18 years after his hit Life in a… Metro, Anurag Basu returns with a heartfelt, if uneven, sequel that explores modern relationships, second chances, and the messiness of love today
In a scene in Metro…In Dino, the much-married Monty Sisodia (Pankaj Tripathi) makes a telling statement to the ‘woman’ he meets online, posing as a wing commander, with a fighter aircraft as his profile picture to boot. Excitedly, he messages the woman he is clandestinely chatting with, asking: isn’t it ironic that with our fake IDs, we can be so real and share our innermost feelings with each other?
It is this hunger to seek out the ‘real’ in romantic relationships — overshadowed by technology — that seems to drive director Anurag Basu in his new outing, Metro…In Dino. The film, like his earlier runaway hit, Life in a… Metro (2007), tries to unpack the complicated nature of romantic relationships; the grace or its lack in giving your partner a second chance, of falling and luckily finding yourself back in the arms of the person you love.
In defence of real love
It’s about being able to recognise real love and go after it, like Irrfan Khan’s character, also named Monty, did (albeit on horseback) in Life in a… Metro. Basu wants us to believe in love, the entire shindig of soulmates and not giving up on relationships even if it goes horribly wrong for some time. If Karan Johar pushes the power of the family, Basu is championing the cause of real love. In his world, it exists.
Also read: RS Prasanna on Aamir Khan and how directing Sitaare Zameen Par changed him
In Metro…In Dino, Basu is an evangelist out to save marriages as he also dishes out marital advice to couples: “You need to fall in love with the same person all over again and again if you want to stay married”. Though “marriage teaches you acting”, it still has to be navigated with care and nurtured or else the other partner (usually, the woman in Basu’s movies) will turn to rebellion and rock the marital boat.
The romantic landscape for singles today is strewn with challenges. Back in 2007, our lives weren’t ruled by Tinder or the swipe-right/swipe-left culture. The rules were simpler; life felt more black and white. Wives didn’t stray, and the so-called ‘bad girls’ involved with married men were never allowed a happy ending.
Love Aaj Kal
In 2025, modern love is so much more complex. The carefree, “commitment-phobic man-child” Parth (Aditya Roy Kapoor) describes it thus: “Modern love is so confusing, it is like a cheese Chinese Schezwan masala dosa!” Messy, with men and women knowing their path but not their destination! Do men still want commitment only on their terms?
While Basu taps into all that glorious confusion of love in these times with a young couple, Parth and Chumki (Sara Ali Khan); Mani Ratnam did in O Kadhal Kanmani a decade back in 2015. Their romance follows a typical trope of the wayward, travel blogger/theatre artist crossing paths with an MBA graduate (engaged to a nice guy and employed in a well-paying job) who has carefully chalked out her life path. She steers clear of him at first, but is drawn by the ‘truths’ he tells her about life.
Also read: Sholay at 50: How Ramesh Sippy’s film captured India’s angst and anxieties
There’s a slice of Life in a Metro nostalgia in the end, as Chumki, like Irrfan’s character, crazily rushes to confess her love to the man who makes her feel real, even as he is all set to marry someone else! (The film pays a poignant tribute to Irrfan at the beginning in the credits).
Tackling mid-life crisis
However, where Basu scores in this film big-time is when he tackles the crisis that develops in the marriage of Monty Sisodia (Tripathi) and Kajol (Konkana Sen Sharma). They have a daughter, who is tussling with her own sexual identity and also wants her parents to be together.
The couple have got so enmeshed in taking their daughter to basketball practices and other chores that they have to literally fix a day to have sex. These two highly competent actors are a delight to watch on screen and their constant face-offs are laugh-out-loud comedy at its best.
There’s one scene in which an angry Kajol in Goa, rowing a boat, furiously yells, “All men are dogs,” with her contrite husband, Monty, on another boat echoing her lines. This scene had the audiences in splits. This couple gets on a collision course after Kajol discovers that her husband was ready to cheat on her.
And Monty has to go to great lengths to win back his wife to display his endless devotion for her. The film has to be watched just for these two extremely talented actors.
Staying committed
The other couple in this film, Shruti (played by Fatima Sana Sheikh) and aspiring musician Akash (Ali Fazal), are deeply in love. But Akash decides to pursue his dream to be a singer and there never seems to be an end to his struggles to make it in filmdom.
His move to Mumbai and the hardships he faces nearly destroy their relationship. There are sacrifices he demands of her, like Kay Kay Menon’s character does of his wife Shilpa Shetty in Life in a… Metro. In that film Kay Kay Menon was a serial cheater.
Also read: How Hindi cinema rewrites the KM Nanavati case for contemporary India
Here, Akash wants to follow his dream at the cost of his marriage and having a child. Shruti sacrifices something really precious to her and it feels unfair. But she chooses to stay committed to her love.
The Anupam Kher-Neena Gupta-Saswata Chatterjee’s portion may be the weak link in this film. Memories of an old college romance are rekindled at a reunion. There are some moments between Kher and Neena Gupta but they are all so brief. These old-time lovers share how they gradually fell in love with their respective marriage partners over time and never looked back.
Modern love: It’s complicated
There are some boy-gang jokes with the director making a fleeting appearance in one such situation. Director Imtiaz Ali also makes a guest appearance in a couple of scenes in the film.
The music is meant to be a major part of Metro… In Dino. So, national award-winning composer Pritam teams up with Basu again for the sequel and does not disappoint. There are tuneful numbers like Aur Mohabbat Kitni Karoon, and the other Dil Ka Kya, which suits the film’s theme of exploring contemporary love.
The film has flaws no doubt, but it ties up all the knots into a neat bunch in the end, and is entertaining. The ensemble cast is a big draw. Besides Konkona and Tripathi, Fatima Sana Sheikh puts up a strong performance. Sara Ali Khan and Aditya Roy Kapoor are passable, while Ali Fazal struggles to make an impact.
This film makes no pretense of being a poetic contemplation of modern love. Instead, it focusses on showing us how contemporary love continues to be chaotic and complicated and how, for Basu, it can never go sour.
Metro…In Dino is currently running in theatres
