. Far few people (rich) had the luxury of having a telephone at their home. The trading accounts which were used to be kept were all in hindi. The number on the telephone is in Hindi numerals.. Detailing at its best. Bombay is shown at its best times.. Of course we were not born at that time…..so it’s a delight to see Bombay as it once was.. ‘BEST” trams running along the roads, Less traffic, wide roads.. Maaaaaaaast…
Other notable things is the onscreen chemistry between Abhishiek and Ashie.. Its great.. She plays a typical India Wife (of the 80s). Sorry but the mention of time was important to make the statement correct.. Achcha lagta hai usko dekhke… Lagta hai…… Agar koi ho, to aisi hi ho… utni khubsoorat nahi ho, to bhi tension nahi…Uska bat karne ka daang.. kitna samjhdaari se.. aaste.. aur woh friendly smile.. Kitna respect ata hai usko dekhke… aur aajkal ke kuch logon ko dekha to.. akkha memory ka waat lag jata hai…. Anyways… Guru’s story on the whole is pretty much close to Dhirubhai Ambani’s. But Mani denies that, it actually is the same. Maybe we can take it as “Patro ke naam unke bhavnao ke kadar karte hui badal diye gaye hai”.. ;) Guru's company is called Shakti corporation.. and guess what, Logo of Shakti corporation bears close resemblance to logo to Symantec Corporation.. J Why would Guru choose such a logo for his company.. Unche Log Unchi Pasand!!!...;) hmm Maybe.. Khair.. aage badhte hai..
The dialogues are great .. Pay close attention to the dialogues and the context in which they are spoken. It would help you to appreciate it better. I would hate to tell you a dialogue up front.. but here is an example.. background is, Madhavan is a reporter who is out to get evidence against Guru for the alleged malpractices being carried out in his hugely successful business. Guru says to him.. “Yeh suit.. yeh wazan.. sab bohat mehnat se aya hai… Guru se ladna hai..to mehnaat se ladna.. guru banke ladna..……………par guru sirf ek hai..aur woh main hoon.. “ Humour is sprinkled throughtout the film. The humour is not in the funny lines but how they are delivered and the timing.. Abhishiek and Ashie do a splendid job.. This movie does try to bring out some positive messages also…I could identify a couple.. Maybe you could do better.. Guru is a person who does not understand the word ‘NO’. He believes nothing is impossible,.. If something cannot be done straight.. find a work around.. Nike.. Just Do it.. He also did not know how to get disheartened…
When he returns back from turkey, he informs his father that he would start his own business.. His father is shocked that his son has left behind a high paying secure job and is thinking of starting a 
business of which he has no experience.. risky… His father tries to dissuade him and says painfully discouraging things. All this does not distract or disappoint him.. He goes ahead to fulfill his dreams.. In Bombay, when he is to start his business.. he gets abuses from traders and has to struggle to gain a foothold in the market…Everytime.. when strong hands try to push him down… Guru puts the spring of his tremendous positive attitude under him .. and forces the resistance to be removed ……so that he can rise.. and soar well beyond everyone’s dreams…The film teaches us criticism can be good or bad; depending on how we take it.. how we handle it.. I do not think it is necessary to suggest a film like this. It is just too obvious. If you have free time, and want to see a good film, you may most likely would want to choose GURU… diplomacy eh? Sidha bolna GURU accha hai, jaake dekho… I hope you enjoy the movie…
Irfan (Monty) is desperately seeking bridegroom. Actively looking.. Very actively looking.. A person who speaks a nanosecond after he thinks. You would think why does he have to say all that he thinks.. He can keep some things to himself..:)).. People like him we meet often.. and its people like him that are like the little slices of raw mangoes (kairi) in the bhelpuri of our life. :-)..
By the way all girls look splendid in sarees.. and when they have long hair.... but when you ask .. why don't they wear sarees more often.. "Oh!! Its so cumbersome to wear.. to difficult to carry on".. Why don't they keep long hair.. "Oh! its so difficult to maintain".... Excuses..Excuses…oh!! Come on girl!!!. (Can you please get back to the review please!!!!! Distracted fellow!!!!!)..
