City Lights

4/5 Insanely brilliant. Extremely poignant. True to life. These expressions spring up in my mind as I begin to write this review. You see, I am still recovering from the emotional, thrilling and dramatic sledgehammer which is Citylights. To put it plainly, this is the most consistently brilliant Hindi movie I have watched in all of 2014. I was hooked from the first frame and loved the unpredictable turns the script took. The worst and the best of human nature are vividly portrayed throughout the length of Citylights and it makes for some heart rendering and some truly uncomfortable moments. It casts light on the plight of the rural migrant who comes to the city with high hopes. The contrast between the humane behavior of the so called vulgar elements of the society and the coldness, aloofness and predatory nature of the venerated high society is masterfully displayed.

The acting is as good as it gets. Raj Kumar is easily the best new actor in Hindi industry. He gives a superlative follow up performance to his class act in Shahid. The debutante Patralekha matches him and even manages to outshine him in some scenes. This has the best kind of music, which propels the story forward rather than acting as an impediment to the story telling. Hansal Mehta, the director, deserves the highest praise for acting on his vision and making his second path breaking film (after Shahid) in two years. This is one of those films which helped me reaffirm my faith in the present of Hindi cinema. I loved it.

Rajkumar Rao once again scores high in this film. Really gripping story and cinematography with a flavour of excellent acting makes this movie worth watching.

One of the best movies i have ever seen from Bollywood Cinema. Realty of a poor man and his struggle to get his family out of poverty. This movie simply touched my heart how well it portrayed the real life scenario's of a real person, so many difficulties and sacrifices he has to give just to achieve a roof over and three times food for his family. Even though it wasn't a typical khan movie this movie is a block buster in my list. Unfortunately it didn't get the praise it deserves. But still you should watch the movie and enjoy. Bot male and female actors have done there best. And for this they deserve an applause. Don't get deceive by the film cast just like a book by its cover. Watch and enjoy and than praise the cast.

Definitely not a bad film, watch it for the acting by everyone.

This is a film of the downtrodden families and the helplessness of the people living that life. There are lot many compulsions and obligations they shall be having. Mostly, they are in forced circumstances making them go for desperate measures to improve their life style. The protagonist Deepak Singh is one such poor should who is driven to take desperate steps to improve the living of his family.

Rajkumar Yadav becomes Deepak Singh literally. From the Rajasthani accent to the demeanor, to the attire and even body language, everything is pitch perfect with him. Its good to find a new-age actor who becomes the characters rather than just playing the part. Rajkumar Yadav has gone way beyond many of his contemporaries. The next best part was of Manav Kaul who played the tight security guard "Vishnu". Manav was damn good in his role, just refreshing to see a new face play a character with such conviction. Also, the heroine of the film Patralekha was commendable. While others did their job well. So this film was a lot about acting above all else.

This is an official remake of the British-Filipino film "Metro Manila". It's heartening to see a lot of credit being given to the original film. Never saw the original film, but this film was weak at places while it was brilliant at some places. Deepak comes back drunk and asks his wife, (who takes up the job of a bar dancer) to dance for him. That was a brilliantly performed scene I felt. Coming to the weakness, it lies in the writing that defies logic.

It's a film that tries hard to be as real as possible. Real locations, realistic characters and more-so the scenes that could have possibly happened. But, there are a few things that did not satisfy my logic. So I was a bit disappointed by what was offered by this team of "Shahid" which I think was a brilliant film.

Hansal Mehta did great job in extracting acting, but he stuck to the script so tightly, that he might have forgot to ask a few questions to the writers and producers. So thus, he had presented some flaws unintentionally. The editing should have been more precise. The film though 2 hours in length seems long with not much happening. The intimate scenes of the main leads could have been trimmed down is what I strongly felt.

It's a good film still, but not a thoroughly satisfying venture to me as a viewer. A 3/5 for a film that's good and could have been so better.

First observation is 6.6 rating under estimation for the movie review.

The movie is all about struggle of the village person moving into Mumbai for his survival, nothing more and nothing less. True to its spirit, the lead actor Rajkumar Rao delivers one of his best performances at least at par with Shahid, If nothing alteast watchable for this great acting. Arijit Singh's background one-liners and music adds onto its flavours and somehow you can't ignore those humming moments.

Some might feel that the movie is slow but whatever it may be, you won't regret watching this movie that's for sure.