T-Series Films and Anurag Basu Productions’ Metro… In Dino (UA) is the story of four contemporary couples. Their paths cross. The common feature of their respective relationship with their partner/s is that it is neither stable nor built on mutual trust, love and respect. There’s resentment, distrust, infidelity, lack of commitment, financial pressure, lack of direction… in short, there is some problem or the other always.
Parth (Aditya Roy Kapur) is commitment-phobic. Although he likes Chumki (Sara Ali Khan), he is not sure whether he wants to marry her. On her part, Chumki loves another guy, Anand (Kush Jotwani), but she is not sure if he is the right guy for her. She also likes Parth but again, she is not sure. Monty (Pankaj Tripathi) is happily married to Kajol (Konkona Sen Sharma) or is he? They have a daughter, Pihu (Ahana Basu) who is not sure whether she has lesbian tendencies or is straight. Akash (Ali Fazal) is trying hard to make a career in music but meets with little or no success. He is married to Shruti (Fatima Sana Shaikh). They are having their share of problems and it sometimes seems that they are headed for a break-up. Why, Shruti is also getting attracted to another man, Amay (Varun Tewari), who is a single parent to his little son. Shivani (Neena Gupta) has been married to Sanjeev Ghosh (Saswata Chatterjee) and they are parents to Kajol and Chumki. Shivani has forgiven Sanjeev for his infidelity many years ago. In fact, Shivani has completely sacrificed her desires and has devoted her entire married life to her husband and family. But her daughter, Kajol, prods her on to start living for herself too. This gives Shivani the courage to go alone to another city for a college reunion where she meets college pal Parimal (Anupam Kher) who is himself struggling with the cruel blows that life has dealt. What happens to the relationship stories?
Anurag Basu’s story and screenplay are both very contemporary. The fast lifestyles of today and the fragile and sometimes fickle relationships of youngsters have been beautifully brought out by Basu. The multiple multi-layered relationship dramas have been written with maturity so that the audience, mainly the city audience, would find the script engaging and interesting. However, the viewers outside of the metropolitan and semi-metropolitan cities may not care much for the drama. What’s nice is that the four dramas are not stand-alone ones and so they appear seamless. Also, the manner in which the songs (mostly rendered by a music band) have been woven into the drama is fantastic. This makes the songs an integral part of the narrative. While the track of Monty and Kajol is very comical, that of Akash and Shruti is heartfelt and even emotional, at times. The relationship between Parth and Chumki is light-hearted while that between Shivani and Parimal has its funny and serious moments. Having said that, it must be added that there is not much to take home as a message or lesson from the film, which is a minus point.
Sandeep Srivastava, Samrat Chakraborty and Anurag Basu’s dialogues are fantastic.
Aditya Roy Kapur is likeable and quite endearing as Parth. He plays his character with understanding. Sara Ali Khan is good in the role of Chumki. She is particularly impressive in the last part of the drama. Pankaj Tripathi is extraordinary as Monty. He makes every scene in which he appears, a cut above the rest. Konkona Sen Sharma is lovely as Kajol. Her expressions and spontaneity are wonderful. Fatima Sana Shaikh makes a fine impression as Shruti. Ali Fazal is natural in the role of Akash. Neena Gupta is pretty good as Shivani. Anupam Kher is realistic in the role of Parimal. Saswata Chatterjee makes his mark as Sanjeev Ghosh. Ahana Basu is natural as Pihu. Vanishka Taparia is alright as Pihu’s friend. Mikhail Gandhi is endearing as Pihu’s boyfriend. Rohan Gurbaxani has his moments as Kajol’s Goa friend, Aryan. Darshana Banik is suitably restrained as Parimal’s daughter-in-law, Jhinuk. Pranay Pachauri is nice as her lover, Rohan. Vishwanath Chatterjee stands out as Monty’s straying friend. Dilnaz Irani makes her presence amply felt in the role of Kajol’s friend, Priya. Pritam, Papon and Raghav Chaitanya lend superb support as members of the music band. Deepak Qazir Kejriwal, Yamini Singh, Asif Ali Baig, Ajay Paul, Micky Singh, Salone Mehta, Jairoop Jeevan (all seven as friends of Shivani and Parimal), Farzana Palathingal, Kalyani Joshi, Srishti Srivastava, Parul Rai, Payal Patel (all five as Chumki’s friends), Vidhi (as Kajal’s Goa friend), Samir Suhag (as Chumki’s boss), Ankur Jain (as the pandit), Freya Kothari (as Sweety), Sharad Anandani, Rohan Bisht (both as Parth’s friends), Rishi Bhatia (as Akash’s boss), Richard Joel (as the music director), Sandeep Sharma, Pushkaraj Chirputkar, Shahjahan Khan (all three as Monty’s friends), and the others lend the desired support.
Anurag Basu’s direction is sensitive and mature. But his subject is class-appealing. Pritam’s music is lovely but chartbusting music would’ve been a big asset. Lyrics (Sandeep Srivastava, Qaisar Ul Jafri, Anurag Sharma, Neelesh Misra, Momin Khan Momin, Mayur Puri) are wonderful. Song picturisations (by Vijay A. Ganguly) are appropriate. Pritam’s background music is fantastic. Anurag Basu and Abhishek Basu’s cinematography is top-notch. Anjani Gajurel’s art direction is proper. Editing (by Bodhaditya Bandyopadhyay and Satish Gowda) is quite sharp.
On the whole, Metro… In Dino is a good entertainer but mainly for the city and multiplex audience. It cannot expect to get love from single-screen cinema audience and from viewers residing in cities other than the big ones. Hence it will do limited business only. Its slow start today is a dampener.
Released on 4-7-’25 at Inox (daily 7 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: good. Opening: below the mark. …….Also released all over. Opening was fair in select cinemas only, but unimpressive at many places.
