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‘The Railway Men’ series review: A bracing, wishful saga of bravery

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R Madhavan in ‘The Railway Men’

The Railway Men opens with a short coda in the immediate aftermath of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak tragedy, which killed over 15,000 people and is considered the world’s worst industrial disaster. A reporter, played with rugged tenacity by Sunny Hinduja, watches from afar as Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson is first detained on his arrival in India and then, only a few hours later, flown out of the country in a government-sanctioned plane. “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” the journalist wryly quotes Gandhi, in voiceover, wondering what such ideals of forgiveness and non-violence mean anymore in a country where the perpetrators of mass slaughter tend to get off scot-free. It’s a loaded reference to make in the context of a disaster that literally blinded hundreds of people from chemical exposure.

There are many ways to begin a show like The Railway Men, with its expansive factual scope and multitude of characters. Thus, it’s telling that director Shiv Rawail, making his debut at YRF Entertainment, would decide to lead with this scene. In a way, it honours the decades of public anger and resentment over Bhopal before telling—as disaster dramas tend to do—a story of hope and civilian courage. Evidently inspired by the acclaimed 2019 miniseries Chernobyl, this 4-part show on Netflix recreates a grim historical tragedy through the eyes of its warriors and emergency responders. In this case, it’s a set of employees of the Indian Railways who conduct a daring rescue operation to save a fraction of the population after highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas escapes from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal on the night of December 2-3.

Iftekaar Siddiqui (Kay Kay Menon) is the honest and scrupulous stationmaster of Bhopal Junction railway station. Ten years ago, he was involved in a tragic derailment and is haunted by guilt and trauma. Greying and bespectacled, Iftekaar is going over his nightly ledgers when he observes a commotion on the platforms. Passengers coughing, foaming at the mouths, dropping dead in heaps. Though it’s unclear to him in this instance, poisonous gas from the nearby chemical plant has filled the entire city air. On the advice of Balwant (Divyenndu Sharma)—a thief disguised as a Railway Police Force (RPF) constable—Iftekaar assembles the surviving passengers in the waiting room of the station and seals off the doors. Later, with some assistance from loco pilot Imad (Babil Khan), a new recruit, he attempts to contact the nearest junction, asking them to stop the inbound Gorakhpur Express from reaching Bhopal and also send a rescue train.

The Railway Men (Hindi)

Director: Shiv Rawail

Cast: Kay Kay Menon, R Madhavan, Babil Khan, Divyenndu Sharma, Sunny Hinduja, Juhi Chawla, Dibyendu Bhattacharya

Episodes: 4

Run-time: 50-60 minutes

Storyline: After a deadly gas leak at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal in 1984, employees of the Indian Railways spring to the rescue of the stranded populace

Dramatically, Iftekaar’s message doesn’t reach. Nevertheless, Rati Pandey (R Madhavan), the idiosyncratic General Manager of the Central Railways, picks up on the signs of the unfolding crisis. His first action is to phone Delhi for help—his former partner, Rajeshwari (can Netflix please find full-length roles for Juhi Chawla?), is on the Railway board. The series contrasts the efforts of these brave and selfless railwaymen—and women—with the rampant greed and negligence that led up to the leakage in Bhopal. We learn that the safety controls at the Union Carbide factory were in violent disorder, corporation higher-ups in the US having written off the loss-making pesticide plant in India. The series skirts around the possibility of how the plant—already flagged as hazardous—was allowed to operate in a densely populated area. The central and state governments largely come off clean, both before and after the leak; all we get is a mention of bureaucratic indecision and a brief scene of police corruption.

Of course, with the setting being the winter of 1984, there are other poisons in the air. Indira Gandhi has recently been assassinated; the country is engulfed in retributory anti-Sikh violence. Rajiv Gandhi’s famously chilling line—’when a big tree falls, the earth shakes’—is echoed in a scene where a couple of Sikh passengers encounter rioters on a moving train, and are rescued by a conscientious guard (Raghubir Yadav). Before the rioters get on, several of them chant, “Indira ke hathyaro ko, jaan se maaro saalo ko (Indira’s killers deserve to die)“, echoing a political dog whistle of recent times. There are other contemporary reflections in the series, especially of Covid times: people tying kerchiefs as facemasks, mass burials and cremations, Iftekaar warning his townsfolk not to jump to unverified conclusions.

