As Anurag Basu’s Life in a Metro celebrates its 15th anniversary, we look back at why the film worked and what keeps it relevant today
In Life in a Metro, Anurag Basu’s did not want Shilpa Shetty’s character Shikha (Shilpa Shetty) to end up with Aakash (Shiney Ahuja). He believed that no Indian woman would prioritize her desires over her family. The director made the impromptu plot change on the set while filming the anthology’s climax. Shilpa Shetty believes Shikha’s big compromise and burying her feelings for the sake of her daughter worked for her track 15 years later.
“We were constantly underestimating our audience.” People loved Life in a Metro when I made it. But that was more difficult because I shot it 15 years ago. “In a decade, the audience has grown,” Anurag told indianexpress.com.
Does this imply that if the film were made in 2022, it would end differently? That is subjective and open to debate. But one thing hasn’t changed: human connections are still as twisted as they were back then.
Life in a Metro may explore the difficult lives of people living in a metropolitan city (Mumbai, in this case), but at its core, it reveals how sentiments and complexities in relationships are the same, regardless of age or gender. The film was released in 2007, but there is a reason why it is still relevant today.
Life in a Metro was not the first film to investigate Mumbai’s underworld. We’ve seen Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, Citylights, Mumbai Meri Jaan, and many more films. But Anurag Basu’s skill in selecting nine people and interweaving their tales of adultery, love, loneliness, ambition, trust, betrayal, and misery set it apart. Each of the characters was on par with the brilliant cast of Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kay Kay Menon, Kangana Ranaut, Shilpa Shetty, Shiney Ahuja, and Sharman Joshi. It’s a jumbled collection of tales about people and relationships.
In their golden years, an elderly couple is attempting to reignite their first love. A young couple is trapped in an unhappy marriage. We have an ambitious guy, a lady willing to make sacrifices to climb the success ladder, and a woman hoping for a meaningful relationship. Interestingly, each character may be from the same place but has a distinct temperament, yet they are interconnected in such a manner that the tale plot is incomplete without the other.
So, what connects each story? It’s the characters’ needs and expectations of one another that remains constant. The city serves as a stimulant for their need to be liked and wanted. There’s a strong emotional thread connecting its main characters to the viewer, making it a bittersweet homage to not just Mumbai, but also its people.
We’ve seen tales like Life in a Metro before. The script has an undertone of sorrow as well as a feeling of familiarity. It has a good heart, even when it shows its characters at their most vulnerable.
Some may wonder why they would watch people they encounter in their daily lives for real. I’d say it’s for its radical newness in the narrative. There is a terrible hush amid the noisy bustle of the Maximum City; a stillness in the fast-moving life. You feel a stab within you as Irrfan begs Konkana to scream her heart out to let go of the anguish. And you laugh your heart out when he informs Konkana that she won’t fit into the wedding gown (petticoat) he’s had made. That’s how Anurag Basu keeps the film from being preachy. The filmmaker is now recognized for making the location become a character, something he began with Life in a Metro.
Pritam’s music and the way his band appears at key story periods, breaching the fourth wall and showing the characters’ enjoyment or anguish, was an intriguing aspect of the film.
Anurag Basu allegedly had ideas for a sequel as well. In an earlier interview, he said that Irrfan Khan encouraged him to write the next installment. “Metro 2 is towards the top of my bucket list.” I had an internal meeting the other day with my team of assistants and whatnot, and I gave them three new scripts, and the first question I heard from them was about when I would be shooting Metro 2. So, internally, everyone in my team believes I should start creating Metro 2 as my next project, but I’m not sure.”
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