Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Karan Johar, Satyadeep Mishra, Siddhartha Basu, Kay Kay Menon, Manish Choudhary, Vivaan Shah
Direction: Anurag Kashyap
Ratings:
(3/5)However, in his creation, Kashyap suffers the fate of a Greek hero; while creating a work of art so grandiose, the hamartia creeps in and takes it to a tragic end.
Bombay Velvet credits four people as its writers - Vasan Bala, Gyan Prakash, S Thanikachalam and Anurag Kashyap, and draws from Prakash's 2010 book Mumbai Fables. From the post-Independence Bombay of 1949 to the city at the close of 1969, this period film attempts to take the viewer through a beautiful journey of how the humble Bombay became a 'mahanagri'. And with this elaborate a backdrop, Balraj (Ranbir Kapoor) metamorphoses to Johnny Balraj, and Rosie Noronha (Anushka Sharma) becomes the Jazz legend of the city. Kaizad Khambatta (Karan Johar), a media Mogul, takes the new Balraj under his wing and has this street-fighter dreaming about owning his own share of the Big Bombay Dream. His rival Jamshed Mistry (Manish Choudhary) is on a mission to pull down the 'socialist, American' Khambatta.
All of these men and the woman have Bombay Velvet in common. Balraj manages the club and all that goes on behind the glossy facades, and Rosie presents her Jazz skills to the people here. In essence, Bombay Velvet is to Bombay what Rick's Cafe Americain is to the 1942 Casablanca. Everybody comes to this Bollywood version of Rick's; every 'big shot' in the city throngs to Bombay Velvet.
Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma play the lead roles in the film Torn by his desire to die as a 'big shot', Balraj embraces Johnny. And in his quest for this larger-than-life avatar, Chimman (Satyadeep Mishra) acts as his brother-in-arms. The two are inseparable since childhood, they enter the world of mobsters and bullets together, but before long, one ends up taking over the other. A bromance is established, but like several other things in the film, doesn't quite feel convincing enough.Underneath all the jazz and intricacy, this period film is essentially a love story. A tale of star-cross'd lovers that wants you to fall in love with them.
Created completely in Sri Lanka, the film gets the Bombay of the 60s flawlessly perfect. From the advertisements on the double-decker buses on the streets of the city to the tabloids, from the headlines in the newspapers to the pencil-moustaches of the characters, the production design, costumes, sets - everything is jaw-droppingly brilliant. As far as creating a complete world out of thin air is concerned, Kashyap and his team deserve more than full marks, the film is that beautiful to look at. And therein lies the problem of the film. It suffers from the spent-so-much-time-on-everything-else-that-lost-sight-of-the-story syndrome, which seems to affect Bollywood every once in a while these days. The story fizzles out before the end. Each frame is so lavish, so well-crafted that it calls for a lot more than the amount of time it is allotted so that the spread can be enjoyed.
Bombay Velvet sees some oeuvre-defining acting from its lead actors Ranbir and Anushka, and re-reminds one of the former's skills and the latter's growth as an actor. Karan Johar's sinister Khambatta act is raw and real, and the last few minutes of the film help the director clinch the title of an 'actor', too. The ensemble cast is well cast in their roles, and Satyadeep Mishra deserves much praise for getting the word across with just a stare. Manish Choudhary, Siddhartha Basu, Kay Kay Menon, Vivaan Shah - all do adequate justice to their roles.
Rajeev Ravi's cinematography is pitch-perfect. The Bombay of yore blends in beautifully with the CGI graphics, enabling one to forget that it's just the sets in Sri Lanka and not the real Bombay of the 60s on screen, and in the process, makes the film a delight to watch. Thelma Schoonmaker and Prerna Saigal's editing should have been a lot tighter in order to have avoided the occasional yawns.
ALSO READ: Suhani Singh's review of Bombay Velvet
There's a reference to Martin Scorcese's Goodfellas' opening scene in this film: The knife, the trunk of the Pontiac and the body. And towards the end of the film, this scene where Balraj emerges with Tommy Guns in either hand, peppering the Bombay Velvet kitchen with bullets, reminds one of Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur II, when Faizal (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) gets down to fulfilling his 'Baap ka, dada ka, bhai ka, sab ka badlalega re tera Faizal' vow. Just that while a deep-seated will for revenge justified the bloodbath there and ended in The Death of Ramadhir, nothing really helps explain the flying bullets here.
Amit Trivedi's music and Amitabh Bhattacharya's lyrics are behind the numerous songs of the film, and some of the numbers stand out among the rest. Fifi, Mohabbat Buri Bimari and Behroopiya are among the more impactful ones of the lot.
In all, Bombay Velvet doesn't match up to the expectations one had from it. Despite all the grandiosity, one needs to be well-equipped in patience in order to savour the film. The external embellishments render the film quite heavy. It teeters on the edge, but ultimately manages to sail through. Bombay Velvet is grand, exquisite, elaborate ... and deserves a watch for Kashyap's style.
Source: Indiatoday
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