Kay Kay Menon plays the ageing, watchful stationmaster with a beautiful mix of sternness and empathy (his subordinates lovingly call him ‘Sir Sahab’, a double honorific). Kay Kay has witnessed a career resurgence on streaming; coincidentally, one of his earliest films, Bhopal Express (1999), was backdropped on the same tragedy. R Madhavan and Divyenndu get colourful, if limited, roles, and render them well. Rawail dresses the grand production in sickly hues of green, gray and yellow. Cinematographer Rubais’ camera moves with a doomy inevitability. The weird angles and the enthusiastic camera spins left me feeling physically dizzy—even if the makers were going for maximum immersion, it’s not the best experience to offer viewers watching up close on a small screen.

Iftekaar, Imad, Rati… several of the characters in The Railway Men have a personal cross to bear. It, in turn, steels them in their moment of truth. That a number of its heroes are Muslim, and so were many of the victims of the 1984 tragedy, is left unstressed (at least verbally) in the series. Instead, the show turns, perhaps a bit wishfully, to the oneness of the Indian Railways and the Bhopal people at large. “Yeh meri basti hai, mera seher hai (this is my slum, my city),” Imad says early on. He fails to save it all by the end, but he dies trying.

The Railway Men is currently streaming on Netflix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD3TZ_Xxc14

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The Railway Men Review: Buoyed By Laudable Performances But Could Have Been Much More

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Kay Kay Menon in a scene from the series. (Courtesy: YouTube)

Untold stories of unsung heroes can be tricky. They are often susceptible to exaggeration because they allow the creators to be flexible with fact while being “inspired by true events”. Getting the balance right is of the essence. Parts – mind you, only parts and not the whole – of The Railway Men, a four-part Netflix show, struggle a touch on that count.

Produced by YRF Entertainment, directed by debutant Shiv Rawail and written by Aayush Gupta, the limited series forages for drama in the unspeakable Bhopal gas tragedy of December 2-3, 1984 and the response to it by resource-strapped officials on duty at the city’s beleaguered railway station.

That fateful night, as Bhopal residents went about their lives, death crept in upon them. The Union Carbide pesticides factory in their midst spewed methyl isocyanate (MIC), a lethal gas that took a heavy toll.

It was a disaster foretold by an investigative journalist whose fictional avatar (played by Kal Penn in the 2014 film Bhopal – A Prayer for Rain) is solidly fleshed out in The Railway Men by Sunny Hinduja.

The persistent journo who follows his leads with exceptional diligence and repeatedly exposes the American firm’s lackadaisical approach to safety is the only major non-railway man in this tale of courage in the face of death and destruction.    

The Railway Men freely crisscrosses two parallel tracks – the real and the fictional – without divulging the points of departure or overlap. It is apparent that most of the key characters in the series are modelled on actual people who were in the thick of the action that night and (in some cases) survived to tell the tale.

One major exception is a conman (Divvyendu Sharma) who commits robberies on trains and at railway stations. He is an extraneous invention whose purpose is to add a conflict between morality and expediency and trigger a tussle between two poles of humanity.

At one end of this faceoff is a thieving opportunist caught in two minds when saving lives assumes paramount importance even as he has nefarious plans up his sleeves. On the other is a conscientious, unwavering stationmaster who pulls out the stops in the face of an unprecedented crisis.

The latter is the battle-scarred “railway man” Iftekhar Siddiqui (Kay Kay Menon, brilliant), who puts his life on the line to protect as many people as he can from the danger lurking in the air. He is one character we are genuinely invested in because his acts are completely self-effacing, informed as they are with the sole intention of doing his job. He is a hero who does not see himself as one – an attribute that elevates him.

Not too different is rookie loco pilot Imad Riaz (Babil Khan, a chip off the old block who is at the same time distinctly inflected in a role who completely merges himself with). He is another reluctant hero. He has inside knowledge of Union Carbide’s negligent practices, having transported barrels of MIC to the factory during his stint there as a truck driver.            

Rati Pandey (R. Madhavan), a senior railway official who is under a cloud for an unspecified act that has cost him his job, appears cast in a dissimilar mould. He is the grandstanding type, the speechifier out to stir a listless workforce into action. Both the character and the performance stay stranded in an unexceptional zone.

