I saw two Anurag Basu movies almost back to back - Gangster and LIA Metro. I wish there was some way to put the best of these films together and make an awesome film. Gangster had a taut script and did not have as much disconnect as Metro, but Metro had some fine performances and great music.Metro is centered around an apartment that belongs to Rahul (Sharman Joshi) and he is happy to loan the keys to all and sundry for an edge up the career ladder. Sound familiar? Of course it should, there was a great film called The Apartment with exactly this theme where Jack Lemmon played the beleaguered employee who had to spend cold nights outside while his bosses "used" the apartment. And Rahul loves Neha (Kangana Ranaut) from afar only to find that she is one of the girls the boss Ranjeet (Kay Kay Menon) takes to the apartment. In the original this role of a vulnerable career girl was played by the incomparable Shirley McLaine and Kangana tries to channel her for all she is worth. Now to make his story original Mr. Basu flails about and adds on many other stories - Ranjeet has an ignored wife Shikha (Shilpa Shetty) who meets a man Akash (Shiny Ahuja) on a train/bus and starts to fall for him. Shikha's sister Shruti (Konkona Sen Sharma) shares an apartment with Neha and is pining for love to happen to her. After some Page 3 type mis-steps (date is gay) she falls for Monty (Irrfan Khan). Confused? Wait there is more - Shikha and Shruti's mom Shivani (Nafeesa Ali) meets up with her old flame Amol (Dharmendra) and he busts her out of some place she is not allowed to leave.So these pieces ebb and flow in the ocean that is Mumbai and we see a slice of working class life in the metro. Whenever there is a poignant moment there is a beautiful song that no main character sings. Instead we have a flea bitten trio of singers who do the honors. This is right out of Something about Mary - worked there, but here it is hokey to the extreme and the dudes are very annoying. They totally ruin the fine music in the film.Direction is okay I guess - there are some blood red moments when Shilpa is about to do the deed (will she?) - I felt like I was back in Black Friday. The film is very dark and moody and the cinematography is quite excellent.Now for the best part of Metro - the acting. In order of my preference - Kay Kay plays the cad husband and heartless boss very well. But why does he breakdown when he comes back home? Neha leaving him makes that profound a difference? That is just not believable, but his caddish behavior after Shikha confesses is spot on! Irrfan is awesome as the socially inept male who cannot keep his eyes on the right spot. His horse-ride is filmy but hilarious. Next up is Shaman Joshi - he has the best role and does an excellent job as the career guy who suffers the consequences of his own thoughtless actions. Konkona is competent - she does this job well but this is really not a meaty enough role for her. Same goes for Shiny - not much of a role, but well done. Shilpa is okay - I found her trying hard to express sorrow and remorse and happiness but not being very natural in her attempts. In that sense I felt that though Kangana played the same role yet again she was good in her role. However - she needs to improve her diction. And last but not least we have Nafeesa Ali and Dharmendra - I wish Anurag had chopped off a few of the inane bits and given us more of this duo - they tugged at your heart strings and were simply beautiful. Inexplicable why she dies and why she could not leave her "home" etc. but I did not care.So all in all I think Gangster (in spite of Emraan Hashmi) was a better flick - more focused and touching. But Metro is a decent watch for the ensemble cast that all perform well.

After long Hindi cinema has finally taken the jump and started dealing with more in depth emotional subjects. We get intelligent dialogue that looks and comes across naturally. Real issues faced by the modern Indians of today brought to life in this brilliant thought provoking films. that leaves you questioning several aspects of the movie. Shilpa's acting is the best I have seen out of all her movies. Konkona, Kangana, Irfan, Shiny, Kay Kay and Sharman have all acted brilliantly. the scenes between Shilpa and Shiny have been done brilliantly as have the scenes between Dharmendra and Shivani. The film starts of interestingly and engrosses you further, as the story unfolds. the soundtrack lends itself beautifully to the surroundings and you get a sense of a modern vibrant moving city with real people leading real lives (not your usual song and dance sequences around the world) This film portrays a deeper unexplored side of human nature that is very rarely addressed in Hindi films. Brilliantly shot and acted. A must see film.

