Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan saw me freaking out on day 1 of Metro In Dino, recalls Ali Fazal: ‘The film is inside Anurag Basu's head, no one knows what's happening'
'Basu sir has a very interesting way. The whole film is inside his head. So nobody knows what's happening. And that's another exhilarating experience because you don't know what's coming,' said Fazal, adding, 'I remember Adi (Kapur), Sara and all these guy are on set the first day, and they can see me freaking out! Kya karein, scene nahi hai (What to do, there's no scene paper). But that's how he works.'
In the interview with Galatta Plus, Fazal explained further, 'The scene paper comes in very last minute. Of course, there's a whole script, and he's got the whole thing down.' But he also pointed out that nobody could access the full script because Basu's approach to Metro In Dino is quite different from its first part.
'This particular construction of Metro is pretty different. And I think for that very reason, he didn't want us to read the script. It really helped! When the film is out, I'd love to talk about it. It's surprising that even in a very light, romantic film, he's managed to bring his swing. And I enjoy that,' added Fazal.
He claimed that collaborating with Basu can be both unsettling and rewarding. 'He pushes you! He'll throw in a word or an emotion, and just give me a little different perspective. Most times, when he gets it, he doesn't. That's another problem directors don't realize — Mani (Ratnam) sir, Basu, they are lovely directors, but actors love it when the director goes, 'Good!' But there's nothing. He just says, 'Next shot,'' said Fazal.
Fazal will be next seen in his debut Tamil film, Mani Ratnam's crime thriller Thug Life, in which he stars alongside Kamal Haasan, Simbu, Trisha, and Nasser among others. The film is slated to release in cinemas next Thursday on June 5. Going back to Metro In Dino, Fazal revealed it's a musical so Basu works around that.
Also Read — Ali Fazal on Mirzapur The Film: 'It is like going back to the start…'
'He'll give you a rhythm, literally a rhythm, sometimes as a beat! For me, that's like nectar because then I can map everything. We don't use beats or rhythm much. That's the way I learnt. I never got to learn acting. Hence, Adishakti. It's the one place where I managed to learn anything. Which is why I keep going back there,' said Fazal, referring to Adishakti Theatre Arts, a laboratory for theatre art research based in Tamil Nadu.
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Indian Express
35 minutes ago
- Indian Express
With Metro… In Dino, Anurag Basu defies box office logic as he makes yet another mad, messy musical
Chaos is the currency for Anurag Basu. It is both the means and the end for him. It fuels him, until it finishes him. He builds from it, until it starts breaking him. He falls prey to it, despite knowing it will eat his creation. He strives for it despite knowing that it will eventually create dissonance. As much as he talks in interviews about how you can't define an 'Anurag Basu film', but in truth, it is very much definable. In fact, in one pure word: chaos. As much as he says in his interviews that he is still figuring out his voice, but in truth, it is already formed. In fact, it can also be put into one word: madness. Madness not as loss of control, but as the only way to survive the noise. And he achieves this madness like an Imtiaz Ali protagonist, which is through music. Music becomes the map, the mirror, the method. If chaos is the question, then music is the only language he trusts to answer. It is some delight to witness Basu and his long-time partner in crime, Pritam, return to the roots of the musical with their recently released Metro… In Dino, even after the commercial stumble of their last theatrical outing, Jagga Jasoos. As a spiritual successor to the now-iconic Life in a… Metro, the expectation was clear: music would play a major role. But what I didn't anticipate was just how much of the film would be a musical, not simply driven by songs, but shaped and shaded by them. That's the thing with Basu: he knows how to remain palatable, even familiar, and yet, out of nowhere, he jolts you with pure invention. For a significant portion of Metro… In Dino, there's some joy in watching both Basu and Pritam abandon the metrics of box office logic and lose themselves in their own brand of madness. It is a some pleasure, especially in contemporary Bollywood, to see a filmmaker resist formula, to resist the pull of the customary, and instead, use a mainstream production banner not as a cage, but as a canvas for his unruly signature. And what a mad musical canvas it is. As always, Basu doesn't give a damn about cinematic conventions. Continuity is tossed into the air, spatiality is thrown out of the window, and temporality has no place here. You never realise when a rooftop performance by Pritam and his band, high above the city skyline, begins to dissolve into a sweeping introduction of the film's principal characters. Each of them bending to the musical cues, breaking the fourth wall, singing their past and present straight into the camera's eye. You never notice the moment you move from a vibrant Holi party in Bengaluru, where Thumri (Sara Ali Khan) dances in a trance of free-flowing joy, to Kolkata, where her mother Shibani (Neena Gupta) revels in colour at her own Holi celebration, then to Mumbai, where her other daughter, Kajol (Konkona Sen Sharma), argues in a car with her husband Monty (Pankaj Tripathi), while their daughter sits quietly in the back seat, struggling with her own adolescent anxieties. You never figure when the detour leads you back to Bengaluru, but this time, it's another Holi party, where Akash (Ali Fazal), Shruti (Fatima Sana Shaikh), and Parth (Aditya Roy Kapur) lose themselves in music. And you never register when, amidst this glowing, music-drenched introduction of characters, he also throws sadness into the mix, as Parimal (Anupam Kher), alongside his widowed daughter-in-law (Darshana Banik), stares outside their Kolkata house. Also Read | Metro In Dino movie review: Sara Ali Khan plays a Kareena Kapoor-coded character in Anurag Basu's annoying and exhilarating film That's truly a lot. But