The journalist echoes the real-life scribe who worked with whistleblowers to lay bare the loss-making factory’s constant and criminal flouting of safety rules. Imad is his principal source of information because the young man was once an insider and has reason to chip away at Union Carbide.  

The American head of the Carbide plant (British actor Philip Rosch) is the solitary bad guy, a repository of all manner of corporate skullduggery. He cavalierly plays down the risk that the MIC in the factory’s tanks poses and, when disaster strikes, unashamedly attempts a cover-up.

The context of the story that The Railway Men narrates has been well-documented. It is the ‘untold’ part of the saga that takes the show beyond the familiar. As it follows the consequences of the tragedy,  the series has more than its share of moments that linger. Why, then, does it leave one you feeling that it could have had more? Difficult to put a finger on it.  

Primarily owing to actors mindful of the realistic vein of the recreation of an industrial disaster that occurred four decades ago, The Railway Men is in never in danger of galloping out of control. However, given the multiplicity of characters that swarm the narrative canvas, too many of them, especially the women, are summarily crowded out.

The daughter of a Bhopal station cleaning woman (Sunita Rajwar) is in the middle of her wedding when the gas leak occurs. Imad’s mother (Nivedita Bhargava) isn’t seen or heard beyond a couple of stray scenes. Two pregnant women, one the widow (Annapurna Soni) of Carbide factory worker who died on the job, the other another employee’s wife (Bhumika Dube) – have more footage but without either of them coming anywhere near upstaging the men.

Juhi Chawla is cast as a senior railway officer who is the only woman in an emergency meeting that is convened when the Bhopal tragedy threatens to run out of hand.      

The focus of the series is on a male quintet, which leaves little room for the women in and around their lives to emerge from a high-density storyline that tends to occasionally wilt under its own weight.

The Railway Men has several other male characters who receive some play as the gas leak turns into a full-fledged catastrophe. Raghubir Yadav is a train guard who defends a Sikh woman (Mandira Bedi) and her son against a band of rioters.

Dibyendu Bhattacharya, playing Union Carbide factory foreman Kamruddin, and Shrikant Verma, as Bhopal railway station staffer Ishwar Prasad, make strong impressions in appearances that deserved more footage.        

The men are faced with multiple challenges. They have to stop a passenger train with thousands aboard from reaching Bhopal Junction, hurriedly plan a relief train from Itarsi to the stricken city and mop up resources to run a train that could get hundreds of people out of the affected area.

There is understandably no dearth of drama in <i>The Railway Men</i>, which inevitably alludes to the anti-Sikh riots of a few months earlier – a TV grab of Rajiv Gandhi’s “when a big tree falls…” speech makes it into the series – and to the acts of omission and commission that caused the tragedy and then allowed the wrongdoers to go scot-free.

The Railway Men rounds off its voiceover introduction with something to the effect that we live in a country where culprits go unpunished and heroes remain unrewarded, a statement made without any sort of nuance that would suggest that the truism does not pertain only to the past and may hold validity to this day.

The Railway Men is buoyed by a clutch of laudable performances and storytelling that does not slide below a certain level of competence. But it could have been much, much more.

Cast:

Kay Kay Menon, R Madhavan, Divyendu Sharma, Babil Khan, Juhi Chawla

Director:

Shiv Rawail

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EXCLUSIVE: Mark Antony actor-producer Vishal’s corruption-in-CBFC claims opens up a can of worms; producer of Kay Kay Menon-starrer Love All says he had to pay Rs. 5 lakhs to get his film cleared : Bollywood News – Bollywood Hungama

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The allegations by Vishal on CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) have opened a can of worms. On the evening of September 28, the actor-producer claimed that he had to pay Rs. 6.50 lakhs to clear the Hindi version of his film, Mark Antony. His post went viral since the allegations were extreme. The matter became so serious that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had to send an official immediately to conduct an inquiry.

EXCLUSIVE: Mark Antony actor-producer Vishal’s corruption-in-CBFC claims opens up a can of worms; producer of Kay Kay Menon-starrer Love All says he had to pay Rs. 5 lakhs to get his film cleared

Meanwhile, Bollywood Hungama exclusively spoke to a producer, Ramesh Vyas, who claimed that he also had to cough up money to clear his sports film, Love All. Starring Kay Kay Menon, it was released in cinemas on September 1.

