"Milan Talkies" Review: Unusual Lover Letter To The Mainstream Mumbai Movies

Cast: Ali Fazal, Shraddha Srinath, Ashutosh Rana, Sikandar Kher

Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia

Rating: 3/5

Tigmanshu Dhulia's Milan Talkies, set in Allahabad, is a vigorous, unusual romantic movie in comparison to mainstream Mumbai movies. The movie is not at the highest standard that it was expected to achieve and the chances are the story meanders on and on. Be that as it may, the main cast, actor Ali Fazal and actress Shraddha Srinath whose top-notch acting performance and fiery arguments between characters upstage the audience and keep the ball rolling.

The story about a love story hinging on a single-screen cinema called Milan Talkies is written by Dhulia and Kamal Pandey and filmed by DP Hari K Vedantam. Rollicking, hilarious, and devious are proper words to describe Milan Talkies. It pivots a projectionist as well as a match-maker, a budding filmmaker and his sweetheart.

Milan Talkies brings out the conflict between the old generation placing where the parents sit there and the young generation with an eye to soaring ambition and modernity. Additionally, socio-political flow is featured in the movie with a touch of empathy and depth perception.

In the scene when Sharma patriarch drones out a song Aaj Mausam Beimaan Hai Bada, his son interrupts him with say that the world has changed. In 2010, we witnessed the rise of Anti-Romeo squads appearing every corner in Allahabad and demolishing as the time goes. That makes the movie have to extend over a period of three-and-a-half years.

No one could think Shraddha Srinath is a debutant since she perfects her character Maithali, daughter of a priest. Maithali will suffer distress at being married off to a guy chosen by her father if her final college exam goes well. With all his heart, Annu helps her nail the exam although knowing that could make Maithali far away from him.

Well, we could say the supporting cast of Milan Talkies barely doesn’t play any significant roles in the film’s development. Ashutosh Rana, Deep Raj Rana, Sanjay Mishra, and Reecha Sinha are the exception. They show up frequently in the movie especially Reecha Sinha, playing the heroine's trusted friend Babli, takes advantages of her on-screen time to leave her footprint in the movie. Beside, underrated actor Rajeev Gupta, playing Maithali's maternal uncle, gives a showstopping performance receiving much-deserved praise.

In the scene when Annu responds to Maithali's maternal uncle’s compliments, which states Hindi cinema’s influence on the public: “"Dono mein naqal karni padti hain, ek mein filmi, aur ek mein ilmi."

Assuming Milan Talkies is faking everything, that’s not completely correct. Overall it is still an entertaining movie one although the duration is 140 minutes long, makes the audience just want to make it snappy as the movie tries jogging around the main issues rather than getting to the point straight forward. If you give Milan Talkies a chance and are patient with it, you will find yourself enjoying it.