Sunday, June 14, 2015

Movie Review: Bombay Velvet

Most of us weren't even born in the 60s... even then, Anurag Kashyap's wonderfully created atmospherics with the jazz bars, motorcars, trams and the harbor of a Bombay on the cusp of tremendous growth from a "seven island city" to India's biggest metropolis will enthrall you, and transport you to a very different era.

Raveena Tandon in a tiny but memorable cameo, Remo Fernandes in an unmemorable one, Karan Johar as the villain (well, one of them, anyway... with a couple of good scenes, but otherwise pretty flat), Sidharth Basu, and of course, Ranbir and Anushka in decent performances - the real star, though, is the beautifully rendered "you are no one if you aren't invited here" night club Bombay Velvet, where illegal liquor flows as freely as shady deals, while gorgeously dressed singers croon to jazz music.

The story is slow, but there is an underlying current of tension and unpredictability, and the amazing soundtrack, the all-permeating jazz and the Quentin Tarantino-style action sequences, which reach a crescendo towards the end, all add up to make this a wonderful cinematic experience (but only if you experience it on 70 mm with Dolby!)

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