Ramesh Vyas told us, “I had to pay Rs. 5 lakhs to get the certificate in 5 languages. Even then, I got the certificate for 2 regional versions 2 days after the release of the film.”

He added, “I have got many films censored. This has happened recently. I applied for a censor certificate in 8 languages. After getting the certificate for 5 languages, I was asked to pay again. Kahan se dunga main paisa? I declined and I haven’t got the certificate yet.”

Ramesh Vyas continued, “My second film, Ronny, made in Kannada, hasn’t been censored yet. I got three dates, all of which got cancelled. Mere se cash ki demand ki thi. Maine bola ki main nahin dunga.”

He elaborated, “They asked for Rs. 3.50 lakhs. I refused to pay. The status on the online portal states that the application is under process. I mailed them and even sent them the creative, which bears the release date of the film. Yet, I am yet to hear from them. I’ll now announce the new release date only after I get the certificate in my hand.”

Bollywood Hungama then spoke to Sanjay Singh, who got Love All censored. He dismissed the corruption claims, “These are baseless allegations. We followed all the rules and regulations. Hum aise chakkaron se dus kadam door hi rehte hai. What Vishal ji said is his personal matter and experience. For Love All, we went through the official route, and everything is under record.”

He also added, “I am not a Censor agent. We helped the makers with the Censor process as a friendly gesture.”

Ex-chairperson appeals to PM

Pahlaj Nihalani, who was the chairperson of the CBFC before Prasoon Joshi took over in August 2017, told Bollywood Hungama that he has been aware of the illegal activities happening in CBFC, “It has been happening for a long time. But I appreciate Vishal’s courage. He has taken up the issue. Nobody else dared to openly say that there exists corruption. The chairman is not attending office. He has handed over the responsibility to the CEO. The CEO should not be the one watching a movie. He can only oversee the administration and nothing else. It’s the chairman who has to watch a film. But if he’s unable to do so, why did he even accept the position in the first place?”

He stated, “The industry is suffering due to the CBFC’s corruption. He (Prasoon Joshi) is also a part of the industry. He should take care of the industry’s interests and provide a corruption-free environment in the CBFC office.”

When asked why no one raised their voice against these practices, Pahlaj replied, “Who’s going to talk? So much is at stake. You lose crores of money if your film gets delayed even by a week. I salute Vishal. We should learn the lesson from him and openly talk about their problems.”

Pahlaj Nihalani is saddened that so many people from the industry slammed him during his tenure, “When things were moving right (in my tenure), so much noise was made. And now when the corruption is happening in CBFC, the industry members are quiet. Ours is a weird industry!”

He proudly said, “During my tenure, there was not a single film that had to cancel the release due to the Censor process. Some regional films of Gujarati and South industry had to be cancelled this week for not getting the certificate on time.”

He even appealed to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “When Mr Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, he famously said, ‘Na khaunga. Na khaane dunga’. Lekin CBFC mein khule aam corruption ho raha hai aur koi awaaz nahin utha raha hai.”

EXCLUSIVE: Mark Antony actor-producer Vishal’s corruption-in-CBFC claims opens up a can of worms; producer of Kay Kay Menon-starrer Love All says he had to pay Rs. 5 lakhs to get his film cleared

Ex-CBFC member speaks up

Trade analyst Atul Mohan, who was once a member of the CBFC, said that it’s not fair to paint the whole CBFC staff with one brush, “CBFC mein acche log hai. If your film is stuck and if you apprise them of the situation, they’ll clear it, especially if the delay is due to some technical reason.”

He continued, “There’s an online system in place. You don’t need anyone. Lekin desperate situation ka faayda uthaya jaata hai.” He jokingly remarked, “I was just thinking last night. I must have cleared 40-50 films during my tenure at CBFC. Had I asked for Rs. 5 lakhs for each movie, I would have had Rs. 2-3 crores in my kitty!”

Atul Mohan was all praises for Pahlaj Nihalani, “This never happened in his time. He was the first one jinhone poore system mein kachra saaf kiya. He didn’t even allow agents in the building. Once Prasoon Joshi became the chairperson, the agents were back in the office.”

