If director Anurag Basu’s film is to be believed then everyone in Mumbai is sleeping around in a shockingly loose manner. Relationships sever at the drop of the pant. Honesty and hardwork do not matter. Life is a bitch forever ready to bed, bite and betray. Come on, even I have stayed in a metro agreed it is not easy, but it is not really that bad. As a film depicting a slice of life in a huge city, the film is way too simplistic, salacious and rather unrepresentative.

However, if you see the film just about a bunch of characters (I guess the genre of multiple stories is here to stay), who incidentally happen to live in a big city where some insecurities have seeped in them, it works tremendously well. Especially since characters are not randomly selected, they are all interconnected; hence the film doesn’t look loose or haphazard like Salaam-E-Ishq (which remains the worst movie in this genre).

The film is glossy and slick. But that’s just the surface. So don’t be fooled by the film’s exterior. At heart it is quintessentially and supremely old Bollywood stuff, perhaps highlighted best by Sharman Joshi s track, which is nothing but Shri 420(or Yes Boss or Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman) revisited. Ambition is bad and betraying your love for sake of ambition is worse. The scene where he bitterly explains that he has chosen his path to fulfill pitaaji ka adhura sapna (of building a restaurant) is a salute to innumerable seventies film where the angry young man took to the wrong way to fulfill his parents dreams or avenge the wrong done to them. And then there is the filmi climax set at where else? the railway platform, where Irrfan and Kangana seek their respective departing loves.

Yet, despite its back-hand compliments to age-old Bollywood tracks, the film is highly* quite original, not a spoof and certainly not cliched.

It’s difficult to write a review without revealing any details since the characters and their plot are tightly interlinked, which actually is the film’s triumph. The screenplay (by Anurag Basu) is neat and keeps the viewer s interest firmly glued to the on-screen proceedings. Characters connect with each other and the audience instantaneously. In fact, I simply adored the way the film introduces characters and their lives right from the first shot, without wasting time, and adds little details on the way. Sanjeev Dutta’s dialogues do their part well, giving insightful comments at appropriate places and leaving things unstated but hinted at other moments. At times, the film reminds you of Page 3.

The performances are superb. Shilpa Shetty can proudly display the film on her resume (which till date had Phir Milenge as the only other worthwhile mention)- as a housewife caught between a wrong marriage and a wronger romance she comes across very sensitive and mature. Kay Kay Menon, Irrfan Khan and Shiney Ahuja are beacons of new age parallel cinema, and none of them lets the fire die. I love Konkona Sen Sharma – she has a spunk which immediately connects to the audience. Here, she plays a late twenties virgin desperate to get married. Her pairing with Irrfan is the most ideal and sensitive one in the film (though she herself doesn t realize it till the end).

Dharmendra has aged a lot but makes a decent comeback, and so does Nafisa Ali, playing aged lovers who re-unite after years- the track that leaves with you stifled sobs and moist eyes.

Negatives? Yes, a few. First, the character s obsession with love and bed seem a bit too much. Even though Kaykay, Kangana and Sharman are placed in a recognizable office (the ubiquitious call-center); however they don t really have too much botheration about work or its related problems. If I am not wrong, most people have sleepless nights not due to a sexy secretary lying besides them but because of up-coming presentations and ruthless sales targets! Showing them carrying Lenovo lap-tops doesn’t solve the problem ;at least they should work on it as well.

Second, the music is pathetic ** not to my liking. I don’t understand rock at all, and here all songs are from this genre. Preetam and his band come in at regular intervals (as some sort of sutradhar), hair flowing and guitar strumming. At first it looks good and innovative. But by the third song they are irritating and boring, and one wishes the director had chopped off the songs altogether.

Lastly, I am not sure if I am convinced about the ending given to Shilpa Shetty’s character. Either ways she was in a hopeless situation, but which of the two would be lesser one, is an unanswered question!

In all, after Murder and Gangster, Basu has a clear winner on his hands – less dark and manic, more intricate and deep and definitely more entertaining.

Overall- Worth viewing!

[*Reader V informs that Sharman Joshi's track is inspired from a Hollywood film, The Apartment]
[** I realised 'pathetic' is a strong word to use when I don't understand this genre]

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