'Life in a...Metro': No surpises here!

Life in a...Metro is a movie that is so obvious in the emerging India, that nothing about it surprises...or shocks. Director Anurag Basu has tried to do a Madhur Bhandarkar number, complete with the soulful music. In fact, it seems like a tribute to Page 3, even one of scenes featuring Konkona Sen is an exact copy! Yet, let's not dismiss it so easily.

Basu has done a good job identifying his characters. Anybody staying in a metro or a large town is familiar with them. There's the detached couple Ranjit and Shikha (Kay Kay Menon and Shilpa Shetty) which is such a common occurrence that you just expect things to go haywire. Kay Kay is, as usual, good, though underrated - but he's good at whatever he does. Yes, one of them is having an affair and the other is left loveless and lonely (yawn!). There's even the older couple, played by Nafisa Ali and Dharmendra, which doesn't add any substance to the movie. Firstly, because it's shoddily handled. What's missing the sobriety that both actors deserve.

Unfortunately, Shiney Ahuja (who I had expected to have a meatier role), for the nth time, plays a brooding lover. C'mon Shiney, you're great at brooding and screaming, but you are getting typecast - which is not good for an actor of your calibre.

Kangana Ranaut is typecast too, as the rebellious woman she loves playing. No, suprises here either, except that she's got a great makeover. Ditto for you, Kangana.

Sharman Joshi proves that he's a good actor - playing the common man in a metro who wants to make it big at any cost.

The one man who hardly disappoints in any movie is Irrfan Khan, and he is truly a surprise in Metro. It's hard to describe his often irritating character, but he has this great quality of morphing into any role. Konkona is good too, though in another of her oft-repeated independent-woman-with-a-mind-of-her-own roles.

Pritam's music is catchy, though I didn't enjoy the band appearing at every corner in the movie.

And I have a question for Bollywood, when will we stop doing that running-at-the-end sequences? You know, when the hero/heroines run to stop their counterparts like there's no tomorrow, or a second flight/train?

Well anyway, to its credit, the movie has some good moments. Like Kay Kay's clear-cut confrontation with his mistress. And Konkona's funny predicament. Won't give much away...go watch it!

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