Bombay Velvet!

I know this review comes quite late. There is reason (like there is one for all the stupid things in life). I failed to find company all this time for this movie. Convincing people to watch an Anurag Kashyap movie is odd. But isnt that surprising because he has a different set of fans (the majority belonging to the inverse set of the "bhai-i-love-you-whatever-acting-psuedoacting- you- do" set). But then this one had the big stars to attract the masses. In spite of that it couldn't. This is what bad publicity and poor understanding of his kind of cinema is.  I being an ardent fan of his work I wanted to watch this. And after hearing all the negativities I definitely had to watch it. Not when the DVD is out but while its still in the theater

Ok to start off, the movie is not good. Not good by Anurag Kashyap's standards (which are very high. Atleast for me he is the best director bollywood has at the moment). And please note that a bad movie by Anurag Kashyap is probably any day better than even the best one by some other directors like Ab-Basss and MAST-an (name changed).

Has he tried something completely different than his prior films ?  I doubt that. It has all the ingridients of a typical Anurag Kashyap movie. The plot (revenge :Gangs of Wasseypur , the lust for power and money :Gulaal , Ugly and the intertwining of multiple subplots and showing the best and the worst aspects of interpersonal relationships: All his movies) , the cinematography , the art of weaving songs into the plot in a way that you want more of them (Dev D , GOW. GOW infact boasted off 14 songs in the first part and 13 in the second). So whats different?

Let start with the goods. The real stars of the movie are the set design and the music. The sets are lavish, not only the one showing Bombay Velvet the theater, but even the Bombay of the 60s shown in the movie (Bombay not Mumbai :)). The music ! Amit Trivedi (Dev D , Udaan, Ishaqzaade and many more here) has done such an amazing job. It was the first time that I didn't like his songs when I heard the album. But then they seem so good when I saw them in the movie. Plus the built up and background Anurag has given to each of them is simply brilliant. Dhadaam Dhadaam is my personal favorite. Also the choice of " Fify - Jaata hai kaha hai deewane" is so apt for the situation. The remi of the same by Mike Mcleary is nice (He is the same guy who composed Khoya Khoya Chand and Dhak Dhak)

Anurag Kashyap has this knack of looking into the smallest of things. ( For eg In Ugly when he was wanted to show a bollywood struggler's dingy house, he had a can of whey proteins in one of the shelves. Rest of the house was a pity. Useless fanboy info). He has his strokes of brilliances in this one too. One special scene is the one where Karan Johar mocks Ranbirs English. I wont reveal the details, but its epic. Simply epic. The climax  scene where Ranbir goes on a killing spree is well shot but it seems borrowed. The background score reminds you of Tarantino and the scene is way similar to Faizal ka badla from GOW-2. There are other "inspirational"scenes as well but he has given due credits these at the start of the movie.

Ranbir plays his character well. But it is the side characters that impress, for eg Satyadeep Mishra as his friend Chimman, Kay Kay Menon as the honest cop and Manish Chaudhari as the parsi reporter. Also Remo Fernandez, Raveena Tandon Siddhartha Basu and Amit Trivedi (How many of you noticed him in the club?) have special appearances

What doesnt work? I guess the major weakness is the plot. In an attempt to be true to the facts , the movie's plot seems not that great.  The story about the development of the metropolitan MUMBAI and about the greedy janta who made that happen. The second thing that I feel that went horribly wrong is casting Karan Johar. He is not able to generate that kind of aura that was expected from him. The perfect example was was the wicked Ramadhir Singh in GOW (played by Tigmanshu Dhulia, who has also directed the movie Paan Singh Tomar. Again useless piece of information). You actually felt nice when Faizal takes his badla. Karan Johar and his lack of emotions is a major setback in most of the scenes. You simply don't feel the tension between him and Ranbir. Also the climax doesn't reach its pinnacle as it does in GOW. Its rather an anticlimax  The other bad choice he made was Anushka Sharma. Not because she cant act, but because of the ducky face. He has these close ups of her face while she performs for Bombay Velvet and trust me that doesn't make a good picture. It is so bad that you feel good when Raveena recites the same songs in her absence. Plus the movie is slow. Kashyap takes his own time to come to the theme of the movie and it seems a drag. Its not that first time that he is making a long movie. GOW was so long a movie that he had to make two parts out of it, and there wasnt even a single dull moment in it.

To sum it I would say that is a bad movie by Anurag Kashyap's standards but its definitely a good film. Plus you need to watch it in the theater to experience the grandeur of its stars: the sets and the music.

P.S. This has turned out to be quite a long post and it may seem like a Anurag- Kashyap - fanclub -page rather than a movie review. But then thats the way it is. I am a huge fan of his work for he is one of the few film makers who respects the audiences intelligence. For the uninitiated ,  Dev D , Gulaal , Gangs of Wasseypur , Black Friday are simply superb. Yes there is lot of violence in these, but thats not the best part. His way of presenting the minute details is what makes him stand apart. For eg watch this scene from GOW if you haven't watched it yet. Nawazuddin's acting being a cherry on top of the cake.