Life In A Metro - Review

This is yet another story based on, though not limited to, the contemporary subject of extra-marital affairs. Revolving around the turbulence in the married life of Shilpa Shetty (Shikha) and Kay Kay Menon (Ranjeet), the story also touches beautifully the love life of three other couples. The film is well balanced, though focused solely on the subject of love and related emotions in a city life like that of Mumbai.

The entire movie is based and shot at Mumbai, which is getting difficult to find out now-a-days. It is good to see that, some directors (like in this film Anurag Basu) are courageous enough to be creative and different than just roam around the world in search of beautiful landscapes and sky scrappers. The story line is strong and the screen play engrosses the audience into the theme. Based on the glaze of rapid economic development in the metro life of the people, many fall prey to imbalance in personal and working life as well as to keep up their moral values.

Irfaan Khan (Debu) is a star performer and once again after “The Namesake” he proved that, he has the ability to involve the audience in his character. He represents the common man in the movie who is less ambitious than some other characters. Shilpa Shetty plays the key role in the movie and the whole story moves around her relationship at the brink of breaking down with his unfaithful husband. The husband is too busy for his family happiness and is involved in an extra-marital affair since last two years.

The other characters are equally notable. Konkana Sensharma (Shruti) is young working girl and looking for a perfect match. Kangana Ranaut (Neha) is involved in an affair which she thinks is love but is never based on the required strong bonds and her boss compensates her well to have the relationship with her. The only emotional part of her story is that, the person she is involved with in the affair is her room – mate’s (Shruti) brother-in-law (Ranjeet). Her colleague and friend Sharman Joshi (Rahul) is always in search of her love and ultimately finds that. Rahul is an ambitious guy looking for some thing big and fast in his life.

Meanwhile Shikha falls in love with a small time theatre actor Shiney Ahuja (Akash) who has lots of emotions and some dreams in his unsuccessful life. He is separated from his wife and family and gets emotional chord with Shikha in their local transportation life of Mumbai.

Not the least, the love life of Nafisa Ali (Vaijyanti) the dance teacher of Shikha, has got new life after 40 years of separation with her ex-boyfriend Dharmendra (Amol). They are courageous enough to have a fresh start at the fag end of their life and in the way inspire the other characters to express their love.

The closure of the story is reasonable and acceptable to the audience. Most of the characters did justice to their role and never suffered from stardom. The music by Pritam is good, based on powerful lyrics and unique style of presentation. Especially the numbers “In Dino” and “…Alvida…” are catchy and already much popular with the audience. However, the appearance of the street band in every song sequence was too repetitive and should have been restricted to 2-3 songs at the most. The most humorous moment in the movie is when Irfaan is proposed by Konkana while he is on the way to his marriage and Irfaan’s only concern is “…par petticoat to sab uske naap se silwa liya…”.

Overall I’m generous enough to mark three stars and worth watching once.

National Policy on Retailing

National Policy on Retailing

This article is on the backdrop of Traders' Attack on Reliance Fresh Outlet in Ranchi.

There should be a National Policy on Retail Sector immediately. Also, the MNCs and Large Corporate houses should be banned from specific sectors in retailing. The Food Corporation of India and other similar bodies in the Public Sector should play a major role in ensuring best prices to the consumers, small traders and farmers as well.

The government should come out with a proactive policy on the same which is justifiable to Indian circumstances and be acceptable to all. The Policy should not benefit only a few industrial houses or MNCs. It should focus on equal distribution of wealth, upliftment of farmers and small traders and should provide ease and convenience to consumers. Public discussion should be held in all major cities to generate a national consensus.

Based on the experience of last few years in the retail sector, the government should take into confidence all sections of the society and economy. On the one hand, the consumers' best interests should be ensured such as quality product at reasonable prices and accessibility to market. While on the other hand they should not destroy the existing retailing structure comprising of millions of marginal traders in India, should be focussed upon.

Before further diley daley and more attacks on organized retail players which is equivalent to vandalizm, the central government should spell out the much needed policy at the earliest in the best interest of all.