- Nikhil Bhagwat
Bombay Talkies
Cast: Rani Mukherjee, Randeep Hooda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Saquib Saleem and others
Directors: Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar & Zoya Akhtar
Year of Release: 2013
Rating: **
In the Indian film industry, there have been movies made by multiple directors and with multiple stories squeezed up into one. “David” and “Dus Kahaniya” are just some examples . These movies have not worked. Will “Bombay Talkies” be better? Each short in this movie is approximately twenty to thirty minutes in duration.
Karan Johar’s “Bombay Talkies” is about a relationship between Rani Mukherjee who plays a journalist and Randeep Hooda who is a TV news anchor. Saquib Saleem is shown to be a journalist in the same company as Rani. What will happen to Rani and Randeep’s relationship?
The acting is good. The problem lies in the routine screenplay and story. It is nothing new or unusual for a Hindi movie.
The most sincere effort, in my opinion, is by Dibakar Banerjee. He has adapted a short story by Satyajit Ray. It is a story of a failed entrepreneur, who is also not a very renowned stage actor. He comes across a blink and miss role in a film. What is really enjoyable to see here is the explanation he gives his family post the appearance, that it gives him complete satisfaction. Nawazuddin Siddiqui gets into the skin of the character and gives a fantastic performance.
How many of us wish to become an artist in our dreams? That is exactly what Zoya Akhtar has shown. He plays a boy who is forced to practice football by his father. His burning ambition has been to become a dancer since the day he watches the song “Shiela Ki Jawani” in a cinema hall. He has a dream in which Katrina Kaif appears as a princess. So, the movie in short is about perusing whatever excites an individual and freedom. Have I seen this before?
The screenplay and fantasy-like story might incite five-year olds to laugh and clap. In terms of acting, Ranvir Shorey who plays the boy’s father is okay and so are the lead boy and his sister.
Amitabh Bachchan is an idol of a father living in Allahabad. He has an eccentric wish of having the megastar taste his wife’s murrabba. His son travels to Mumbai from Allahabad to meet Amitabh Eventually he does get to meet him and make him taste it. The paper-thin link between the four stories is the love of Indian cinema. But it is not as exciting to be a feature film. Technically the movie’s production standards are nothing novel to cheer about. Almost all Indian movies these days are technically well made.
“Bombay Talkies” aims to celebrate the hundred years of Indian cinema. The end credit song is filmed well, but isn’t good enough to make patrons watch the movie. If you HAVE to watch it, wait for the telecast. I give a rating of two stars: one for Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s performance and the other for the credit song at the end. Otherwise, I am disappointed.