City Lights [2014]

Language - Hindi
Director - Hansal Mehta
Run Time - 2 hours, 6 minutes
Genre - Drama

City Lights. Raw and gripping story of yet another man who comes to Mumbai to fulfill his dreams. What must he do to survive? Hansal Mehta reunites with his National Award winning actor Rajkumar Rao to make yet another good movie. He has hit the sword right, yet again with this movie, and it is a delight to watch.
But the problem, as it was with Shahid, is that it could be something much more. But yet, I am happy at the way Indian films are going over the cliched slapstick comedies and 'hero-kicking-everyone's-ass' movies

Rajkumar Rao  is evolving as brilliant actor day by day, and puts in an extraordinary performance as the gullible, hardworking Rajasthani villager, complete with the accent, and the trademark mustache. Manav Kaul and Patraleka as the two supporting actors do not dissapoint and give the movie some depth.

City Lights follows the tale of Deepak Singh [Rajkumar Rao] travelling to Mumbai to earn a living, with his wife [Patralekha] and daughter. He is duped of all his money as soon as he reaches and is forced to sleep on the roads. His wife meanwhile, has to resort to bar dancing to earn some bread. Deepak finds a job at last, as a guard at a armoured truck company, where he befriends Vishnu Sir [Manav Kaul], who was instrumental in Deepak getting the job, and becomes his mentor. Mid-way, we get to know about the sinister plots of Vishnu Sir, to unlock a box and keep the moolah for himself, of which, half the task has already been done by him, in the way of obtaining a box. Long story short, Deepak gets involved and tragedy strikes and he is fired from his job. What must he do to provide for his family?

The movie shows the dark side of Mumbai with its extreme poverty, and how the poor have to struggle while they are being mooched off by everyone.

The music is atrocious, which robs the scene from delivering the emotion. And the story could have been a bit better. There is hardly any climax build-up. The movie just moves on a steady scale and lo, here we have the climax.

A nice watch. Could go for it.

My rating 7.6/10