MUMBAI MERI JAAN, the story of Mumbai and its citizens in the aftermath of the 7/11 blasts, deals with 5 or 6 seemingly unconnected characters from diverse walks of life and how their lives get affected by the blasts, their relation with the city which the director teasingly refers to as “JAAN” in the title.

the film centers around 5 characters, a police constable about to retire after 36 years of service, a jobless man in his late 20’s, a young office goer who is overtly conscious about the environment (he even refuses to buy a car or resorts to lecturing a street side vendor on the harmfulness of plastics), a successful television journalist, and a coffee seller. All their lives change with the seven blasts that shook the city, desperately they try returning to their same old ways not realizing until the end that nothing has remained the same. The story unfolds as these characters overcome their moral fears, their guilt, and suspicion surrounding the city and ultimately finds redemption

the screenplay of Mumbai MERI JAAN with its overlapping tracks is a screenwriters nightmare, one that requires immense patience and talent to compose and intertwine together successfully . And here the film falters big time. the basic premise which is somewhat similar to the academy award winner for best film, Crash and Alejandro Gonzalez inarritu’s Mexican film Amores perros requires all the involved tracks to progress simultaneously and ultimately concluding in the climax together. Now this was superbly dealt by writer Paul Haggis in crash but unfortunately writer yogesh vinayak joshi fails to weave in the intricate stories properly together. The progression of the stories are uneven and it seems as if after a while the writer didn’t have much left to say about some of the tracks and reluctantly dragged them on, the story featuring Soha Ali Khan comes to an end almost after the interval and madhavan’s track is dragged on for a while until the climax. Also the film gets a tad bit too preachy at parts with long meandering dialogues, Paresh Rawal’s speech at the end of the movie though supremely delivered goes on for almost 15 minutes testing the audience’s patience. There is a thin line between merely commenting / reflecting on an issue and lecturing, and this film disappointingly enters the later zone a number of times.

But that’s about all that is negative in the film, other than these occasional black spots the film sails smoothly. Driven mainly by the brilliant performances from all the lead actors, with paresh rawal giving a performance which will probably go down as one of his very best, it is a highly restrained yet effective one, a performance about whom people are most likely to forget with time.

Irrfan khan is spot on as usual, equipped with the most well written track in the screenplay he is almost perfect in every scene, be where he is thrown off the mall, or where he looks up at the sky after accomplishing his revenge on the same mall authorities. He is the one to get all the cheers from the audience; his would be the image that will stay on with the viewer once the end credits roll.

Both Soha Ali Khan and madhavan does more than justice to roles that may not have been written that well. Vijay Maurya ( dawood from Black Friday) gives excellent support to Paresh Rawal, here is a performance which is again more likely to go overlooked but one without which the film would have never been the same.

Sanjay Jadhav’s cinematography is sleek, absorbing; managing to successfully portray the image of Mumbai that director Nishikant Kamat tries to bring out.

The background score is good though it borders on overtly melodramatic occasionally.

But the fact that truly lifts Mumbai Meri Jaan above the rest is the honesty showed by the director towards its subject, it took guts to make a film bordering on racism/communal tension, exploitation and a subject matter which is all too recent and sensitive. Surely he takes time to tell his story and maybe looses his grip here or there but in the end manages to nicely tie down the loose ends bringing the characters to a full circle and successfully driving home the point he had set out to make. I think if the film seemed moralistic or preachy to us that is the way the director wanted it to be. He didn’t want to hide the morality of the film or his message under covers but wanted say it loud in your face.

Is Mumbai Meri Jaan the best film of the year? Surely not. Is it worth watching? Absolutely. It’s an honest story told with all the convictions and a beautiful message at the end which makes it more than possible to atleast momentarily look over all the short comings and applaud.

We as lovers of cinema or more specifically Indian cinema has been complaining way too long about the standards of cinema here and why apparently they never seem to change, why we cant create an Amores perros or a Crash in India. Well for that to happen cinema needs our support. It needs people like us to leave their arm chairs, take a break from their endless complains and to go out and watch films like Mumbai Meri Jaan and not squabble among ourselves over its credibility.  Maybe MMJ is not perfect cinema but then again which is…?