Life in a...Metro - Movie Review

Published: September 16, 2009

By JENNIFER HOPFINGER

Starring Shilpa Shetty, Konkona Sen Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Kay Kay Menon, Kangna Ranaut, Sharman Joshi, Shiney Ahuja, Nafisa Ali, Dharmendra

The intertwined stories of nine people living in Mumbai capture the poignant difficulties of coping with the everyday pressures of modern life, with its endless challenges and choices. There’s nothing humdrum about the relatable characters—each is unique, complex, and richly developed.

 

Ambitious call-center exec Rahul (Sharman Joshi) harbors feelings for his co-worker, Neha (Kangna Ranaut), who’s having an affair with their married boss, Ranjeet (Kay Kay Menon). Rahul lends his apartment to Ranjeet for his trysts with Neha in order to get into his good graces—but he hates himself for doing it. (He also rents his place to others for the same purpose in order to make extra money, to the dismay of his neighbors, who can hear the goings-on.) Neha starts pressuring Ranjeet about their future, which leads to disaster.

 

Neha shares an apartment with Shruti (Konkona Sen Sharma), Ranjeet’s sister-in-law. Shruti is a 28-year-old virgin who’s looking for the man of her dreams—or at least someone to marry. She meets an oddball named Monty (Irrfan Khan) through a matchmaking Web site and rejects him for ogling her. She soon starts seeing her co-worker, Rishi, and later becomes friends with Monty, who gets engaged to someone else, and Monty helps her understand what real love is.

 

Ranjeet’s neglected wife, Shikha (Shilpa Shetty), the stay-at-home mother of a six-year-old daughter, also befriends a man—a struggling actor named Akash (Shiney Ahuja), whose marriage ended because of his professional failure—and she has an emotional affair with him to escape her crumbling, bitter relationship with her husband.

 

Meanwhile, Shikha’s widowed dance teacher, Shivani (Nafisa Ali), who lives in a senior home, reunites with her first love, Amol (Dharmendra), who left her 40 years before to pursue success in the U.S. and has now returned to India, full of regrets.

 

Without exception, the actors are outstanding in their portrayals of flawed individuals, who, in the pursuit of promotions and possessions, lose love, and sometimes integrity, along the way.

There are no song-and-dance numbers in the film, but an excellent rock soundtrack. The actual musicians, who typically don’t appear in Bollywood films, are shown in this one performing the songs in the background—a novel idea—and it blends seamlessly with the narrative.

Director Anurag Basu’s excellent script was acknowledged with a Filmfare Best Screenplay Award. Irrfan Khan and Konkona Sen Sharma won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor and Actress Awards.

Life in a…Metro is rated Must See.

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