City of Gold - Mumbai 1982: Ek Ankahee Kahani

Vaastav still remains Mahesh Manjrekar's biggest hit till date - City of Gold was not even half of what Vaastav was. I was so excited to see this movie however it turned out to be one of the biggest disappointment of the year. The hype behind the movie was an untold story and the director's name but to tell you the truth - the core message of the movie that should have been was lost between a family's problems in poverty. The mill-workers that it is supposed to be based upon were only seen as poor people and any other mumbai-based slum movie would have shown what it did. Many of the actors were look-alikes e.g. Naru (character name) resembled R Madhavan and his brother resembled another TV actor which made this a little on the funnier side. Some tragedy scenes were done so tragically that it turned out to be funnier at times.

Bad acting, bad screenplay, nothing new - just not worth the time and money. After having seen Vaastav and Satya (by RGV) this movie falls flat.

I saw the movie after i read the review on IMDb. and moreover i was waiting to watch this movie... so finally i saw this movie and i kind of disagree with the above review.. i agree that it was about only a family.. but it was a family of mill workers.. i think this movie revolves around the mill workers and a story told well about the past.. Now everyone cannot be James Cameron.. to make AVATAr after TITANIC and beat his own record.. Life in MUMBAI remains the same for all stories.. that city is out of this world... even if 'Johnny Depp' had to make 'shantaram'. i am sure it would have had most of the same thing... now one cant predict anything different from a story about MUMBAI... The characters played fairly a decent role to bring about the feelings and behaviors of the then mill workers'. It is simply a story of how the poor mill workers where cheated to bring about the consumerism to make money.. at the end those people suffered and most of the people from MUMBAI, enjoy it today...whatever... IT IS A STORY WELL TOLD..

The movie is okay but good in parts.

The performance from Siddharth Jadhav (Speed-Breaker) and Seema Biswas are brilliant and make the movie worth watching.

The movie does divert from the main subject though and end up as a family drama. But still tells the tale of Bombay (now Mumbai). Some of the scenes are perfectly shot to create the old era of now the "City of Gold".

A couple of scenes after the logical ending were unnecessary and spoils the tone of the movie. Mahesh Manjerakar's rap in the end was a welcome surprise. The wording was also good.

A worth watch!

Went with high hopes to see this one.Was truly disappointed. Bad is the only word which comes in my mind. Absolute terrible acting by some actors. Thought the director wants to show what the mill workers went through. Instead the movie revolves round a family with their personal problems. The second half is entirely pathetic.You will get a feeling when this will end.

Guess the director was a bit inspired by City of god.You can reflect that in some (terrible) scenes.

The opening song is unnecessary.The director i guess was caught in a dilemma, whether to make a serious film or a film for all types of audience. Save your time and money!

Speaking from the heart, It was the first movie after Ram Gopal Verma's , "Satya", that brought tears to my eyes. I literally wept, although I consider myself to be "Macho" like every other Indian guy!

Hats off to "Mahesh Manjrekar".

The only thing I really didn't like seeing in the movie was the actress "Anousha Dandekar", I know it was probably to show that the "Writer Brother" did well in his life, but still, im sorry to say she looks like "na ghar ka na ghat ka" maybe that was what the director wanted.

But every time I see her on-screen, or tele(MTV), I remember her remark about Mahatma Gandhi, on a show she hosted so long ago, and well it hurts.

Overall, the movie was eye watering, and very close to heart. Thank you to everyone who made this happen.

I will go buy the DVD, although I can easily download it over the net, I won't, this DVD will be a part of my very small collection of favorite movies.

Thats how much I liked it ;D