Movie Review - Citylights

Movie – Citylights

Cast: Rajkumar Rao, Patralekha, Manav Kaul

Directed by: Hansal Mehta

Produced by: Mukesh Bhatt

Cinematography: Dev Agarwal

Music: Jeet Ganguly

Background Score: Raju Singh

Rating : 4/5

 

Based on Sean Ellis' acclaimed Metro Manila, Citylights is one of the Darkest films I have seen in recent times. The film tells the story of a migrant from Rajasthan , Deepak ( Rajkumar Rao) who loses his business and is in debt, decides to come to Mumbai with his wife, Rakhi (Patralekha ) and little daughter in search of a job and a brighter future. He comes to Mumbai depending on his friend Omkar to be his support in his initial days, but never finds him once he reaches here. In despair, Deepak searches for a house to stay with his family, but instead gets tricked of whatever little money he has. Circumstances forces the family to take shelter in an under construction building, while Deepak keeps searching for a job, Rakhi is forced to find work as a Bar Girl to fend off the daily expenses. Deepak finally finds a job as a security officer with an armoured security firm, which ferries safe boxes for the Ultra Rich. Everything looks to be getting  settled on the surface,  but is everything as it seems to be.  

Rajkumar Rao is fantastic in this film as a simple migrant who just wants a good life for his family. You can really connect to him , you can feel his innocence. Patralekha as the wife who really wants to help her husband in his quest is a fine counterbalance. Performances from both the lead actors are just amazing. In addition Manav Kaul as Vishnu Sir, Deepak’s mentor in this big city delivers a power packed performance as well.

Cinematography is brilliant. Shots of Deepak and his family sleeping in a dingy under construction 3BHK flat, Deepak looking towards the vast expanse of the ocean in despair,  Shots of the Doves flying around, a fallen bicycle all are powerfully canned. 

The editing of Citilights is crisp and smooth, you may not even find one frame that drags. The first half went so smoothly that I didn’t even feel that one hour went. Felt more like 20 minutes.  All in all a wonderful film, worth a watch. However, if you have watched Metro Manila , don’t expect this to be as brilliant.
 

On wild sex and the use of words

Okay I put a pretty explosive heading by Indian standards, but that's exactly what I want to speak about, the way words are, the way they change their nature, because of the way they are used, and the way we perceive them. Now what in the world am I blabbing about, let me just try and explain. This thought came across in my head when I was about to switch off the T.V. ( the thing we call the idiot box) last night. Well there splashed right across the screen were the words WILD SEX, I mean my eyeballs popped out. Of course it was twelve in the night, but this is still India. Then I just happened to notice the name of the channel- NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - happy realization to me. For those who don't know WILD SEX here means something to do with wild animals, by wild animals I don't mean the once found in the human population this refers to the kind that are found in the forests of the world.

Now imagine the same words splashed across the screen of some television channel which keeps showing raunchy, crude or vulgar content and the meaning completely changes. I mean it’s the same set of words, but now here it means different, or does it really. No, the words still mean the same, but the way we see it changes. We are okay or maybe we just have more tolerance to the sexual acts shown on screen, when it’s between animals or for that matter even insects. That brings me to the topic of words and how we perceive it. What are words, words are parts of sentences which when used in a particular way will convey a particular meaning. They are pretty powerful things. To illustrate that further let me go back to a video I had heard a few years ago, this particular video was dealing with the use of the word F*CK, well I don’t remember the whole of the video but just to state, the word F*CK has become a word in the English language which can convey different meanings, i mean it might be the only word which might be able to do that. Let’s see how

I am in a mess – I am F*cked ( gutted)

F*ck you (Anger)

F*uck off ( Irritation)

What the F*uck (Surprise)

F*uck it ( to let go)

Ohhhhh F*uck ( Satisfaction)

I know there are many more creative ways in which you will be able to use the word, and I am sure you might be using it as well. Some of the more creative population of this world have found out replacement words for the word F*uck. Some use Fish, like its goes what the Fish, now fish or chips, what’s the point of using fish in place of F*uck when you mean the same F*ucking thing. A different word to convey the same meaning, just because it makes you feel you haven’t used a swear word and anyway, I will fish your happiness doesn’t even create the same kind of impact. 

Now this is according to me, and according to what I feel, your views might be different and I respect that. What I feel is it’s not the words that affect us, by themselves these words are just that words, it’s the way we say them and the way we perceive them that matters. When we want to swear at someone, we can very well do it without using even one of the patented swear words. The reverse is true as well, when someone uses swear words or rough language on us, they will affect us only when we take it in the way they are said. I had mentioned earlier that words are powerful and they can affect people, so while it’s important for us to use them responsibly and in a civil sort of way, you need to understand this as well, that words can’t affect us if we don’t let them affect us. 

The point behind writing this is to try and explain to you that unless and until you don’t let anyone affect you by their words, you simply cannot be affected, I know it’s difficult not to feel hurt or not to respond in kind, but unless you try, it will never happen. Remember words are just that, WORDS and nothing more, it’s up to us what meaning we are going to attribute to it. So try and stay pure, and try to stay happy. Cheers, and don’t try to kick me the author for trying to preach in such a weird sort of way .