Taking cues from historian Gyanchand's bestseller 'Mumbai Fables', director Anurag Kashyap sinks into the tuxedo of Hollywood's acclaimed filmmaker De Palma.His ambitious venture, Bombay Velvet is loosely an indianized re-telling of the classic Scarface.His protagonist is an ordinary man who goes against all odds and forges his destiny to become a power in himself.
Kashyap has a seismic propensity towards dark and gritty cinema.Here,the darkness is interpreted with ambition, greed, love and deception.With a nostalgia-soaked retro age of 1960 as the backdrop, Kashyap pays an affectionate ode to the city of dreams - Mumbai.At the heart of it, it is the love story of a petty thief, Johnny Balraj (Ranbir Kapoor) and Rosie(Anushka Sharma), both damaged by abusive childhood , both harboring big aspirations, but there are other forces playing their parts in the tangled web - a mentor and protégé story that goes awry, prohibition, tabloid war and events that transpired before the creation of Nariman Point,sans the historical authenticity.He carves an intriguing trajectory for Johnny's relentless pursuit to become the 'big shot' under the tutelage of Kaizaad Khambatta(Karan Johar) amidst twists,turns and double-crossings.
Bombay Velvet(BV) plays out as a sepia-tinted rewind to the era gone by.The plot majorly inhabits in the dim-lit milieu, nightclubs, opium dens with a 'no-smoking' footer appearing perennially throughout the movie and Amit Trivedi's retro-soaked soundtracks amplifying the noir mood. But the film is let down by an in-cohesive execution with an overtly sluggish first half and consequentially , an overdose of happenings pumped into its post interval portions. Kashyap invests humongously in the technical parameters.The set designs are spectacular,costumes immaculate, the visuals are superbly sumptuous but at the same time,the chemistry between Johnny and Rosie falls short of an emotional catapult.The poetic climactic sequence further cements the fact that Bombay Velvet lacks a soul.
While Bombay emerges as a character in itself, the brute force behind BV is Ranbir Kapoor.As the volatile and desperate dynamite Johnny,Ranbir infuses an infectious charm to the character.Kashyap has a knack of pulling off histrionics from other directors but Karan Johar certainly doesn't come at par with Tigmanshu Dhulia. As the scheming,lusting and stylishly nasty middleman, he gives a sullen dimension to the manipulative Khambatta who doesn't exude the loathsome aura of Ramadhir Singh(of GOW).Anushka imbues Rosie Norohna with lot of genuineness and justifies Kashyap's tribute to Lorna Cordeiro, the yesteryear Goan jazz singer on whom her character is based.The talented ensemble - Kay Kay Menon, Satyadeep Mishra,Siddharth Basu and Manish Chaudhry is somewhat bulldozed as the narrative moves so abruptly that none of their characters get time to evolve.
A bit of prudence and precision with the editing scissors and dramatic poignancy in the script could have salvaged Kashyap's misstep.Bombay Velvet sinks itself conveniently in the lost glory of the Maximum City.
Kashyap has a seismic propensity towards dark and gritty cinema.Here,the darkness is interpreted with ambition, greed, love and deception.With a nostalgia-soaked retro age of 1960 as the backdrop, Kashyap pays an affectionate ode to the city of dreams - Mumbai.At the heart of it, it is the love story of a petty thief, Johnny Balraj (Ranbir Kapoor) and Rosie(Anushka Sharma), both damaged by abusive childhood , both harboring big aspirations, but there are other forces playing their parts in the tangled web - a mentor and protégé story that goes awry, prohibition, tabloid war and events that transpired before the creation of Nariman Point,sans the historical authenticity.He carves an intriguing trajectory for Johnny's relentless pursuit to become the 'big shot' under the tutelage of Kaizaad Khambatta(Karan Johar) amidst twists,turns and double-crossings.
Bombay Velvet(BV) plays out as a sepia-tinted rewind to the era gone by.The plot majorly inhabits in the dim-lit milieu, nightclubs, opium dens with a 'no-smoking' footer appearing perennially throughout the movie and Amit Trivedi's retro-soaked soundtracks amplifying the noir mood. But the film is let down by an in-cohesive execution with an overtly sluggish first half and consequentially , an overdose of happenings pumped into its post interval portions. Kashyap invests humongously in the technical parameters.The set designs are spectacular,costumes immaculate, the visuals are superbly sumptuous but at the same time,the chemistry between Johnny and Rosie falls short of an emotional catapult.The poetic climactic sequence further cements the fact that Bombay Velvet lacks a soul.
While Bombay emerges as a character in itself, the brute force behind BV is Ranbir Kapoor.As the volatile and desperate dynamite Johnny,Ranbir infuses an infectious charm to the character.Kashyap has a knack of pulling off histrionics from other directors but Karan Johar certainly doesn't come at par with Tigmanshu Dhulia. As the scheming,lusting and stylishly nasty middleman, he gives a sullen dimension to the manipulative Khambatta who doesn't exude the loathsome aura of Ramadhir Singh(of GOW).Anushka imbues Rosie Norohna with lot of genuineness and justifies Kashyap's tribute to Lorna Cordeiro, the yesteryear Goan jazz singer on whom her character is based.The talented ensemble - Kay Kay Menon, Satyadeep Mishra,Siddharth Basu and Manish Chaudhry is somewhat bulldozed as the narrative moves so abruptly that none of their characters get time to evolve.
A bit of prudence and precision with the editing scissors and dramatic poignancy in the script could have salvaged Kashyap's misstep.Bombay Velvet sinks itself conveniently in the lost glory of the Maximum City.
