‘Metro... in Dino' movie review: Anurag Basu dissects modern love with a poetic flourish

The Hindu

4 days ago

Early in Metro... In Dino, a middle-aged, middle-of-the-road Monty Sisodia (Pankaj Tripathi), desperate to press the refresh button in his married life, blurts out infertility, infidelity, and morality in one sentence to his nagging wife, Kajol (Konkona Sen Sharma), who seems caught between the ideals of today and the values of the past. In one comic flourish, director Anurag Basu reveals what his kaleidoscope holds, keeping us invested for almost three hours.
A child born when Life in a Metro hit the theaters must be 18 now. Not much has changed in relationships, apart from the fact that now we have a teenager in the film who is grappling with her sexuality, and she is in no hurry. Meanwhile, technology and therapy have alleviated the issues faced by the individualistic generation and the concerns of people who missed the bus because they prioritised their family over themselves. Our films often tilt one way or the other. Critics bracket them as progressive, regressive, or somewhere in between. Anurag and his co-writers once again break the brackets and jettison algorithmic screenplays to craft a heart-warming tale of people falling in and out of love. There are echoes of the original, but Metro...in Dino has its own heart.
Initially, the film breaks the fourth wall a little too often to address us directly, but it gradually settles into a nice rhythm with unpredictable beats. You can feel the zephyr of romance all through, but we know how Anurag lacerates the healed wounds of his audience ever so gently. You can find reflection in his characters and cinematic situations as they fluidly convey the eternal chaos created by Cupid and corporate culture in today's language. It is both disturbing and probing, yet cathartic and uplifting. At times, all in one moment.
Metro...in Dino (Hindi)
Director: Anurag Basu
Cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, Ali Fazal, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Neena Gupta, Anupam Kher
Run-time: 162 minutes
Storyline: This hyperlink romantic drama follows stories of love, longing, infidelity, and morality in urban cities
There are passages in the film that feel stretched or slightly overwritten, but they seldom feel false. It is interesting because the five strands in the hyperlink film explore the acts we put on, the pretence we put up to keep the ball of relationships in play. Anurag's skill lies in first creating the masks we all preen in, and the moment we become comfortable in the skin of the film, he starts peeling them off, layer by layer. He makes an effort not to label anyone as a villain. In his triangles, none of the angles feel shortchanged, and he is self-aware about smothering the cliches when they become unavoidable in the journey.
When Kajol literally drives into a cliche in Goa, a utility bag comes from nowhere and covers her face. When Chumki (Sara Ali Khan) lands at a Niwas instead of Awaas, we discover that the difference between the right and wrong choice is sometimes minimal to decipher. The act of life in the film resonates on both an emotional and artistic level, a rare combination these days. Like a magic trick, the narrative transitions smoothly from a light-hearted moment to darker depths without jerking the audience out of the moment. In this sense, it is not just a spiritual successor to Life in a Metro; it also carries the stamp of Anurag's Barfi, Jagga Jasoos, and Ludo in terms of storytelling and technical brilliance. With each passing film, the drag is being minimised, and the artifice is being diminished. Credit also goes to editor Bodhaditya Banerjee for keeping the transitions between different strands smooth yet intricate. The characters grapple with love, loss, and redemption in various ways, yet they feel authentic and relatable.
In hyperlink films, establishing the character quickly is crucial, making the choice of actors all the more important. Aditya Roy Kapur and Sara make the lust/ lost confusion of today's generation relatable. Both convey the psychological cracks and social awkwardness beneath that veneer of cocky confidence. It is the spark between them that ignites the mainstream engine. Then, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Ali Fazal press the gears to decide between career and family. While Ali seems to have been cast to fulfill the unrealised ambition of his character in 3 Idiots, the underrated Fatima excels in a complex role, with her Shruti reminding me of her performance in Modern Love Mumbai.
Tripathi and Sen Sharma prompt us to introspect on the charade of vibrancy that we often encounter on social media. It is mounted as light-hearted, but the strand carries a lot of weight. Tripathi seamlessly slips into the shoes of Irrfan, who lit up Metro in 2007, and Sen Sharma excels once again in portraying a woman torn between this and that. In the older generation, Neena Gupta, as Shibani, inhabits a similar yet slightly more assured space. Together with Anupam Kher, she creates a portrait of college friends pulled apart by destiny. It gets cloying as Anurag comes from the old school when melodrama was not a curse word in screenwriting. He breaks the shackles of predictability with insightful humour and the lilt in his writing and camerawork. One moment, the film nurtures the young roots with a meta joke on human photosynthesis, and at another, it calms the frayed nerves with Momin's description of the contract of lovebirds, 'Woh Jo Hum Mein Tum Mein Qarar Tha'.
In Anurag's universe, songs are not just of ornamental value. They are integral to storytelling. From qawwali strains to growling metal, Pritam has crafted a wholesome musical experience, with the poetry of Qaisar Jafri and Neelesh Misra creating a rich emotional tapestry. Jafri's 'Tumhare Shehar Ka Mausam Bada Suhana Lage' takes the form of an urban ballad, thanks to Anurag's eye for detail. Watch it with someone you love. Watch it for someone you pine for.
Metro... in Dino is currently running in theatres.