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Review - Metro: An interesting plot sorely misses the final punch
Metro
![[Poster for Metro]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2637/4191417029_91e180f9c6_m.jpg)
Did the whole world change while I was on vacation? Or maybe I am just naïve. When did the singular motto of every married person become to try and have an extra-marital affair? And even if that happened, do we really need to blame a city for our promiscuity? However, once you get past these two basic plot premises, you begin to appreciate the performances and the flashes of clever dialogue.
The most remarkable achievement of the director and the actors is the chemistry between each couple, whichever part of the triangle they are. Be it - revulsion, indifference, love, intimacy - all emotions convey (at most times) what the character feels. Also, the characters are pretty consistent, which is an achievement in itself.
And Irrfan Khan and Konkona Sen Sharma playing comic relief is so refreshing! They keep the mood light whenever the other characters start taking themselves too seriously, giving the required impetus whenever the pace begins to slacken. Shilpa Shetty gives an elegant performance and Kay Kay Menon plays to perfection the-guy-you-would-love-to-hate. And we are back to a suicidal Kangna Ranaut, but at least this time around, she looks good. Sharman Joshi's talent desperately needs to be treated with meatier roles. And somehow, the Dharmendra-Nafisa Ali track seemed very forced and contrived, especially because of the shabby treatment their dialogues were given.
The movie starts off with some brilliant lines that almost sound like poetry, but soon enough doze off to inane-land. Thereafter, the brilliance is pretty much sporadic.
Similarly, the lyrics are a welcome change from the nonsense we have been served in the name of poetry, of late. They reflect the mood of the characters and flow well with the overall situations. However, all the songs sound like they have been composed by a rock band. Which would have been tolerable but for the picturization. In an attempt to avoid lip-synching they went overboard. Give me the unnecessary songs, with barely-clad men and women dancing for me, I will take that. But, three men - none of whom have seen a comb or a razor in the past year, but know a lot about greasing curly locks - coming at me like objects do in a 3-D show, in every single song. Not done! Even in the name of fashion.
It is the climax of movies that do not have any particular purpose in mind that can make or break the movie. And the culmination fails here big time. It feels like the writer got bored towards the end and just wanted to get it done with one way or the other. If not for the cumbersome climax, the movie might have been well worth a watch. But, alas...
- meetu, a part of the audience
Metro - Movie Details
- Official Sites: Website
- Director: Anurag Basu
![[Has twitter account]](/site_media/images/icons/twitter_small.png)
- Lead Cast: Shiney Ahuja, Shilpa Shetty, Irrfan Khan, Konkana Sen Sharma, Kay Kay Menon, Kangna Ranaut, Sharman Joshi
- Supporting Cast: Nafisa Ali, Dharmendra
- Story: Anurag Basu
- Screenplay: Anurag Basu
- Dialogues: Anurag Basu
- Music Director: Pritam Chakraborty
- Lyrics: Sandeep Srivastava, Sayeed Qadri, Amitabh Varma
- Running time: 130 minutes
- Reviewer: meetu
- Categories: Hindi Movies
- Genres: Relationships, Romance
Metro - Trailer
Metro - All reviews summary
External Reviews
28 reviewers have given Metro an average rating of 3.2/5.0. 14 yays, 6 nays, 8 so-so. See all external reviews »
Comments (25)
[...] Meetu : ” Life In A Metro starts off with some brilliant lines that almost sound like poetry, but soon enough doze off to inane-land. Thereafter, the brilliance is pretty much sporadic.” [...]
by the way meetu who designed your site, it has a "COOL" look. different from the blogs i hv seen around.
Thanks, amit. Well, we designed it ourselves. Still working on the colors.
Hi Meetu,
I quite enjoyed the movie and thought the ending to be realistic and
complete without the usual melodrama.
Each actor played their part well but Konkona Sen Sharma and Irrfan Khan were outstanding.
I am glad the movie worked for you Ashima. Thanks for the revisit!
we as in? do u hv a team? hey posted my review yesterday... do bother to check out.
