Life in a Metro

Hindi movies are going places. I heard the songs of Life in a Metro perhaps six months ago and as expected of my tin-ear, promptly forgot about them, except for the title of the film – which was a bit different for a Hindi film. The songs came back from the dead, a couple of months ago when my more sensitive other half resurrected them from a dusty back-up drive, wrote a CD and made it our traveling companion. Have been hooked on the songs, composed by Pritam with lyrics by Sayeed Qadri, ever since.

Then came the quest to get hold of the movie and watch it. The mission was completed successfully this weekend. It is a slickly produced version of life in India’s primero uno metro, Bombay (or Mumbai as it is known now.) The film deals with the emotions and sentiments in the lives of its nine protagonists, all whose stories are intertwined in a way, although the characters themselves are not aware of these connections in the beginning.

What impresses me about this movie is its photography, music, editing and direction. What takes away some of the glory is its plot-lines, some of which looks like they may have been borrowed from some Hollywood originals. Shilpa Shetty, Kay Kay Menon, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sharman Joshi, Shiney Ahuja, Kangana Ranaut, Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali and Irfan Khan play the nine main characters who inhabit the four interconnected plots.

Although it might go against majority’s idea of how a movie should be made, I loved the inclusion of the band who composed the music for the film in the song scenes. It gave the songs a music video effect, not bad considering this is not the run-of-the-mill Bollywood movie. Life in a Metro is one of the movies which catalogs the evolution of Bollywood cinema. It might not be mind blowing, but it makes you aware what’s blowin’ in the wind and gives an idea where that wind might take you.