The other side

Bollywood Hungama tried contacting Prasoon Joshi and he was unavailable for comment. CBFC CEO Ravinder Bhakar replied to our message with a press release. Excerpts from this release are as follows:

“With the implementation of aggressive digitization, complete process automation, and emphasis on minimal human intervention, the interference of intermediaries/agents has come down significantly. However, the practice still exists in some regions which is defeating the purpose of transparency and smooth functioning of the certification process.  Please do not deal with any intermediary or third-party agent. The producers/filmmakers are further cautioned that they should not encourage any third-party agents/ intermediaries. On the contrary, if any third party is claiming they represent CBFC and are demanding any sum of amount, please report it immediately to CBFC. Strictest action will be taken against anyone found involved and we shall get into the root cause.

On the other hand, a section of the industry has stated that they haven’t come across any such demand for bribes from the CBFC members or agents. Actor-producer Jackky Bhagnani told ANI, “I have never faced such an experience. I have not even heard what he has said. so, I would not like to comment on it.”

Denzil Dias of Warner Bros wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “As a representative of @WarnerBrosIndia and @UniversalIND, I can confidently state that @CBFC_India and @MIB_India have been absolutely fair & transparent in all their dealings. We have released 20 films to date and have not faced any corruption or delay.”

Throwback: When the CBFC CEO got arrested for bribery

The Mark Antony bribe row immediately brought back memories of Rakesh Kumar, who was arrested for accepting Rs. 70,000 to clear a film named Mor Dauki Ke Bihav in August 2014. A former official of the Indian Railways, his interview to Mumbai Mirror dated January 16, 2014, had gone viral, especially his quote that “I seriously don’t think Ranbir Kapoor should have shown his middle finger and bared his butt in Besharam (2013). I also felt that given his reputation, Aamir Khan shouldn’t have produced a cuss-loaded film like Delhi Belly (2011).”

During this time, it was reported that Rohit Shetty had to visit Rakesh Kumar’s residence in Colaba, Mumbai to request him to clear Ajay Devgn-starrer Singham Returns (2014) in time. Reportedly, Kick’s (2014) producer and director Sajid Nadiadwala had to call Kumar after the certification process of the Salman Khan-starrer was delayed.

More Pages: Mark Antony Box Office Collection

Tags : CBFC, CBFC (Censor Board Of Film Certification), Censor, Censor Board of Film Certification, Exclusive, Kay Kay Menon, Love All, Mark Antony, News, Pahlaj Nihalani, Ramesh Vyas, Sanjay Singh

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Bambai Meri Jaan Review: The Actors Save The Day In Sporadically Gripping Underworld History

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Avinash Tiwary (L), Kay Kay Menon (R) in a shot from the series. (Courtesy: AvinashTiwary)

Another iteration of the oft-told story of the rise of Bombay mafia don Dawood Ibrahim in the 1970s and his flight from the city a decade before it became Mumbai, Amazon Prime Video’s Bambai Meri Jaan is the first web show that fictionalises the gangster’s early life.  

The action-packed period crime drama – it plays out from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s with a few stray sequences set in the 1940s – is buoyed by an exceptional cast of actors who bring authenticity, if not high-voltage star power, to the ten-episode retelling of a saga that does a reasonable job of presenting an account of a megalopolis’ turbulent past.

Bambai Meri Jaan portrays on one man’s obsession with power and money. It also delves into the nitty-gritties of the policing of a city in the grip of unstoppable criminal gangs at war with each other. The series, marred by a gratuitous surfeit of foul language, rides on the spectacle of cops and criminals in a tight embrace as Bombay grapples with the depredations of a rampaging underworld.

Kay Kay Menon and Avinash Tiwary as a pair of father and son who do not see eye to eye lead the charge but there is much more to the series on the acting front than the two actors who turbocharge the show. Several of the supporting cast members – notably Jitin Gulati, Saurabh Sachdeva, Nivedita Bhattacharya, Nawab Shah, Vivan Bhathena and Kritika Kamra – throw everything they’ve got into a show that requires all the heft that they can bring to the table.

Produced by Excel Media & Entertainment and created by Rensil D’Silva and the show’s director Shujaat Saudagar, Bambai Meri Jaan rustles up a cocktail of organized crime, violence and vengeance and delivers it in a manner that focuses as much on the bloody gang wars on the streets and dockyards of Bambai as it does on the emotional dynamics that are at work in the life of a boy determined to change his and his family’s fortunes.

