Metro…In Dino movie review: Anurag Basu’s modern love story breaks the clutter, Konkona Sen Sharma -Pankaj Tripathi shine

The heart has been craving for a good old love story amid heavy actioners that Bollywood has been churning out for some time now. Amid the clutter of Pan-India gruesome bloodied action thrillers and sappy family dramas that the viewers have been fed the past few years, Anurag Basu's Metro...In Dino manages to break the clutter with a fresh take on the oldest emotion in the universe -Love.

Basu takes four distinct love stories set in cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and spins an intricate tale, typical of the filmmaker’s style of storytelling. The result is an engaging musical 2 hr 42 minutes long ride at theatres.

A spiritual successor of Basu’s 2007 urban drama, Life In a…Metro, Metro…In Dino adapts similar tropes of love and infidelity but gives a modern spin. Love and the concept of love has evolved leaps and bounds in the last 18 years. In the age of dating apps, social media posts and one-night stands, love, too, is more of a show and has a shelf life much like the Instagram stories. So, how does one keep at it? One has to keep falling in love again and again, says a character at one point.

The Plot

Kajol and Monty (Konkona and Pankaj Tripathi) are a middle-aged couple who have become bored in their relationship. Their life centers around their teenage daughter and office meetings. Kajol admits right in the beginning that the more boring her personal life gets, the more colourful her social media account becomes. Things take an ugly turn when she catches her husband on a dating app and then catfishes him into an embarrassing setup. On the brink of divorcing, she heads back to her parents’ place, leaving Monty high and dry and desperate to win her back.

Kajol’s younger sister Chumki (Sara Ali Khan), a self-confessed confused person, is all set to marry a ‘safe’ option. A man who shrugs too much and is never able to take a stand for her. A chance encounter with travel blogger Parth (Aditya Roy Kapur) makes her question her life choices. The man spews facts to Chumki but is a commitment-phobic, playboy man-child refusing to settle down.

Parth’s college friends Shruti (Fatima Sana Sheikh) and Akash (Ali Fazal) are much in love, married couple who have to now deal with an unplanned pregnancy. While Shruti is willing to go with the flow, Akash feels child and a regular corporate job will derail his dreams of becoming a musician.

Elsewhere, Kajol and Chumki’s mother, Shibani (Neena Gupta), is stuck in a dead-end relationship with her husband and the girls' father, Sanjeev (Saswata Chatterjee), for decades. He dictates and she listens- that's how her life has been all these years until a college reunion makes her meet her ex-boyfriend Parimal (Anupam Kher), a man she had truly loved but could never marry as he never fought for her and let her go.

Parimal is now a disgruntled man living a lonely life with his widowed daughter-in-law, Jhumki (Darshana Banik). While Parimal wants her to move on with life and remarry,the duties and promises made to her late husband stops Jhumki from leaving him. Parimal then takes a drastic step and offers a role of a lifetime to Shibani , a star on stage during her college years, to convince Jhumki to move on.

Comparisons to Life in a…Metro

When the first trailer of Metro…In Dino came out, a lot of loyal fans of Life In a…Metro felt that a spiritual sequel was not needed. Partly because the original still remains rent-free in everyone's mind, and partly because how different can the love stories be in the last 18 years? But Metro… In Dino is an important film for it talks of love, of compatibility, of second chances, and of companionship at a time when one chooses soul mates by swiping right. When projecting a happy image on social media becomes more important than being actually happy and content- Metro In Dino tries to assess how relationship dynamics have changed with time and how its important to keep making efforts in love.

A lot is told through the photos on the wall. Of friendship. Of past romances or familial bonds. Lines of realism and fiction get blurred easily in Basu’s films and he uses Pritam’s music as an important element to take the story forward. Pritam, along with Papon and Raghav Chaitanya, remains the constant spectator of the four different stories and their complexities. In a way, they are also the narrators who connect the missing dots for the viewers through their songs.

Basu’s films are mostly elaborate and Metro… In Dino, however much it may seem breezy in the first half, slows down in the second half, often appearing repetitive. There are loose ends too in plenty but Basu creates such a beautiful premise that one tends to overlook.

The cast is all pitch perfect, but it's Pankaj Tripathi and Konkona Sen Sharma who stand out. Their story is also the most entertaining and the two actors deliver a stunning portrayal of a middle-aged couple who cannot live without each other but can't do with each other as well. Konkona, the only actor, who was part of the original film, shares a crackling chemistry with Pankaj Tripathi. When the first trailer had come out, most had missed Irrfan’s presence. His portrayal of an almost 40-year-old virgin in Life in A…Metro remains iconic to date. Pankaj Tripathi had big shoes to fill, but the man eases into the role of Monty Sisodia seamlessly, making the viewers crack up often through the film, much like late Irrfan Khan had in the original.

The other older couple- Neena Gupta and Anupam Kher, with support from Saswata Chatterjee too, are stunning. Gupta particularly shines in a portion when she gets to play act as a loud gold digger, to help Parimal with his family issues.

Fatima and Ali Fazal’s story is perhaps the most relatable as they play a couple torn between two cities, as they navigate personal ambitions and dreams. The younger lot will perhaps relate more to Sara Ali Khan and Aditya Roy Kapur’s track – unsure of committing, but ready to explore and meet new people.

A worthy sequel?

The beauty of Metro…In Dino lies in the fact that every character seems real and thus relatable. You will find a bit of Chumki or Shruti in you. You will know a Parth or a Parimal. You will understand Shibani's problems and nod in agreement to Kajol and Monty's marriage woes. Love is a universal emotion – it's not restricted to a certain age. It needs time and patience, and hard work to maintain that emotion for the same person year after year, and the film brilliantly highlights it. It also normalizes the mundanity that comes along with marriage and kids, but never shuns the idea of settling.

Is it a worthy sequel to Life In a…Metro? Yes. The film explores the complexities that come along with the emotion of love, gives a hat tip to the original (look out for the sequence of Sara Ali Khan screaming out loud to vent her frustration), makes you hum along with Pritam’s soulful music and in the process makes you root for love stories once again.

Go watch Metro…In Dino, it breaks the clutter of regressive, gruesome actioners and provides for a wholesome feeling, that has been missing in Bollywood for some time now.