Read your review, Amit. So this time we agree on several counts!
We as in my husband - the all-in-one: CTO, promoter, editor - and me. That's the team!
I saw Metro today & completed enjoyed myself...Konkana & Irfan were the BEST.....Kay Kay was like totally into his ruthless character.
so ur husband also a movie buff. A great jodi u two seem to be.
Right, Mehak. Metro is full of good performances.
Thanks, Amit!
metro is a good movie. what i liked the most was konkona and irfans
role. The ending was little abrupt. however what i disliked the most was
the band popping in between the film. anurag could have shown the
band ones or twice but repeating was horrible.
black friday ,ekalavya and now metro , list of really good movies that you didnt "get" .
dharmendra-nafisa story didnt quite work for me too and the appearance of those three guy band again and again
got a little on my nerves after awhile. but that said , i found metro to be a extremely well scripted and well
acted movie . a rarity , a multiple story line ,character driven movie that actually works and when it does
works it works big time . This is the movie salaam-e-ishq wanted to be . all the stories were tied up very well in the end too.
also i couldnt understand the big gap between your rating for music (2.5) and lyrics (4.0) , only reason
people will notice the songs'words -atleast in a hindi movie , is if music is good , unless they are selling
supplying lyrics printed on a booklet .
nice work on the site btw , could you get a shorter url maybe , the current site name is little difficult
to type .
Thanks for taking the time to share your views, Sumit.
Hey morph! I was just beginning to miss you. So, let's get to what we enjoy doing best here - discuss :-)
"Black Friday" - am long done arguing. "Eklavya", we had issues with genre classification and I thought we pretty much sorted that one out here.
Now Metro, *whew*, I am glad we finally agree on a few things at least :-). The thing that disappointed me the most is the climax. The only story line with an end that did not seem contrived was the Ranjeet-Shikha track. That one was handled well.
Well, I for one, almost always can think of lyrics as poetry and music as a separate entity in itself. And I am pretty sure, I am not the only one who enjoys doing so.
"hai tujhe bhi ijaazat, kar le tu bhi mohabbat" - works for me whatever tune it is set to.
BTW, is it safe now to assume that I "get" movies that both of us either like or dislike? :-)
I am glad you liked the site's new design, still working on the colors though. URL - damage done. Nothing that was shorter and conveyed what I wanted to say was available. Might consider using WGtMA.com, but feel it will be equally difficult to remember.
Thanks again for stopping by! Keep coming.
morph wrote:
This is definitely not true for me. I definitely notice the lyrics and music as separate entities. For example, take the song "hai tujhe bhi ijaazat, kar le tu bhi mohabbat". I like the lyrics, but absolutely hate the music/tune - they make it sound like a background song being sung while the jilted lover is going off to commit suicide.
how come navin and meetu gave away similar responses ?.
there are lot of other movies , we have similar views on..shakalaka boom boom for example ;).
i wont write here if i agree with you , only in cases i disagree strongly with your view
i post :-D
For me , biggest department where hindi movies lack is not technology (anyone can buy
fancy equipment, special effects etc ) its the character development , creativity in story telling , plot construction these are some things you cant buy off the shelf . You have to *work* on it . So if any hindi movie throws up believable three dimensional character who behave and talk real rather than act like they are part of movie , iam hooked !. metro does it , very well and if his past two movies are any indication i feel anurag basu is getting better at this with each outing .
Except for dharamendra's character who for some reason either because i dont like dharamendra or i dont like old age romances never worked for me , all the other characters in the movie were very well fleshed out and had a definite arc and they behave consistently throught out .
This is difficult to do , if you cant believe , see "salaam-e-ishq" to find out what happens to a movie which gets this wrong (btw you gave a higher rating for SEI compared to metro ) . no amount of extravagant sets , technical wizardry can salvage the movie .
Thats why movies like Metro should be patronized and watched on the big screen and recommended whole heartedly to anyone who cares for hindi cinema.
