Review of Bombay Talkies

Release date – 3'rd May 2013

One Word which describes the film – Average

Best  Dialogue – 'Har baat ko batane ka sahi samay hota hai'

Genre – Anthology of 4 short films  

Music – Amit Trivedi

Producer -  Viacom 18 Motion Pictures , Ashi Dua 

Direction - Anurag Kashyap , Dibakar Banerjee , Zoya Akhtar

Karan Johar

Cast -Amitabh Bachchan , Rani Mukerji , Katrina Kaif ,Randeep Hooda

Nawazuddin Siddiqui , Saqib Saleem ,Ranvir Shorey ,
Vineet Kumar Singh

Budget – 6 Crores

The film started with the melodious song 'Sau sau baras ka hua Yeh khiladi na budha hua.' playing in the background . 

Karan Johar's story was totally different from his usual candy-floss romances and larger than life sets. Here we  had a  freckled face Rani Mukherji dealing with the complexities in her married life. To express the underlying tension between characters, instead of dialogues Karan has used old classics 'Lag ja gale' and 'Ajeeb dastaan hai ye'.

Dibakar Banerjee's story is  about a failed actor who while watching a film shoot gets a chance  to do a small role  in it. There is a  scene where Nawaz  practices Big B’s famous dialogues for the role before he realizes that his character just had to say one word 'A' . After the initial  disappointment he tries saying the one word in different ways and styles . Nawazuddin is a talented actor and he should continue exploring new fields rather than working in dumb films like Aatma .


Zoya Akhtar 's story is about a young boy who wants to be a dancer like 'Sheila'  but plays football because his father wants him to. This story is kind of incomplete as there is confusion on whether Zoya wants to focus on the boy's feminism or his dancing skills .

Anurag Kashyap's story was the best of the lot. Unlike his other complex  films Black Friday (2004), Gulaal (2009), and Gangs of Wasseypur  this story was about a man from Allahabad who comes to Mumbai to fulfill his ailing father’s last wish. The highlight of the film is the hero Vineet who has given a range of expressions in his 20 min role. 

The weakest part of the film was the "Apna Bombay Talkies" song which had a number of film stars but was neither melodious nor a viewing pleasure.

In a line though the film is a tribute to 100 years of cinema, all the four stories  are far off  from epic  films like Mother India (1957)  Guide (1966) , Anand (1971) ,Deewar & Sholay (1975) ,Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) ,  Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) ,Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) etc which were universally loved  and  appreciated .
Time Pass .

Rank - 10 (Out of the 26 films I have seen in 2013)