Jazz, Vintage cars, lust for
power and crime - Anurag Kashyap takes the essential elements from a typical
Martin Scorcese film, and presents a chronicle of the Bombay crime syndicates
in their infancy, circling around the classic tale of the underdog aspiring to
be the top guy. The film presents us with a lot of parameters to be judged
upon, and is quite an intricate subject, considering the Phantom films name tag
attached to it.
The Anurag Kashyap groupies might feel a little disappointed with this one. Just a little, mind you.
The story is adapted from Gyan
Prakash’s book, Mumbai Fables. Balraj
(Ranbir Kapoor) is an orphan from Sialkot, who came over to India after the
partition. Growing up in the underbelly of the seven islands of Bombay, he
aspires to live the good life, and longs to be ‘the big shot’. Kaizad Khambatta
(Karan Johar), a media mogul and crime lord, takes him under his wing, nicknaming
him Johnny. Rosie Noronha (Anushka Sharma), is a Goan jazz singer with her own
troubled past, and Johnny’s love interest.
It would
be wrong to place Bombay Velvet in the crime genre alone, as it contains
various elements of Neo-Noir too. You have the lead character, Johnny, his love
story with the femme fatale, Rosie, and the big, bad, crime-driven world ready
to smash their individual dreams with the baton of reality. Essentially, the film
in its basic idea presents nothing different from the stereotypical gangster
film. It is the story of a man whose circumstances induced him into pursuing a
life of crime, and the lavish, flamboyant lifestyle that was characteristic of
1960’s Bombay, which was the hub of business, fashion and entertainment in the
post-independance era.
The movie
stands apart in its depiction of Bombay, with the incredible eye for detail
that Kashyap is renowned for, which reflects in even the most minute stuff like
newspaper articles, paintings, the slangs and nicknames used by the Bombayites,
the make-up work with the bold depiction of blood and injury, and in Rosie’s back-story, the depiction of Portuguese
occupied Goa. The light yellow colour palette used in the film throughout, goes
perfectly with the era and character of the film, giving it a feel of a story
being told about a long lost time of wealth, class and organised crime. The
story, though covering most of the underlying elements of the
Bombay crime syndicate, was largely ordinary. Apart from that, the film dragged in several parts, with many
unnecessarily long scenes, which is quite unlike Kashyap, who is known to
provide incredible conversational detail without wasting important screen time.
One thing that drives the film at its centre was the chemistry between Anushka and
Ranbir. They play all-out lovers, whose feelings and passion for each other is
pure, uninhibited and child-like, which can be seen in their random kisses, the
physical fights and abuses, and their possessiveness for each other. Both are
tied to each other by the fact that they have been used by the world throughout
their lives, and their mutual dream of a more fulfilling life. Ranbir neatly
pulls off the role of Johnny Balraj, the street fighter turned gangster, effectively
portraying the innocence, the testosterone, the unpolished, brash attitude and hunger for the
good life that was essential to the character. Anushka too looks innocently
cute as the jazz singer, Rosie Noronha.
It was
quite a surprise when Kashyap didn’t opt to cast his regular team of actors
frequently appearing in most of his films, and chose to go with a much more
mainstream line-up. Nevertheless, the film boasts of some really efficient
casting. Karan Johar makes his first full-time screen appearance as Khambatta,
the film’s antagonist, and we have nothing but praises for him. We saw him before in DDLJ, in quite an insignificant role. As Khambatta, Johar fit the
bill perfectly, implementing much of his real life flamboyance and style into
the role of a calm, calculative mastermind, which results in quite a memorable performance from the National
Award winning director.
We felt disappointed by Kay Kay Menon’s casting. His role was immensely insignificant, and we think his skills could have been used in a much better manner. Other stars include Vivaan Shah, and cameos by Remo Fernandes, and Raveena Tandon as a jazz singer.
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