Bollywood films that captured the spirit of Mumbai

Formerly known as Bombay, Mumbai has been the house of Bollywood and all things shiny ever since the inception of movies in India. Needless to say, a lot of films have been based in and around Mumbai and the city has played the muse to many a filmmaker. Here’s taking a look at Bollywood films that captured the spirit of Mumbai.

Released in 1995, ‘Bombay’ was based on the real-life story of a couple who had an inter-faith marriage, the struggles they faced during the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid riots in Mumbai, and how they survived. The Mani Ratnam directorial starred Arvind Swamy and Manisha Koirala in leading roles and boasted of chartbusters like ‘Hamma Hamma’, ‘Kehna Hi Kya’, and ‘Tu Hi Re’, composed by A.R. Rahman.

‘Bombay’ was applauded unanimously by critics and audiences alike as it bagged two National Awards and multiple Filmfare Awards.

Right in the middle of Abhishek Bachchan’s hot run of impressive performances, Rohan Sippy’s ‘Bluffmaster!’ showed him in a comic and vulnerable avatar. In the film, a conman Roy (played by Abhishek), gets dumped by his girl-friend (Priyanka Chopra). Then he finds out he has a fatal disease. On the verge of death, he resolves to do some good, by helping his apprentice Dittu (Riteish Deshmukh) hoodwink the mobster who hurt his family. The film featured an extensive soundtrack, also including Abhishek’s first attempt at rap and singing – ‘Right Here Right Now’.

Hansal Mehta’s ‘CityLights’ ably depicted the plight of a family that has newly migrated to the ruthless metropolitan city of Mumbai. The story is about a poor farmer (played by Rajkummar Rao) from Rajasthan coming to Mumbai in search of livelihood. The film released in 2014 and won rave reviews from most critics. In spite of releasing in just 350 screens, ‘CityLights’ became a success due to its low cost of production and consistent collections at the box office.

Abhay Deol and Neha Dhupia starrer ‘Ek Chalis Ki Last Local’ released in 2007 and received a positive critical response and managed to become a cult classic over the years. The film was a comic thriller about two people who miss the last local train at 1:40 am and how missing of their train changes their course of lives forever. Call Band’s ‘Laree Choote’ became a national musical favourite.

Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Kaminey’ focused on the rivalry between two a pair of twins, one with a lisp and other with a stutter. Bhardwaj co-wrote the screenplay with Sabrina Dhawan, Abhishek Chaubey, and Supratik Sen. He bought the original script for US$4,000 from Kenyan writer Cajetan Boy—whom he had mentored at a scriptwriting workshop in Uganda. At the 55th Filmfare Awards, it received ten nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor; it won the award for Best Special Effects. ‘Kaminey’ bagged two National Awards as well, while the performances of Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Amole Gupte were thoroughly appreciated.

Directed by Nishikanth Kamath ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’, had a star cast consisting of Soha Ali Khan, R Madhavan, Kay Kay Menon and Irrfan Khan. The film was based on Mumbai train blasts that took place on July 11, 2006. The movie revolved around 5 people, and how their life turns out after the blast. One of the characters who gets scared of local trains and another friend later sought to take revenge on Muslim community who he thinks, his friend had become a victim of.

Anurag Basu’s ‘Life in a… Metro’ was a multi-starrer film with the ensemble of Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali, Shilpa Shetty, Kay Kay Menon, Shiney Ahuja, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sensharma, Kangana Ranaut, and Sharman Joshi. The film basically portrays multiple stories of nine people from the urban lives of Mumbai. They deal with the topics of extramarital affairs, feelings about love, loneliness and despair.

Directed by Ritesh Batra ‘The Lunchbox’ (2013), featured Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead roles. The movie managed to portray the prominence of Mumbai’s famous Dabbawalas in the city, who in all circumstances delivers lunch at offices. The story primarily talks about a housewife who loves cooking and make lovely delicacies for her husband but instead of food reaching to her husband through dabbawalas its reaches to another man.

Ram Gopal Varma’s claim to fame ‘Rangeela’ perfectly captured the struggle of a middle-class young woman (played by Urmila Matondkar), who dreams of Bollywood fame, and is caught in a love triangle between her childhood friend (Aamir Khan) and a famous actor (Jackie Shroff). The film was a major box office success and received critical acclaim, and was screened at the mainstream section of the International Film Festival of India. The film was later remade in Hollywood as ‘Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!’

‘Rangeela’ won seven Filmfare awards that year.

Milan Luthria’s ‘Taxi No. 9211’ brought together the eccentric pair of John Abraham and Nana Patekar in a slice-of-drama film. A cab journey brings together a cabbie (Nana Patekar) and businessman (John Abraham), who are both in need of big money to partake in a two-hour adventure together. Bappi Lahiri played the ultimate homage to Mumbai with his song ‘Bumbai Nagariya’.