Review: Metro In Dino – Stellar Cast in a Musical Mess (2025)

Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Romance
Year: 2025
Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes
Director: Anurag Basu
Cast: Siddharth Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Neena Gupta, ali Fazal, Fatima Sana Sheikh, Anupam Kher
Kid rating: PG

I hate to rain on this parade, but “Metro In Dino” is a bit of a hot mess. It starts very music video fashion with Pritam and his band singing a modern ballad atop a tall building, city skyline in the background. The main characters and the introductory scenes come to you via this music video. I wasn’t gaga with this over-the-top treatment but if it had only stopped there! Yes, this is from the director who created the impeccable Barfi, and yes I had very high hopes for this movie, but alas! The good news is that this is not a bad movie, it’s just ho-hum when it could have been spectacular.

Like the earlier “Life in a Metro” this is also a story of a bunch of romantic pairs, some thrown together by chance, some together yet distant, and some just waiting to meet the one. It has a bunch of parallels too – there’s a pair of sisters in in this Metro too, the characters in the film are interconnected, some characters have the same names, there are references to Kolkata and all things Bangla, and some philosophical musings carry over here, 17 years later. And really all that nostalgia works, because you remember and smile at the memory of an older, wonderful film.

Shibani (Neena Gupta) has two lovely grown daughters – the elder Kajol (Konkona Sen Sharma) is married to Monty (Pankaj Tripathi), and the younger Chumki (Sara Ali Khan) is about to be engaged to Anand. Chumki meets Parth (Aditya Roy Kapoor) by chance. Parth is good friends with married couple Akash (Ali Fazal) and Shruti (Fatima Sana Sheikh).

So there’s Shibani who’s regretting her lack of independence, and the loss of friendships she left behind (especially the one with college sweetheart Parimal). Kajol suspects Monty is having an affair. Chumki will be married to Anand soon, but keeps bumping into Parth. Akash and Shruti love each other but different dreams dictate separate life paths. And Rohan loves Jhinuk (Darshana Banik) but she won’t hear of moving away from dad-in-law.

A tangled web it is, but quite well-portrayed by the stellar cast. Strong performances, except maybe Sara Ali Khan, who does try. A special kudos to Fatima Sana Sheikh and Ali Fazal, because they made their tortured love-story shine. Anupam Kher’s Parimal and Parimal’s touching relationship with his daughter-in-law got me misty-eyed. Konkona Sen Sharma is spectacular, as always. I loved the interconnected-ness of the whole thing, the skillful way Basu intertwined stories and attachments. Yes, it is a little cheesy (and a little ham-handed), but one is not watching a documentary, is one?

What sinks the ship is the break-aways into song every 5 minutes. Just when you’re trying to immerse yourself into the poignant moments (and to director Basu’s credit there are a few), along comes Pritam and Co, guitars strumming, long hair streaming, drums ablaze to destroy the scene and your senses. The music interruptions got so frequent, I thought I was in a Ken Ghosh music video.

This death by music might have been palatable, had the melodies been good. There are 11 songs, and most of them sound like each other. Qayde Se is the only lovely one. 

Metro In Dino tries too hard to be with it. Quite a comedown for a genius like Basu, Metro In Dino is still a pleasant, feel-good film.

Kidwise: Fairly clean and free from innuendo.