Basu leaps from one track to another, one city to the next, one character to the other, with such absurd confidence that you can't help but admire the sheer audacity of it. Jagga Jasoos was musical in its very syntax, every line, every cut, every beat rooted in rhythm. But here, he treats the medium almost like a Broadway musical, where reality shifts with the music. As the camera pulls back, the set rearranges itself in the background; as it pans, you move from a roadside walkway into a corporate alley; and as it tilts down, you fall from a sky-high highway, where characters are skydiving, straight into the middle of a wedding ceremony. There is no sense of geographical logic, and none is needed. It's Basu's world, a world where feeling overrides form, where emotion bends architecture. A world where youngsters in cafes sing out their dating adventures, and in another cafe, not far away, old lovers grieve their long-lost pasts in song. It's a world as messy as it can get, perhaps just like falling in love, perhaps just like life itself. It can be argued that the film truly peaks at the interval point. But through most of its second half, it begins to sag. The inventiveness slowly fades, the musicality vanishes, and the characters, much like Basu himself, begin to make strange, unconvincing choices. It feels as if someone whispered to him to hold back, to rein it in. It feels as if someone watched the second half of Jagga Jasoos and panicked, afraid he might wander down that wild, winding road once more. It feels as if a full stop had been imposed on a sentence still being written. So, the narrative, like the lives of its characters, begins to move in circles, aimless and without flavour, drained of the wild, unpredictable taste it once had. And this, in many ways, is the clearest reflection of a deeper issue in contemporary Bollywood: where big names in even bigger studios make the biggest decisions in the name of the commerce, but end up doing a disservice to the art. I don't know who made Basu pause, but whoever it was missed the point entirely. Because what they fail to understand is that indulgence is his greatest strength. Because, unlike any other filmmaker working today, he can hear the music.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Kamal Haasan restrained by Bengaluru court from making ‘defamatory' remarks against Kannada
The controversy around Kamal Haasan's remark on the Kannada language refuses to die down even a month after the infamous statement. Now, a local court in Bengaluru has passed an ex parte interim injunction order restraining the actor from making any remarks against the Kannada language. Actor Kamal Haasan's statement on Kannada during Thug Life promotions sparked controversy.(PTI) Bengaluru court restrains Kamal Haasan from statements against Kannada On Friday, an Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge in the city passed the order after hearing a suit filed by Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) through its president, Mahesh Joshi. According to PTI, the suit sought an injunction against Kamal Haasan from making any defamatory statements against the Kannada language and culture. After hearing the complainant's plea, the court passed an injunction restraining Kamal Haasan from 'posting, making, writing, publishing any statement or remarks claiming linguistic superiority over Kannada language or making any statements against the Kannada language, literature, land and culture'. The court also issued a summons to Kamal Hassan and posted the case to August 30 for further hearing. The actor will now have to appear before the court on the next date. Kamal Haasan Kannada row The controversy surrounding Kamal Haasan in Karnataka stems from a statement he made during the promotions of his latest film, Thug Life. At the music launch of the film in Bengaluru in May, Kamal Haasan said that 'Kannada was born out of Tamil'. The statement sparked widespread outrage among pro-Kannada groups and cultural organisations. After Kamal Haasan stood by his statement and refused to apologise, Thug Life was not released in Karnataka. The film's makers, including Kamal Haasan, went to court and secured a victory, but quite belatedly. Eventually, the film was never released in Karnataka, and did not perform very well at the box office elsewhere. Thug Life marked Kamal Haasan's reunion with Mani Ratnam after 37 years. However, the film failed to get much love from fans or the critics. Thug Life, which also stars Silambarasan, Trisha Krishnan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Abhirami, Ashok Selvan, Joju George, Nassar, Mahesh Manjrekar, Ali Fazal, Sanjana Krishnamoorthy and Tanikella Bharani, grossed just ₹93 crore worldwide. It is now streaming on Netflix.
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
Metro In Dino Box Office Collection Day 1: Anurag Basu's film opens slow, struggles to cross ₹3.5 crore
Metro In Dino Box Office Collection Day 1: Filmmaker Anurag Basu's latest outing, Metro In Dino, is off to a below-average start at the box office. It is the spiritual sequel of Basu's hit, Life In A Metro. The new installment, with fresh stories, stars Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta, Pankaj Tripathi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Aditya Roy Kapur, and Sara Ali Khan. According to industry tracker Sacnilk, Metro In Dino has raked in ₹ 3.35 crore on day 1. While these are early estimates from Friday, the film is likely to cross ₹ 3.5 crore overall. Metro... In Dino had an overall 17.99% occupancy on its opening day. The occupancy was as follows: Delhi NCR and Mumbai recorded the highest number of shows for Metro In Dino. In terms of occupancy, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru topped the list in order. Going by its advance bookings, Metro In Dino was predicted to bring in just ₹ 50–60 lakh, a relatively low figure for a multi-starrer. The film received mixed reviews from both critics and audiences. The overall weekend business will decide the fate of the film. However, Metro In Dino has already outperformed its prequel, Life In A Metro (2007), which opened at ₹ 87 lakh. The film eventually earned ₹ 24.31 crore worldwide during its blockbuster theatrical run.
