Metro : Lost and Found?. Review on Metro - Bollywood

I don’t know. Shekhar Kapur once said that these were the most creative words in the world. I agree to it. I agree to it because these words plainly, clearly state human limitations, which can give birth to outstanding creations. These words leave you in the jungle of human life and let you explore it in your own way.

I think that everybody agrees or disagrees to certain things because of his own limitations. Because we think differently, we act differently. Because there is a value system, we accept or decline something and because the value system turns individual and dynamic, we may change something from the system that we have accepted earlier.

‘Metro’ deals with a few urban individuals who are chasing something and who have lost themselves in the chase. The realization about their selves happen at a certain point of time and that is where the movie ends.

I do not know whether I have liked this movie or I have disliked it. I guess, according to my individual, independent value system, I have liked only a few pieces….

Shikha(Shilpa Shetty) and Ranjit(Kay Kay Menon) is a married couple with an ‘EMI’ based lifestyle. Ranjit is at a senior position at a call centre and Shikha has left her job to attend to her family. Rahul(Sharman Joshi) is a junior to Ranjit and has a crush on Neha(Kangana Ranawat). Ranjit and Neha have an affair. Apart from a lovelorn man, Rahul is a clever struggler. He pleases his seniors by giving them the keys of his flat to have sex with their girlfriends or call girls. He is detached from all of this, till he finds that Ranjit has taken Neha to his flat.

The extremely strangled relation between Shikha and Ranjit drives Shikha to Akash(Shiney Ahuja) and without her self’s consent she falls in love with him.

Parallel to this, there is an absolutely entertaining and engrossing story of Shruti(Konkona Sensharma) and Monty(Irfaan Khan). She is nearing thirty, he is almost thirty five and both of them are going through the pangs of partner search through matrimonial portals.

Oh yes, forgot to mention Nafisa Ali and Dharmendra. She is Shikha’s old aged, widowed dance teacher and Dharamendra is her lost love when she was young. He comes to Mumbai and they start spending the evenings together.(Old age romance seems to catch the fancy of filmmakers these days, but this episode of Metro is bore to the core.)

So, this is the gathering of characters and a flow of ‘countless emotions’, as the catch line of the movie goes. As I was watching them, I felt little threatened because the reason for their emotional distress was money and not a pure emotional trigger that drives you close to other person. Love for love’s sake is acceptable, but it puts a question mark when we treat it as a substitute for the messy life that we ourselves have created. I fail to understand why urban people incessantly complain about their lives. If they are running after money, if they have lost the sheen of their relation, then they need to DEAL with it. Behavioral irregularities can be understood, but what if money is killing you?

It can be argued that everybody is right in his own place. But I differ to it, because everybody of us has to rise and take a stand and be firm on it. After marriage, having sex outside, getting emotionally attached to someone else can be totally explicable, what I am unable to comprehend is the flood of tears that follows. Is it a ‘problem’ to be in love if you are married? I think not. Love can never be a problem. It is a problem when we do not accept it smoothly and learn to live with it.(That is why I liked ‘Drishti’ because both of them let things happen. They may come across as ‘childish adults’, but what works is their honesty and absence of ambiguity). In ‘Metro’ having been to bed with Ranjit and after getting humiliated by him, why does Neha again go to him was beyond the reach of logic.

All sympathies to the characters and the eternal swing of human mind, but still, first things first. Aren’t we supposed to find a way out rather than a swirled way in? Ranjit-Neha-Rahul thing was disturbing. Shilpa-Shiney Ahuja story is ok but it could have been more passionate. I think Shiney Ahuja did not perform up to his caliber. Shilpa Shetty is ok. She leaves her mark in one of the scenes when she reproaches Kay Kay.

You don’t have to talk about Kay Kay Menon. He is perfect as always. Ranjit is an epitome of male chauvinism and Kay Kay has done justice to it.(Just that he gets little monotonous sometimes). Sharman Joshi is quite impressive. Kangana looks super cool with specs and changed hair cut.(This lady seems to becoming the woman of alcoholic substance!)

And you would certainly expect to see more of Konkona Sensharma – Irfaan Khan. Both of them are clear show stealers. Konkkona is at her usual ease with her unmistaken charm in dialogue delivery and super emotive face and Irfaan is a treat to watch. His maneuvered way of thinking and apparently abstract behavior makes you love him.

Songs are very nice. But that Metro band, (my apologies, but especially the one crew member with long hairs and somewhat beastly looks) creates a shudder amongst audience when they appear on screen. But their singing talent is huge.

I had liked Gangster by Anurag Basu. It is not that I did not like Metro, but I was surely not able to relate to this movie.

May be I am wrong. May be I am unable to accept the characters. If the order of the day is disorder, I should welcome the people who live in disorder with their clay feet…….

May be Anurag Basu wins, even if some of his characters fail to excite us….

Cheers!

utpal