Shilpa/Shiney ending probably worked for you , because something unexpected happened ? the climatic
moments for irrfan /konkona story were quite a hoot and it really bought the house
down where i watched the movie . sharman/kanagana was kind of low key but still it worked.
and regarding the website name , i think acronym like WOGMA or something catchy, will work . there are lot of other sites which have bigger names and are popular by thier acronym or short cut names , case in point
aintitcoolnews can be accessed as www.aicn.com
Hey, morph - Navin and meetu agreeing is a rarity, so I am just going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Morph wrote - i wont write here if i agree with you
meetu writes - bahut na-insafi hai (This is grave injustice!)
Wow, we agree again! :-) Script and character consistency are the most important part for me too - Be it Hindi or anything else. But it is unfair to expect that from everyone, right? Each person has his standard. Just like with children, it's wrong to expect every child to do well in academics. So, I try my best to appreciate how far the movie succeeded in what it set out to do.
Characters who behave and talk real appeal to me too. And that's where the climax literally shocked me. Are you sure people weren't laughing at the Monty/Shruti climax instead of laughing with it. I was laughing too, but at it, with my hand on my forehead instead of my stomach. It was hardly "real". There was a big leap from Neha wanting her lover to leave his family to doing what she did.
The climax is where the rating dropped from "Watch for sure, preferably in theater" to "Wait for video release". It is sad but true, that expectations vary depending on talent. I have a strong feeling that people who created the first 1 hour 50 minutes were creative enough to come up with the last 20 minutes that went with the flow of the movie.
BTW, the Shikha-Ranjeet track worked because that is exactly what I expected. And a lot of credit goes to the director/writer for this because Shikha's character was developed and protrayed very well. Having her do anything else would have been just to be "different".
No, dear Morph, Salaam-e-Ishq got the same rating as Metro, because the middle 2 hours were entertaining and that movie's aim is not to show me reality, it is to entertain me.
Thanks for the feedback on the site name. Will work on it.
Thanks again, for the time and energy spent on writing here.
it is good film
ok i remebered you giving favourable review to two very lengthy movies SEI and umrao ,i probably might have got the ratings mixed , still SEI reached nowhere near the levels Metro reached . its not like metro aimed not to entertain :), the approach differed Metro went for a quasi realistic approach , salaam-e-ishq went for a Johar-chopra patented bollywood approach . one worked and entertained , another failed miserably and bored big time . 1 hour 50 minutes of solid compelling cinema is good enough to make a trip to the theatre for me , even if climax didnt work for some they still get to carry some really great moments and very well etched characters from this movie .
i went with a group of four friends and yeah them me and rest of the audience in the auditorium were laughing *WITH* the movie in the climatic moments rather than at it ..i could differntiate because i saw the same audience laughing *AT* the movie when three dudes with the guitars appeared for the fifth and sixth time ! ive sat through enough movies to sense whats working for the audience and what isnt .. well thats about it on metro from me , the movie with all its flaws was easily one of the best hindi movies to hit theatres this year.
cant wait to see what Anurag Basu does next .
Alright Morph, I understand your point of view. BTW, I have sent you an e-mail on a different subject, can you please check? Thanks!
Hi Meetu,
Well how r u? I'm Fine. But i must say that i liked the theme of your website more then the film. Great to watch this kind of website. Coming to the film i liked the work of Irfan Khan(as he is favourite of mine) also Konkana was fabulous. I'll give more coments on it when i'll watch the film again
Hi Hiral,
Just writing to let you (and other commenters) know that meetu is away until mid-June attending a movie appreciation course in FTII so she might not be able to respond to comments for a while. She will get to them after she is back.
i din'd saw da movie..bt da promos were sum wat boring..i was actuly nt so keen of watching so boring filmzz…U KNOW..!!!
metro is one of best movie in bollywood.mr.basu i really proud of u.iwould like to thanks ll
all team specially KANGANA
vry vry good movie
hey guys this movie is just amazing, outstanding....
It leaves a message behind saying that all this can happen in our lives ....... and
who knows this might happen in any one's life........
so watch it because it is good.........
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