Bambai Meri Jaan, lit and lensed by cinematographer John Schmidt, captures the grit and grime of gang wars that leave behind a long trail of bodies and push a city to the edge. It pits a morally upright, God-fearing patriarch against a recalcitrant son who figures out that honesty does not pay in a world where fear is the key. The latter bamboozles his way into a life of crime.

Dara Ismail (Avinash Tiwary) seeks to dislodge the reigning underworld triumvirate of Haji Maqbool (Saurabh Sachdeva), Azeem Pathan (Nawab Shah) and Anna Rajan Mudaliar (Dinesh Prabhakar), who have carved up the city into three zones to share the spoils of their smuggling and extortion rackets run in collusion with corrupt segments of the police force.

A special task force christened the “Pathan Squad” is set up under Ismail Kadri (Kay Kay Menon), a cop of unwavering integrity, and charged with the task of reining in the mafia dons. The squad does everything in its power to justify its existence but neither its best nor the power at its disposal is good enough to accomplish the mission of wiping out the underworld.

The story of Dara Kadri is narrated entirely from the standpoint of his father, Ismail Kadri (Kay Kay Menon), who detests his rebellious son’s criminal activities and attempts to distance himself from him and the quagmire that he drags the family, which includes his mother Sakina (Nivedita Bhattacharya), elder brother Saadiq (Jitin Gulati) and younger siblings Ajju ((Lakshya Kochhar) and Habiba (Kritika Kamra), into.

Dara’s father is a tragic figure, a sort of last man standing in a crumbling world. He is honest to a fault but pays the price for a single indiscretion. Ismail Kadri’s fall from grace is swift. H is condemned to a life of great financial hardship, which forces him to accept the wily Haji’s inducements and compels Dara to renege against his father and take on the rest of the Bombay underworld.

Bambai Meri Jaan is a crime drama that hinges on the ups and downs of filial relationships, which sets it apart a bit from other similar generic offerings that usually come out of the Mumbai industry. The equations between Ismail and Dara is the show’s focal point but also important to the plot is the sibling ‘rivalry’ that arises between Dara and Saadiq (who feels he has always received the rough end of the stick) and the bond between Dara and his feisty kid sister Habiba.

Bambai Meri Jaan is also a love story involving a gangster and the city that is described his beloved. Dara is obviously no poet and he has no words of his own to express his passion for Bombay, for its underworld at any rate. The protagonist also has a more mundane love interest in Pari (Amyra Dastur), daughter of an Irani caf&#233; owner he has frequently rubbed up the wrong way. Words fail him here too and he is barely able to profess his love for the girl he has been smitten with since he was a schoolboy. Neither Bombay nor Pari seems destined to be his in the long run but Dara isn’t one to give up without a fight.

Bambai Meri Jaan begins in 1986. Dara Kadri, cornered by the law, is all set to fly out of Bombay. It is evident that this prelude is where the show is going to end. The story jumps a couple of decades into the past – to 1964, to be precise – and homes in on the Kadri couple surviving on a policeman’s meagre salary and preparing for the birth of their fourth child. The financial strain worsens as the years go by and Ismail’s second son Dara begins to go astray with intent.        

This is an avowedly fictional account inspired by true events. Most of the key characters, including Assistant Commissioner of Police Ranbir Malik (Shiv Pandit), who props up Dara Kadri with the aim of countering the clout of Haji and Pathan, have been drawn from real life.

The tale is hackneyed on two critical levels. One, the Dawood story has been documented on the big screen several times in the new millennium as well as given the documentary treatment as recently as early this year (in Netflix’s Mumbai Mafia: Police vs the Underworld), so <i>Bambai Meri Jaan</i>, despite all the action and dramatic twists that it musters up, struggles to deliver anything that could be deemed novel.

Even the language that Bambai Meri Jaan employs – the screenplay is credited to Rensil D’Silva and Sammeer Arora and the dialogues have been written Abbas Dalal and Hussain Dalal – adds no real value to the exercise. It is coarse, which may be understandable to a certain extent given the setting, and the profanities are way too over the top.

Bambai Meri Jaan is sweeping and sporadically gripping underworld history couched in a highly dramatic shell that stands on generalisations about criminality, policing and a sprawling city of dreams and nightmares. It is the actors who save the day for Bambai Meri Jaan.

Cast:

Kay Kay Menon, Avinash Tiwary, Amyra Dastur, Kritika Kamra, Nivedita Bhattacharya

Director:

Shujaat Saudagar



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