100 years of Indian Cinema are being celebrated and Bombay Talkies has made me fall in love with Bollywood once again. I agree that period of 1950s-60s is still the golden era of Indian Cinema but I have full faith that maturity in the film making is coming back and sooner we will see more movies that have depth and will make us think, laugh and cry.
Bombay talkies is a collection of 4 unrelated stories with a common theme of importance of Bollywood in shaping Indian culture. All the directors have taken a very mature and subtle approach and showed that movies are much more than just item numbers and fighting sequences.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
Karan Johar's story is about how and why people lie and hide their true identity 'and are very defensive about their secrets. What is normal and what isn't is defined in the society and once you try to break it you will have to face the consequences, even your parents won't excuse you. With themes of homosexuality, metro culture and superficial lives story very aptly pin points the exact feelings of the people who are living repressed lives and inadvertently making other people's lives miserable too.
What I like about Karan's story is how beautifully he has treated the sensitive subject of homosexuality, and the love affair shown albeit one sided is very pure and genuine. The scene where the little girl sings 'Lag ja gale' gave me goosebumps and made me realize why I love watching movies.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ 1/2Bombay talkies is a collection of 4 unrelated stories with a common theme of importance of Bollywood in shaping Indian culture. All the directors have taken a very mature and subtle approach and showed that movies are much more than just item numbers and fighting sequences.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
Karan Johar's story is about how and why people lie and hide their true identity 'and are very defensive about their secrets. What is normal and what isn't is defined in the society and once you try to break it you will have to face the consequences, even your parents won't excuse you. With themes of homosexuality, metro culture and superficial lives story very aptly pin points the exact feelings of the people who are living repressed lives and inadvertently making other people's lives miserable too.
What I like about Karan's story is how beautifully he has treated the sensitive subject of homosexuality, and the love affair shown albeit one sided is very pure and genuine. The scene where the little girl sings 'Lag ja gale' gave me goosebumps and made me realize why I love watching movies.
Dibakar Banerjee's story is about the unconquered territories and the unaccomplished goals that one always wanted to achieve but couldn't. Though you can try to move on with your life but these dreams will keep on haunting you. As it was said in an Argentine movie, 'You can change everything about a person, but his passion' this story shows that once you stumble upon your lost passion no matter wherever you are, you will feel a fresh breath of air and an inexplicable force will make you go back to where you belong.
The protagonist is a failed theater actor who left acting as he thought that it can't be someone's full-time occupation. He tries to rationalize his decisions in life and why he gave up on his dreams. But the internal battle still remains and the fire of acting is still burning inside him. Though he can't change his past or pursue acting full-time but he can surely act out stories in front of his family and find peace and happiness in it.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Zoya Akhtar treats the audience with a brave and heart-warming story. The director has raised questions like what is good? what is right? what is normal? and rightly showed that it is very subjective. As a child we all have some dreams, something that we want to be in life, though nobody understands and we don't care.
Similar is the case of the young boy in the story. His passion for dancing is everything to him, and his parents like most of the parents fail to understand that.
The feel good factor and the beauty of redemption of characters are what that sail through the story. The child actors have really showed maturity and played their parts without being looked as one-dimensional. Overall two thumbs up for the innocence and authenticity of the characters and for the organic plot.
Rating: ★ ★ 1/2
Anurag Kashyap the proclaimed Quentin Tarantino of India gives a lacklustre performance this time. Though this story being a little light-hearted blends in well with the other 3 stories but overall it's just another story you can care to forget.
The overall plot which seems as a farce is interesting and the actors have played it very well. The twist in the tail is also very unique and gives something for the audience to cheer. Still story doesn't have any punch or enough comical elements, it just juggles between gratuitous use of slangs and slow paced rhythm.
Bombay talkies is one of the rare experience I have had after watching a Bollywood movie. In my opinion it is the best Hindi movie I have seen in a long time. Coming together 4 best directors of India in itself is an applaudable step, but at the world stage, Indian cinema is still far far behind the rest. The dilemma between creating what audience wants and what you want still remains hovering on Indian cinema, and all we can do is to wait and watch, if someone has the courage to break it.
