{"id":730,"date":"2007-06-15T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-15T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2007\/06\/review-life-in-a-metro-2.html"},"modified":"2025-07-08T02:25:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T06:25:49","slug":"review-life-in-a-metro-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2007\/06\/review-life-in-a-metro-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Review : Life in a metro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rating : Good (4\/5)<\/strong>
\n Genre : Drama<\/strong>
\n Year : 2007<\/strong>
\n Running time : 2 hours<\/strong>
\n Director : Anurag Basu<\/strong>
\n Cast : Shilpa Shetty, Shiney Ahuja, Kaykay Menon, Konkona Sen Sharma, Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali Sodhi, Sharman Joshi, Irfan Khan, Manoj Pahwa, Kangana Ranaut<\/strong><\/p>\n

LIFE IN A METRO : SMART, SLICK AND SATISFYING<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Lately we have had a flurry of Hindi films which attempt to weave together multiple story lines. Metro is another. It\u2019s slickly made, delves just enough into the story lines to get us involved, and etches out the characters superbly. Of course it doesn\u2019t hurt the film any to have an impeccable star cast, or an absolutely gorgeous soundtrack.<\/p>\n

The stories are interconnected (like in Crash). Everyone\u2019s a friend, co-worker, relative etc. Shikha (Shilpa) and Ranjeet (Kaykay) are an unhappily married couple with a young daughter. Ranjeet is having an affair with sub-ordinate-at-work Neha (Kangana), while Rahul (Sharman) who\u2019s apartment they are using for their trysts, and who\u2019s also in love with Neha looks on helplessly. Neha rooms together with flat-mate Shruti (Konkona) who\u2019s also Shikha\u2019s younger sister. Shruti, is approaching 30, is still single but actively looking. When she meets Monty (Irfan) via a matrimonial website, he definitely doesn\u2019t fit the profile of the prince she\u2019s looking for.<\/p>\n

Shikha visits her old dance teacher Shivani (Nafisa Ali) regularly in an old age home, and there, is witness to the re-blooming of a 40-year old romance between Shivani and her lost love Amol (Dharmendra). Shikha also meets actor Aakash (Shiney) and they develop feelings for each other. Meanwhile Neha attempts suicide after a fight with Ranjeet, in Rahul\u2019s apartment, and Shruti is on the brink of having her prince-on-a-white-steed illusions shatter. And Rahul must decide between the twin dilemmas of love and money.<\/p>\n

The surprise package of this film was Shilpa. I was quite taken aback to see that the woman can act. And how! Definitely her finest work to date, Shilpa IS unhappy housewife Shikha to the core. Kaykay and Shiney have proved their mettle again and again, so one expects nothing but the best from them. And they deliver. Kangana Ranaut has a different look as Neha although her character does have shades of the depressive\/psychotic (how come she always lands these roles ?) Sharman appears on the big screen again after Rang de basanti<\/a> and is just as endearing here. Konkona needs no introduction \u2013 she\u2019s the best of the lot. Save Irfan Khan who\u2019s just a tad better. Impossible, I know, but he really is that perfect as Monty. Nafisa Ali is as graceful as ever, and as for Dharmendra \u2013 oh, the slowly fading charm of an aging Greek God. Their old world romance got me all teary-eyed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be amiss if I didn\u2019t sing praises of the sound-track too. \u201cIn dino\u201d which is busting up the Hindi charts is a slow number, and the crowning glory of the album. \u201cAlvida\u201d and the almost playful \u201cBaatein kuch ankahee si\u201d are 2 other soulful melodies. Sometimes you hear songs before you see the film, and although you didn\u2019t like them at first, you tend to like them better after you\u2019ve seen the film. They grow on you. Metro\u2019s music is not of that kind, it doesn\u2019t need a prop to stand tall. The songs by themselves are such jewels you could hear them independent of visuals, and they\u2019d tug at your heart-strings just as much.<\/p>\n

Sometimes when watching the usual filmi fare, you wonder if a director with finesse could tell stories better. Anurag Basu (Gangster<\/a>)<\/strong> is that director. Metro is not a happy film filled with sparkly, sassy people. It\u2019s essentially melancholy, with undertones of friction and strife. It dwells on relationships which have suffered with time and circumstance, until they are so stretched they might just crumble. Basu handles each layer delicately, spinning the strands together until you have a beautifully finished product. In the end, for some people you weep, some tales are just too amusing, and some you shake your head and mutter \u201cWhy ? Oh, why ?\u201d.<\/p>\n

After quite a while, a truly satisfying film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rating : Good (4\/5) Genre : Drama Year : 2007 Running time : 2 hours Director : Anurag Basu Cast : Shilpa Shetty, Shiney Ahuja, Kaykay Menon, Konkona Sen Sharma, Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali Sodhi, Sharman Joshi, Irfan Khan, Manoj Pahwa, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":"","facebook_10233691416821117_190635594420624":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51,76,14,28,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-51","category-bollywood","category-drama","category-rating-pg13","category-recommended"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"Rating : Good (4\/5) Genre : Drama Year : 2007 Running time : 2 hours Director : Anurag Basu Cast : Shilpa Shetty, Shiney Ahuja, Kaykay Menon, Konkona Sen Sharma, Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali Sodhi, Sharman Joshi, Irfan Khan, Manoj Pahwa, … Continue reading →","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p45CAb-bM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10881,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions\/10881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}