For his anthology film Metro…In Dino, Anurag Basu revisits his similarly structured Life in a Metro and Ludo while throwing in a musical element from Jagga Jasoos. Metro in Dino has four principal couples in different locations, sundry supporting characters and frequent cutaways to tracks by composer Pritam to allow the characters’ thoughts to be expressed in the manner of a musical.

The result is something of a cacophony, with far too many melodic lines for any single one to stand out. Written by Basu with dialogue by Sandeep Srivastava and Samrat Chakraborty, Metro in Dino has its share of charming moments and good-natured asides about contemporary relationships. But the Hindi film is also a hot mess of mostly cold sentiment.

Three of the four plot strands revolve around Shivani (Neena Gupta) and her daughters Kajal (Konkona Sensharma) and Chumki (Sara Ali Khan). The most promising and memorable story examines the disgust that consumes Kajal when her husband Monty (Pankaj Tripathi) decides to stray from their marriage.

Kajal’s plan for revenge resembles a classical Italian farce, the kind that starred Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. While Kajol’s rage is very real, Monty’s goofy attempts to win her back – and Pankaj Tripathi’s superb comic timing – get the laughs.

The marital union between Shruti (Fatima Sana Shaikh) and...

Read more