MUMBAI MERI JAAN : FILM REVIEW

Mumbai , which is still known world over as Bombay,is a collage of
seven islands. Toward the end of Mumbai Meri Jaan, a retiring police
constable, skillfully enacted by Paresh Rawal, wonders if the seven
train bombs, which killed over two hundred people, will divide the
city again. It's perfectly observed moments like this that make the
film worth watching.

Mumbai Meri Jaan, the movie, run follows six characters from
different strata of society : Two Policemen, TV Reporter, Madrasi
Chai Wala, Educated Youth , High End Young Working Professional their
life and the impact the 2006 train blasts has on their lives.

The idealist young professional played by Madhavan, refuses to buy a
car because he doesn't want to add to the city's nightmarish traffic,
finds that he cannot board a train anymore because it gives him
anxiety attacks.

A television Reporter acted by Soha Ali Khan, whose fiancée is killed
in the blasts, becomes prime time fodder herself as her intrusive
colleagues turn her grief into a show called: Kyun Rupali bani Rudali.

Two lowly constables Paresh Rawal and Vijay Morya who help each other
grapple with the brutal and indifferent system, which grinds good
intentions into dust.

An educated but unemployed young man Kay Kay Menon, spends his day
concocting communal conspiracy theories. Bullying an old, Muslim man
on a road somehow dulls his own frustrations.

A Madrasi Chai Wala, Irfan Khan, whose life centred around selling
Chai on his cycle, his chai some how making two ends bread and butter
but is subjected to harrasment by Police because he is an 'Outsider',
treated badly by upmarket Mall authories because he is not their kind
of customer, takes his own kind of revenge with the sytem after blast
by making hoax bomb calls.

Director Nishikant Kamath ably captures the compounding of tragedies
in a city like Mumbai. These are people in grief, creating more grief.
At yet, at the end of this dense film, we leave with a glimmer a hope,
that despite everything, humanity prevails.

Nishikant is a filmmaker with range: he's directed the National Award
winning-Marathi film Dombivili Fast but also written the appalling
Neha Duphia call girl drama Julie.

So Mumbai Meri Jaan veers between poignant scenes that wring your guts
and clumsy sermonising that is almost comical. Interweaving so many
narrative tracks requires great skill and here Nishikant loses his
grip for long patches in the film, the tightness of script is
missing.Post-interval, the tension dissipates and toward the end,
there is some heavy-handed dialogue underlining the fact that
terrorism is a global scourge. But the basic questionin the movie is
not addressed at all, who are the people behind the blasts, what is
their mind, how they easily infilterate in our system.

Okay, Okay despite all the loose ends, the film has to be appreciated
for its good intentions, its emphasis to take along all section of
society together, hormonise the society. The performances specially
of Soha Ali Khan, Irfan Khan, Paresh Rawal make up for all flaws in
craft and writing. All the actors from Madhavan to Vijay Maurya are in
fine form. There is a dignity and stillness in their suffering that
speaks louder than any melodrama. Kudos for the photography, it
perfectly captures the pulse, the moods and the busy life style of
city.The shots of blasts, I do not know whether these are stock or
recreated may leave an impact in the mind of terrorits or the
terrorist sympathisers .

The famous song Aai Dil Mushkil Jeena Yahan, Jara Hat Ke Jara Bachke
Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan is played at the end of movie, which is a
great tribute to the city of Bombay, But Nishikant ! beware some of
the fanatic may demand you to replace the word Bombay with Mumbai in
the immortal song.