Celebrating the100-years of bollywood!. Review on Bombay Talkies

Bollywood was always Entertainment-Entertainment-Entertainment !!! A special Salute to all the actors who performed in this movie without taking a penny. And what performances. There are 4 beautiful stories.

1.Ajeeb Dastan hai yeh  By Karan Johar.

He who makes multi-million dollar blockbusters that are known for their flamboyance than cinematic artistry, has turned the tables with this small-budget, realistic short film. With this film, we discover a new Karan Johar where he doesn't have to stress about the three hundred Caucasian dancers in designer Indian costumes or the waist size of his gorgeous leading lady. Saqib Saleem is a great new find; He is confident and comfortable with the character he plays – an intern at a Bollywood tabloid who strikes an unlikely friendship with his associate editor.

The other male actor in this story, Randeep Hooda is also well cast as a serious news presenter who loves old Hindi music and leads a predictable, loveless life. Randeep's is one the two best performances in this film. Rani Mukherjee returns to what she does the best… she is natural and relatable. This is Karan Johar that we have never seen before and hope to see more in future!

2 .Star by Dibakar Banerjee

Based on Satyajit Ray’s short story, Dibakar Banerjee’s Star is as much about failed ambitions as it is about hope and happiness. It is a tale of a father who does not have a new bedtime story for his ailing daughter…a failed actor who gets a shot at stardom in his own small way. Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Purandar is simply outstanding and the last two minutes of this short are bound to leave you teary-eyed and in awe of this actor’s talent.

3.Sheila Ki Jawani by Zoya Akhtar

It’s a story about a little boy who dreams of becoming a dancer while his strict father (Ranvir Shorey) wants him to do something ‘appropriate’ for a boy. It is also a story about the relationship between a brother and a sister, biases and unfair societal norms – “a boy should be interested in sports while a girl should be happy with a doll”; Zoya knows how to tell stories. Here, she simply works with an idea and not a fleshed out story, but with her superior narrative style and the lovely performances by the two child actors Naman Jain and Khushi Dubey, the film works.

4.Murabba by Anurag Kashyap, Bombay Talkies

Anurag is a filmmaker who is truly changing the face of Hindi cinema. His films are bold, have daring or unexpected themes and usually feature new talent.  Murabba looks at the Indian film-goers and their connection with cinema. We say cricket is a religion in India and so is cinema; nothing binds our people more than these two passions that most Indians are born with. A young man from Illahabad, Vijay (Vineet Kumar Singh), comes to meet Amitabh Bachchan in Mumbai to offer him a piece of murabba (sweet fruit pickle) as per his ailing father’s wish. He stands outside the mega star’s house and waits for a chance to meet him for two-minutes. He is confident of a warm reception on his arrival as he hails from the same city and colony where Bachchan came from originally. He is let down when the star’s guards shoo him away but he doesn’t give up. The other interesting angle in the film is how we Indians like to brag and tell stories.

Bombay Talkies is a great experiment that largely works and in the hope of seeing more such collaborations and innovation by our filmmakers!