Bombay Talkies Review

One Line Review: 'Bombay Talkies' is a movie lacking entertainment quotient. Watch it only to see the excellent direction.

Positive Points: Direction, Character Performances

Plot: 'Bombay Talkies' contains four short stories directed by Bollywood's ace directors like Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap.

The first story is directed by Karan Johar. A sexually inhibited wife Gayatri (Rani Mukherjee) lives with her successful political analyst husband Dev (Randeep Hooda) who is not at all interested in his marital rights. Gayatri's junior at work, Ashwin(Saqib Saleem) who openly pronounces him as a gay wins Gayatri's heart with his over familiar acts. The problem arises when Gayatri invites Ashwin over dinner at her place.

The second story is directed by Dibakar Banerjee. Purandar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a struggling guy from the lower middle class Maharashtrian family who lives in a Lalbaug Chawl. He has tried his hand at everything to earn his living. Purandar, a guy next door happened to be an excellent actor as well. Life takes a turn for Purandar when he gets an offer for a small role from a big director.

The third story is directed by Zoya Akhtar. The story depicts a young lad Vicky (Naman Jain) who looks normal but is obsessed with Sheila aka Katrina Kaif and her dancing. He wants to become Sheila and dance like her. The problem arises when he thinks that he is a girl trapped inside the body of a boy and his controlling father (Ranvir Shorey) wants him to become a tough guy.

The fourth story is directed by Anurag Kashyap. The story narrates about Vijay (Vineet Kumar Singh) a young guy from Allahbad who wants to meet Amitabh Bachchan for his father's sake. He visits Mumbai and struggles hard to meet the legendary actor. Does he become successful to meet a busy star like Big B?

Direction And Other Technical Aspects: The direction of each story is very good. It has to be good because, the short stories are directed by the four ace directors of Bollywood. Dibakar Banerjee shows realistic story, while Karan Johar handles a very sensitive issue. Anurag Kashyap unfolds an emotional bond between a father and son very tenderly at the same time Zoya Akhtar unveils the troubled kids' life, her artistic bent of mind unfolds the story well. But still, overall the film lacks entertainment. It has nothing to do with the 100 years of Indian cinema. There is no link shown between 100 years of Indian cinema and all the four stories. The casting of actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Rani Mukherjee is good but still a layman could not connect with all the stories. The film totally lacks romanticism and gives a feeling of nervousness at the end as the viewer could not understand the theme behind these four short films. The overall effort to provide the Eulogy to Bollywood seems to be wasted.

Performances: Nawazuddin Siddiqui becomes successful in evoking the sympathy from his role. He proves that he is a genius actor. Rani Mukherjee looks stunningly beautiful and does her part well. Her dialogue delivery is as usual perfect and proves her acting capabilities well. Other actors from Naman Jain to Sadashiv Amrapurkar have done their roles fine.

Music: Music director Amit Trivedi has done an average job. The songs have a short shelf life and could not be remembered after leaving the cinema hall. But, kudos the lyricists Swanand Kirkire and Amitabh Bhattacharya who have penned down an awesome and thoughtful lyrics.

Final Verdict: 'Bombay Talkies' is a movie to be watched only for the best direction. Don't watch it for entertainment value as it has nothing to do with the entertainment.