Movie Review

Rating :

Verdict : It's a good one but from the team of Shahid and with Mahesh Bhatt backing the project, we expected more __________________________________________________________

Story :-

CityLights is the story of Deepak Singh (Rajkumar Rao) who lives in a small village in Rajasthan with his wife and daughter. Since he finds it difficult to make the ends meet, he plans to move to Mumbai. His wife initially hesitant about aimlessly shifting to a big city without any proper plan eventually agrees and both along with their daughter head to Mumbai. Soon after reaching they are cheated by some people who pretended to help them get a small house. They lose their monumental support when they lose ten thousand rupees which they were carrying and now the family doesn't have a penny to survive, they end up staying in an under construction building.

Deepak finds a job in a security agency and with absolutely no choice left, his wife lands up at a bar seeking a job as a dancer. The scene where she is inside a bar, in front of the manager asking for a job is heartbreaking. It does give you an idea on how ruthless the city can be to the poor. The manager is checking her out from top to bottom and back to front, he turns on some music on his mobile and asks her to dance right there.

Deepak eventually finds out that he is trapped in a big conspiracy by his own manager who pretended to be his friend all this while. what happens next is the rest of story.

Positive Points:-

‘Citylights’ is a remake of a British flick ‘Metro Manila’ but director Hansal Mehta has very smartly added an Indian touch to the screenplay of the film. The movie showcases some ugly truths about the big city of dreams, Mumbai, which every new resident of the city might relate to.

Speaking of performances, National Award winning actor, Rajkummar Rao once again strikes the right chord with his superlative performance.

Some of the scenes where Rajkummar finds out about his wife’s bar job and the one where he given a house on rent by his friend, he shines with flying colors. The actor’s innocence in the film may get you in tears. I can go on and on about him, as he is easily capable of carrying the whole movie on his shoulders.

Debutant Patralekha is equally best in her part. She does full justice to the character with her sheer warmth. She consistently matches Rajkummar’s flair.

Manav Kaul is fantastic in his role and proves his worth as an actor with this one.

Negative Points:-

The disappointment is that, that a talented director like Hansal Mehta fails to showcase the darkest secret of the city that well.

While he gets into the most disturbing parts of the society including dance bars and drug peddlers, he clearly fails to get deep into what actually happens here and how people deal with it.

Also the worst part about the film has to be its climax. An evidently unwanted climax could have been written more realistically.

Technical Points:-

Hansal Mehta, who has earlier directed an acclaimed flick like ‘Shahid’, once again brings up a serious issue that the society faces time and again.

The director has made his characters look so damn innocent that a hardest heart too may break down in a few scenes.

Even an innocent and grounded man like Deepak can go to any extent to make his family happy, when came face to face to with the ugliest part of the city.

Hansal however does an average job with the climax and the second half of the film. The movie is quite good in the first half, but drops a little after the interval.

Dialogues are written amazingly well. Apurva Asrani’s editing is crisp and Dev Agarwal’s cinematography is very good.

Raju Singh’s background score adds to every scene for the film. Jeet Ganguly’s music is awesome and every song gels well with the theme of the film.

Composer Jeet Ganguly and lyricist Rashmi Singh, has done a wonderful job. Producers Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt and Fox Studios deserve kudos for backing such a raw, visceral film.