Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar & Dibakar Banerjee – four of the finest directors come together to redefine Indian Cinema and celebrate the 100 years of Indian Cinema with the film Bombay Talkies.
Bombay Talkies is a collection of four films, each of them narrates stories about the problems of our society. The stories are very realistic and depict real life like situations and characters.
The first one titled as Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh is directed by Karan Johar. It is a love triangle between a journalist Gayatri (Rani Mukerji) and her husband Dev (Randeep Hooda). An intern Avinash (Saqib Saleem) is working in Gayatri’s office. She realizes that Avinash is a gay, and doesn’t have any problems with that. But when Avinash grows closer to her husband, for who may have feelings for him, things get complicated.
In the second story directed by Dibakar Banerjee, there is a down-on-his-luck father (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). This one is an adaptation of Satyajit Ray’s short story “Patol Babu, Film Star”.
Nawazuddin is a failed actor, struggling to make a living after his father’s death. He is a complacent sort of a person who thinks that job offers would just come to him easily. One day he confronts his master’s spirit who tells him that to get work, one has to try for finding a job.
In a dramatic situation, with series of incidents, he eventually stumbles upon his last chance to prove himself to the world. More than this, it is important for him to prove to his daughter that he is a worth father.
Third film is director Zoya Akhtar’s touching story about a pre-teen boy named Vicky (Naman Jain) who decides that he’s sick of playing sports and instead focuses on his true love: dance.
Vicky is a 12 year old boy who is determined to follow his dreams, come what may. His dad wants him to become a football player. It is only after watching the song ‘Sheela ki Jawani’ performed by Katrina Kaif, that he has now made up his mind to become a dancer.
And the last one is Anurag Kashyap’s story is that of a dutiful son (Vineet Kumar Singh) going on a quest to hunt down his ailing father’s favourite actor, Amitabh Bachchan.
Vijay comes to Mumbai from Uttar Pradesh to fulfill his ailing father’s last wish. His mission is to meet the superstar of Bollywood – Amitabh Bachchan. Vijay lands up outside the gates of the superstar’s bungalow, but is stopped by the security guards. It was after a lot of patience and perseverance (he even slept outside his bungalow) that he gets an opportunity to meet Mr Bachchan.
These directors – Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar have steered clear of any conventional plots stuffed in an ideal Hindi film.
Cast
Rani Mukerji – Gayatri
Randeep Hooda – Dev
Saqib Saleem – Avinash
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Naman Jain – Vicky
Vineet Kumar Singh – Vijay
Sadashiv Amrapurkar
Ranvir Shorey – Vicky’s Father
Sudhir Pandey – Vijay’s Father
Khushi Dubey – Kavya
Shiv Subramaniyam – Avinash’s Father
Pravina Deshpande – Avinash’s Mother
Nirvan Shah – Football Coach
Shoma Kaikini – Kathak Teacher
Ishtiaq Arif Khan – Bhurji Stall Owner
Swati Das – Vicky’s Mother
Paromita Chatterjee – Vijay’s Mother
Sanjeev Wilson – Taxi Driver
Abhishek Banerjee
Vishal Bhonsle
Credits & Crew:
Studio – Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Flying Unicorn Entertainment
Produced by – Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Ashi Dua
Directors – Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap
Written by – Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Reema Kagti
Music by Amit Trivedi
Cinematography – Anil Mehta, Carlos Catalan, Nikos Andritsakis, Rajeev Ravi, Ayananka Bose
Editing – Deepa Bhatia
Bombay Talkies – movie review