Life in a ... Metro Tagline: One city. Countless emotions. Runtime: 131min 59sec - Written & Directed by: Anurag Basu

Plot Outline
India is shining. The GDP is increasing. The sensex is at an all time high... Malls... Multiplexes ... Cars ... metros ... Everything is growing... Even the distance between the hearts. Emotions run amok in a city that fights for attention. Staying on the top means running someone down; a promotion means sidelining someone else. Love means a 'no strings attached' tryst in a an empty flat. 'Commitment' and 'Love' are words for losers.. or so they say!

But life has a way of turning things around. "Life in a Metro" is a churn of these emotions set in the lives of various people .. people like us.

Overall Impressions
Well, this year we've already had Salaam-e-Ishq and Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd that showed multiple stories running in parallel, this one also falls under the same umbrella in that respect, but similarities do end there. It's a whole different flavour of film. It's a lot more real and gritty. The above mentioned were more glitz and glamour. Also this time round the multiple storylines are more connected rather than a simple one scene crossover.

Rahul [Sharman Joshi] works as a call centre executive in Mumbai. He silently loves his colleague Neha [Kangana Ranaut]. Neha is a smart young woman who has climbed the ladder in a very short time. Partly because She's sleeping with the boss.

The boss, Ranjeet [Kay Kay Menon] is married to Shikha [Shilpa Shetty] with a 6-year-old daughter. As he ventured out on his quest for money and success, he has forgotten his family somewhere along the way. In bitterness and boredom he found solace and a fresh lease of life in Neha.

Neglected by an indifferent husband and bogged down by family chores, Shikha is soon attracted to Akash [Shiney Ahuja], a struggling theatre artist whose wife has divorced him because she cannot stand his failures anymore. As, Akash and Shikha's love blossoms she struggles with the moral dilemma at hand.

Amol [Dharmendra] is a 70-year-old man who returns to India after 40 years. To spend the last few years of his life with his first love, Vaijanti [Nafisa Ali]. The lady lives in an old-age home and is Shikha's aunt and friend. Shikha's sister and Neha's room-mate, Shruti [Konkona Sen Sharma], works at 'Radio Mirchi'. In her 30s and still a virgin, she's desperate to get married. She meets Debu [Irrfan Khan] through a matrimonial site. She doesn't like him much, but it doesn't seem to bother him as he stares at her, smitten.

It sounds quite complex but it all flows quite easily, and that has to be praised in the writing. You're never overwhelmed by the numerous characters or any information overflow. You get to know just enough about the characters, a hard balance to find in such a film. Even the climax and the way each story pans out is a good compromise between filmi & reality.

Particularly the two endings that seem a little depressing, are really not that far from the truth, these things just pan out this way in reality. It's good to see we're not out to simply sell escapism through a happy ending, but throwing in some education too. People do prioritise their culture and responsibilities above what they perhaps should, because this is the way we are brought up.

The music fits around the film well, the use of a band (also called Metro) in all the songs is utilised well to conform a certain theme about the music. However seeing them in every song for a large portion of it, though novel, got quite irritating.

Performances
Seems the spotlight is on Shilpa Shetty these days & it has to be said, she's come a long way since Baazigar where Shah Rukh Khan had the pleasure of throwing her off a building. It's being advertised in the UK as one of her best performances yet, and I agree, it probably is, but let's just say actresses scarcely get scope to improve their acting.

Irrfan Khan is the life of the film, though only in a handful of scenes, he'll be remembered the most. His portions with Konkona Sen are a treat, they both work very well together. Sharman Joshi is good, he's clearly had to underplay the character which he manages to do well. Shiney Ahuja just doesn't get a chance to shine (<-- See what I did there?), but is likable all the same. Kay Kay Menon is someone you'll have no trouble hating, one of the few true villains of today.

So overall, it's not a must go see at the cinema film, but it's certainly worth seeing.