Four directors, four short movies, slices of human life, showing the impact of Bollywood on people. So Bombay Talkies is a tribute to Bollywood and what these movies mean to Indians from different backgrounds and social groups. No unnecessary glitter or item songs, all four directors tried honest and realistic cinema.
In the first, Karan Johar tries something completely different from what he has done till now and succeeds very well. This is the best treatment of gay issues I have seen in Bollywood as of now. Randeep Hooda, Saquib Salem and Rani Mukherjee, all three are brilliant, still Rani would take the cake. One wonders if Johar had been this brave throughout his career, he could have belted out some classics, instead of meaningless candy floss love stories.
The second by Dibakar Banerjee is the best. If one honestly checks the variety of roles Nawazuddin Siddiqui has played with aplomb, one would have to concede that he has been the best actor of Bollywood during the past 2 years or so and definitely among the top 3 actors currently. Please note I am saying, "actor" and not "star". The latter group could receive acting lessons from him. The mundane life of an aspiring actor, his daughter and wife for whom he is a hero, his pet Emu who would give eggs one day, perhaps symbolic of his immaterialized dreams and ambition, his confusions and what happens when one day by accident he gets to act with a real star!
Banerjee's direction has shades of Satyajit Ray, on whose short story the film has been based.
The third one by Zoya Akhtar explores the pressures parents put kids into and the stereotypes that run through our society. A sensitive one, again acted very well by a child, but gets a bit slow in between. How the kid who does not want to play football but dance like "Shiela", who idolizes Katrina Kaif and how he finds a way to chase his dreams, forms a overall very good story. Zoya, like Karan has to be applauded for the choice of subject and direction.
In the last one, Anurag Kashyap also breaks his mould and makes the most "Bollywoodish" movie of the four, though sprinkled with real life like sequences, that is a characteristic of all his movies. How a simple man from Allahabad follows family tradition and puts in so much effort and pain to get home made "murabba" tasted by Amitabh Bachhan, so that his father could live longer! Vineet Kumar Singh has fine acting skills and brings in simplicity and humour together very well. The scene where he meets Big B, while the latter's dialogues play in the background, is my favourite from the entire movie.
The movie ends with a not so great song, but the ensemble of stars does impress!
3.25 stars out of 5!
In the first, Karan Johar tries something completely different from what he has done till now and succeeds very well. This is the best treatment of gay issues I have seen in Bollywood as of now. Randeep Hooda, Saquib Salem and Rani Mukherjee, all three are brilliant, still Rani would take the cake. One wonders if Johar had been this brave throughout his career, he could have belted out some classics, instead of meaningless candy floss love stories.
The second by Dibakar Banerjee is the best. If one honestly checks the variety of roles Nawazuddin Siddiqui has played with aplomb, one would have to concede that he has been the best actor of Bollywood during the past 2 years or so and definitely among the top 3 actors currently. Please note I am saying, "actor" and not "star". The latter group could receive acting lessons from him. The mundane life of an aspiring actor, his daughter and wife for whom he is a hero, his pet Emu who would give eggs one day, perhaps symbolic of his immaterialized dreams and ambition, his confusions and what happens when one day by accident he gets to act with a real star!
Banerjee's direction has shades of Satyajit Ray, on whose short story the film has been based.
The third one by Zoya Akhtar explores the pressures parents put kids into and the stereotypes that run through our society. A sensitive one, again acted very well by a child, but gets a bit slow in between. How the kid who does not want to play football but dance like "Shiela", who idolizes Katrina Kaif and how he finds a way to chase his dreams, forms a overall very good story. Zoya, like Karan has to be applauded for the choice of subject and direction.
In the last one, Anurag Kashyap also breaks his mould and makes the most "Bollywoodish" movie of the four, though sprinkled with real life like sequences, that is a characteristic of all his movies. How a simple man from Allahabad follows family tradition and puts in so much effort and pain to get home made "murabba" tasted by Amitabh Bachhan, so that his father could live longer! Vineet Kumar Singh has fine acting skills and brings in simplicity and humour together very well. The scene where he meets Big B, while the latter's dialogues play in the background, is my favourite from the entire movie.
The movie ends with a not so great song, but the ensemble of stars does impress!
3.25 stars out of 5!
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