Metro As the name suggets the movie is about the life of peoples in a Metro.There is one guy (Sharman Joshi) who has got his father's dream to fulfil. He hands over his room keys to anyone in his office who is in a important post and can decide on his career. There is a girl (Kangana Ranaut) who sleeps with her married boss with the hope that her boss will marry her. There is a plain jane (Konkana) who is scared of marriage because she feels that something might go wrong in marriage. There is this person (Kay Kay) who is married to Shilpa is not very happy with his marriage and sleeps with Kangana. Shilpa who is married and has kids is attracted to Shiny Ahuja. Shiny Ahuja is an unemployed youth into plays waiting for his Dubai job to materialize. Irfan Khan who met Konkana for marriage is rejected by Konkana because he was looking at the wrong places. There is Nafisa who is a dancer once upon a time in love with Dharmendra who is back in her life. Dharmendra as the lover of Nafisa is back to India and Nafisa after realizing the mistake done by him.The story belongs to all these peoples each of whom has got a story to tell and each story is linked with someone else's. Some nice songs, nice picturization. Nice direction, acting by all lead stars.

Every one can not produce a movie like Amores Perros, or 21 Grams, like Inaritu has done , and trying to inadvertently copy the concept, results only in a mechanized attempt at linking all those characters together, either by showing them related, or working together. This style may perhaps, be new to a movie watcher of Hindi cinema alone, but not so new to those, who watch classic movies in English, as well as other languages. The major difference in question here is the scope, and the graph of the human emotions, against the back drop of a big city , which itself limits this movie in question, with the likes of some Oscar nominated movies like Babel, where the plethora of characters, and the pieces of the plot line, come together finally, so beautifully, like a jigsaw puzzle, that it leaves us simply amazed at the capacity of the film maker. Metro is a simpler, and therefore , an inane attempt at showing a number of characters ,who could well be not related or connected to each other, and still, it won't make a big difference to the plot line, or the absence of it ! Though the touted strong points are the cast, and the Pritam's band , as well as the take on the sexual angles of the city life discussed supposedly in a bold way, i did not find any serious home work done by the director on this front. For example, how can an active homosexual man can have simultaneous interest in a woman ? so is he bi-sexual then ? secondly, kay Kay Menon's character has been shown having some love and affection for his young daughter, in spite of his negligence, and callous attitude otherwise, towards his family in general, and wife in particular , whereas, his wife Shikha, with Shilpa in that role, hardly demonstrates any true motherly feelings for that poor small girl. If she is so sensitive, as to shed tears, at the slightest instance, how come she is not bothered for her daughter much ? In fact, her husband's sexual attraction to Neha, and a clandestine relationship with her, seems to have stemmed from Shikha's frigidity, with no attempts on her part, to hold his attention. Neha's character is spineless, the one played by Sharman, is a confused guy, and Shruti is disoriented. That way, Dharmendra and Nafisa Ali in their respective roles sound much more natural, but again, how does that connect them in any way, to the life in a Metro ? And why did that poor woman had to die ? simply melodramatic ! i thought perhaps Dharam might die, since he declares initially only, about some fatal ailment he is suffering from. And do they have sex when he sleeps next to her that night ? not very clear, but hinted at skillfully,not acceptable ! Irfan riding a horse in a desperate chase, Shilpa coming to meet Shiny at the station, and Kangana's meeting with Sharman, out of all these, i was some what touched by the Sharman's meeting with Kangana, which is more spontaneous , and touches the chord, as one is relieved atleat to find her, out of that useless relationship with a married man, who is only interested in sleeping with her ! i am sure there are more serious and overwhelming problems, of survival, of monotony, and also a lacuna in the families' lives who live in big cities, than only sex on their mind, all the time. The director wants us to believe, that this is what happens in big cities, but in fact, the title could have been life in Mumbai, rather than making such tall claims, and not meeting with the expectations raised so high ! There is nothing new that the movie offers, every body knows that people are promiscuous , so what, what's the big deal ? Pritam making faces while singing with his band is annoying, mostly. Over all, an over hyped flick, but a shallow handling, make this movie a mediocre one. Shilpa Shetty, a piece of sincere advice for you, better stick to the big brothers and the Gere's, and your glamorous dances, revealing outfits, and fitness regimes with an added zeal, you are no Kaajol, so take care, before your attempts at serious acting, least your days might be numbered, in this stupid Bollywood ! Yes, the camera man never forgot to show your cleavage though ! but you looked rather funny ,always crying ! Guys, just watch the movie so that you may not think you missed out, but with expectations of seeing some thing like Perros ? High hopes, dudes !