Friday, 15 May 2015

Bombay Velvet : The Bugle's Verdict

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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.


VERDICT – Watch Bombay Velvet for some great cinematography, for the trip to the Bombay of old and the classic black-and-white era in rich life-like colour, to experience the stylish, gangland gun-toting action in the Anurag Kashyap fashion, and appreciable performances by Ranbir Kapoor and Karan Johar. Don't try to look too much at the watch, and you might have a good time.


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