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Bombay Talkies

Bombay Talkies

Movie · 2013 · 7 people

Bombay Talkies is a 2013 Hindi-language (partly English) anthology film. Made to celebrate a hundred years of Indian cinema, it consists of four short films of about twenty minutes each and runs roughly 127 minutes in all. Its title is a nod to the Bombay Talkies studio of the 1930s. It was released on May 3, 2013 and screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2013. The release was timed to coincide with the centenary and what was seen as the start of a new era in modern cinema. The production company is Viacom18 Studios.

The four segments were directed by Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap. Love, ambition, sexual identity and personal struggle run through the stories, and the common thread is the characters' passion for classic Indian cinema. Rani Mukerji, Randeep Hooda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Katrina Kaif, Saqib Saleem, Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Amitabh Bachchan are among the actors. Many Bollywood stars and singers come together in a music video composed by Amit Trivedi and choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant.

This was the first of three anthologies made by the same four directors, followed by Lust Stories in 2018 and Ghost Stories in 2020, both released on Netflix.

DirectorKaran Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap
Production companyViacom18 Studios

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Aamir Khan Aamir Khan Actor · 61 years old Rani Mukerji Randeep Hooda Saqib Saleem Nawazuddin Siddiqui Sadashiv Amrapurkar Amitabh Bachchan

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Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Four directors, four short films, each given only a brief slot: Bombay Talkies' strength and weakness both lie in that format. Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap stand for very different ideas of cinema, and that variety is a fitting choice for the centenary of Indian film. But the familiar problem of anthologies applies here too: differences in tone and quality between segments are inevitable, and so brief a slot may not be enough for some stories to deepen. It is fairer to see the film not as a whole but as a showcase where four signatures stand side by side. That the same four went on to make Lust Stories and Ghost Stories shows how fruitful the experiment was judged to be.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The common thread of Bombay Talkies is its characters' passion for classic Indian cinema. That choice is a reminder that in India film is far more than an entertainment industry: it is a shared language of everyday life and dreams. Including sexual identity alongside love and ambition is a notable bit of daring for a film made to mark something like a centenary. Taking its name from a 1930s studio also positions it as a bridge between past and present. Even if the celebratory mood sometimes gets ahead of a critical eye, the film does try to hold a mirror up to its own film culture.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humor and heart.

At first glance it is tempting for a family that loves Indian cinema: familiar faces and a music video bringing Bollywood stars together. But the four stories are very different from one another, and themes such as sexual identity are part of the mix. It suits teenagers and adults better than young children. Since the stories are short, you can also pause between them and talk.

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