Directed by Sunhil Sippy, Noor features Sonakshi Sinha, Kanan Gill and Purab Kohli in the pivotal roles. Noor is a story about the misadventure of a quirky and clumsy journalist Noor Roy Chaudhary who believes that she can change the game of her life through her job, but all she gets is the interview of Sunny Leone or a man who can walk on his bare hands. Her life is messed up with a decaying house, crazy father (M. K. Raina), egoistic cat, weight issues, the lack-of-men life and a sadist boss. But the one thing which is good in her life is her close-knit friendship with Saad (Kanan Gill) and Zara (Shibani Dandekar). Noor’s office purely generates entertainment and freak-show stories, which upsets her because she wants to pursue “issue-based broadcast journalism” and it is completely absent. She bumps into a handsome photojournalist Ayan (Purab Kohli) and immediately she crushes on this 40-something guy. But, lesser did she know that her life is going to change forever when her house maid Malti (Smita Tambe) shows her a video tape which exposes a big shocking scam. She gets so much involved in it that she wants to know the bitter truth of it. She wants her editor to expose the news, but he rejects to help. That’s when she gets fed-up and yells a monologue - Mumbai You’re Killing Me! After Akira, once again Sonakshi is single handedly holding the responsibility of the film. But, she definitely has done a great job playing the clumsy Noor. The best part of the whole story is that wherever Sonakshi aka. Noor was failing, the supporting casts intensely helped her to gain pace. Kanan Gill and Shibani Dandekar were the two big pillars who will delight you with their time-based comedy. Also, Smita Tambe’s second half screen time will grip you into the seriousness of the matter. Noor’s social commentary and the search for truth is heavy-handed which might turn you off because it fails to connect to the audience. All in all, a little more effort from the protagonist could have helped in the film’s story line, but it will be a good change from the usual comedy and romance films for sure.
Who knew Sonakshi Sinha was capable of this all along? Watching her play this part is the most starkly disorienting thing about Noor. The movie gives her a chance to be an actual flesh-and-bone person. She’s relatable as a girl who swears by her rum (and suffers hangovers), eats cake in bed (and dreads getting on a weighing scale) and becomes the third wheel on a friend’s date (while cursing her own single life). We’ve all been there. Director Sunhil Sippy has achieved the rare feat of not stereotyping people in the media by showing them as jhola-toting opinionated creatures. There’s an instant connect with Noor’s world; her friends are as silly as yours, her issues are at times frivolous but her quarter-life crisis seems credible. The film is slightly over-written (a whole lot of dialogue) but lines are mostly funny. A slightly stronger effort on the protagonist’s part could have propelled the movie into greatness. But where Noor falls short, Sinha rises to the occasion. Gill brings a lightheartedness to the movie and Smita Tambe delivers equally well in half the screen-time. This is the great debut that has come seven years into Sonakshi’s career. And for that, you must go meet Noor at theatre.