Anurag Basu didn’t need Shilpa Shetty’s character Shikha to finish up along with her lover Aakash (Shiney Ahuja) on the finish of Life in a Metro. He thought no Indian lady would give priority to her needs over her household. The director made the impromptu plot change on the set whereas taking pictures the climax of the anthology. 15 years on, Shilpa Shetty believes that’s precisely what labored for her monitor — Shikha making the massive compromise and burying her emotions for the sake of her daughter.
“We always underestimated our audience. When I made Life in a Metro, people loved it. But that was more complicated as I shot it 15 years back. The audience has definitely grown in a decade,” Anurag instructed indianexpress.com.
Does that imply the film, if made in 2022, would finish in another way? That’s subjective, open to dialogue. But, one factor stays — human connections are as twisted as they had been again then.
Kangana Ranaut and Konkana Sen Sharma performed flatmates in Life in a Metro.
Life in a Metro would possibly discover the hard-pressed life of individuals dwelling in a metropolitan metropolis (Mumbai, right here), however on the core of it, it unravels how sentiments and complexities in relationships are of identical diploma, regardless of age or gender. The film might need launched in 2007, however there’s a motive why it’s nonetheless related.
Life in a Metro wasn’t the primary film that explored the underbelly of Mumbai. We’ve had Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, Citylights, Mumbai Meri Jaan and extra. But Anurag Basu‘s finesse at picking nine individuals, intertwining their stories touching upon topics like infidelity, love, loneliness, ambition, trust, betrayal and despair, made it special. With a stellar starcast of Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kay Kay Menon, Kangana Ranaut, Shilpa Shetty, Shiney Ahuja and Sharman Joshi, each of their character was at par. It’s a collage of tales about individuals and relationships.
There is an aged couple making an attempt to rekindle their past love of their golden years. A younger couple is caught in a loveless marriage. In the midst, we’ve got an formidable man, a girl able to make compromises to climb the ladder of success, and a girl who’s holding out for a significant relationship. Interestingly, every character would possibly belong to the identical metropolis, however had a distinct temperament, and but they’re interlinked in a manner that story plot stays incomplete with out the opposite.
So what binds every story? It’s the necessity of each character and expectations from each other, which keep the identical. All of them wish to be beloved and desired, with town appearing as a catalyst. There’s a powerful emotional thread that connects its main gamers with the viewers, making it a bitter-sweet ode to not simply Mumbai, but additionally its individuals.
Shilpa Shetty and Shiney Ahuja in a nonetheless from Life in a Metro.
The tales of Life in a Metro aren’t one thing we haven’t seen earlier than. There’s an undercurrent of melancholy all through the screenplay, but a way of familiarity. It has its coronary heart in the best place, even when it’s exhibiting its characters at their weakest.
Some would possibly ask, why would they watch characters who they meet of their day-to-day lives for actual. I’d say, it’s for its profound newness when it comes to storytelling. In the deafening chaos of the Maximum City lies a dreadful silence; within the fast-moving lives lies a stillness. When Irrfan urges Konkana to scream her coronary heart out to let go of the ache, you are feeling a prick inside you. And when he tells Konkana that she gained’t match within the bridal gown (petticoat) he’s obtained made, you giggle your coronary heart out. That’s how Anurag Basu ensures the film doesn’t get preachy. Today, the director is understood for turning the setting into a personality, which began with Life in a Metro.
An fascinating aspect within the film was Pritam’s music and the way in which his band pops up at essential plot factors, breaking the fourth wall and depicting the happiness or ache of the characters.
Anurag Basu reportedly had plans for a sequel too. He stated in a earlier interview that Irrfan Khan had pushed him to jot down its subsequent half. “Metro 2 is on top of my bucket list. The other day I had an internal meeting with my team of assistants and all, where I read them three new scripts of mine and the first question I received from them was when I am doing Metro 2. So, internally also, everybody in my team thinks that I should start writing Metro 2 as my next, but I don’t know.”
Though many additionally known as his final launch Ludo a sequel to Metro, Basu rejects the claims. “I just did Ludo, so I don’t want to make an anthology for now so soon,” he added.
