Bombay Talkies (BT) celebrates Bollywood's centenary - by deconstructing Bollywood's formula. Loving families, skin-tight genders, glittering stardom and happy endings get tossed about by the four directors here.
Directed by Karan Johar
Karan Johar's film smashes his own mould - forget about loving your parents, Johar shows a gay youth Avinash (Saqib Saleem) pummeling his father while quitting home. Avinash befriends glamorous Gayatri (Rani), wife to Dev (Hooda) with whom she has passionless, infrequent sex. Avinash meets Dev - sparks fly. While Saqib convincingly portrays odd-ball Avinash, Hooda simmers with tangible tension. It all ends in tears, delightful coming from the archetype of extra cheese himself. This is Karan Johar unleashed - and impressive with his taut film.
Directed by Dibakar Banerjee
The story is an adaptation of Satyajit Ray's short story "Patol Babu, Film Star". A failed actor (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is struggling to make a living after his father’s death. He wants everyone should come home to him to offer him work. One day he meets his master's spirit and learns the lesson of life that work is not God's Gift and one only gets it when one tries. In a turn of events he stumbles upon his last chance to prove himself to the world and more importantly, to his daughter (this last point is adapted from Ray's another short story, "Pterodactyl-er Dim").
Directed by Zoya Akhtar
A 12-year-old boy (played by Naman Jain) aspires to be a Bollywood dancer. His father however wants him to be a football player. The boy is a Katrina Kaif fan and loves dancing to "Sheila Ki Jawani." During a TV interview he hears Katrina Kaif talk about breaking conventions of society and following dreams regardless of the obstacles that come in ones way. He is encouraged by what he hears from his idol. In his parents absence, he dresses up like 'Sheila' and performs for himself and his sister. One day he is caught by his parents and is rebuked for his inappropriate behavior. Meanwhile, his sister wants to go on a School trip but is refused Rs. 2000 by their father because he had spent funds on the son's football training. She is rather disappointed that the parents are so focused on his football training while he doesn't even enjoy football. It is then that the brother comes to his sister's rescue and offers to perform to collect money for her trip. They then decide to organize a small ticketed event at an old garage, where the boy dances to his favorites.
Directed by Anurag Kashyap
Vijay (Vineet Kumar Singh) is from Allahabad city in UP. The story begins with Vijay traveling to Mumbai to fulfill his ailing father's desire. His father (Sudhir Pandey) desires that Vijay meet Bollywood superstar Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, offer and feed him homemade 'murabba' and bring the remaining half for his father. Vijay's father believes that doing so will bring comfort to him and in turn lengthen his life. Vijay is shown struggling to get personal audience with Mr. Bachchan. Hungry, frustrated and penniless, Vijay even takes up an odd job in Mumbai. Eventually, after much struggling and convincing Mr. Bachchan's security guards, he gets to meet Mr. Bachchan personally. Amazed at Vijay's determination and dedication towards his father Mr. Bachchan happily obliges Vijay. He eats half of Vijay's homemade murabba. Satisfied and victorious Vijay now sets on his return journey by train. On his way back he is shown narrating his experiences to fellow passengers. Meanwhile, a co- passenger maliciously breaks the glass jar containing the murabba eaten by Mr. Bachchan while another co-passenger inadvertently squishes it. Disappointed and heartbroken, Vijay has no option but to replace the piece of murabba somehow. He decides to buy a new glass jar and some murabba. He reaches home with the murabba and offer it to his father. The father however is able to detect that something went wrong; he asks his son, where he broke the glass jar? In response, Vijay narrates the truth to him. It is then that the father narrates his own story to Vijay. Just as he had asked Vijay to meet Mr. Bachchan, his grandfather had asked his father to meet Mr. Dilip Kumar, a Bollywood superstar of his times. His grandfather had handed over a jar of honey to his father and had asked that Mr. Dilip Kumar dip his finger into the jar. However, the jar of honey caught ants by the time it reached Mr. Dilip Kumar and the actor refused to dip his finger into it. Vijay's father had then replaced the jar of honey, dipped his own finger into it and taken it back to his father. Unsuspectingly, Vijay's grandfather ate honey from the jar for years to come and lived a long life. The movie ends with Vijay's father contemplating how life takes a full circle.