Shahid’s Rajkummar Rao features in lead role, with his wife.
By Tathagata Mitra
BANGALORE: Amidst the rolling blockbusters from Hollywood and Bollywood that keep on coming one after the other, a small budget film has managed to grab the critics’ attention. Hansal Mehta’s CityLights, titled fashionably after the Charlie Chaplin classic, lives up to its name.
The film, produced by Mukesh Bhatt, stars Rajkummar Rao, one of the up and coming actors of Bollywood who has grabbed a lot of attention after starring in various mainstream films like Ragini MMS, Kai Po Che, Gangs of Wasseypur.
Rao has been noted by the critics and the audiences alike for the accuracy with which he can get into the skin of his character. Also starring in CityLights is newcomer Patraleka, who is also Rao’s real life better half. It is not uncommon in Bollywood for two starlets to fall in love and get married, but it is not every day that we see the woman make her silver screen debut in her husband’s film.
Mehta had just won the 2013 National Film Award for Best Direction for his film Shahid. Shahid, also starring Rao, is based on the life and death of human rights lawyer Shahid Azmi, who was known for defending people wrongly accused in cases of terrorism, including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Azmi was murdered in 2010 in his office, gunned down in broad daylight. The film was co-produced by Anurag Kashyap.
CityLights is about a young farmer from Rajasthan who migrates to Mumbai with his wife and child, but things start falling apart for him. He and his family struggle against the big city’s antagonistic forces.
CityLights is to release in theaters on May 30. Critics who have had the privilege of watching this film already are claiming that Mehta has delivered yet another excellent example of filmmaking.
“Shahid director has a knack of dealing with some of the deepest and darkest human emotions and taking us with him on a journey we might dread,” writes Tushar Joshi of bollywoodlife.com.
The acting of the leading duo and the music of Jeet Ganguly for CityLights have also been praised by the critics. Producer Mukhesh Bhatt has commented that this film will bring back the legacy of his cinema.
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