Bombay Velvet takes you back in time, Ranbir Kapoor does exemplary work as the gritty Johny Balraj. Anushka Sharma as Rosie, the Jazz singer, has a very limited role, she justifies her role but it is very short. Karan Johar in the negative shade is a treat to watch, no one could have imagined Karan to be able to act, looks like Anurag Kashyap has brought out a new talent in Karan. The music goes with the movie era and reminds us of classic Jazz music. The movie is good in parts and mostly revolves around Ranbir, it is a sort of a comeback movie for Ranbir. Bombay Velvet is overall a good movie but fails to live up to the hype that it created prior to release. Final word – Watch it if you are a Ranbir Kapoor fan and have nothing better to do on the weekend!
Bombay Velvet sees some oeuvre-defining acting from its lead actors Ranbir and Anushka, and re-reminds one of the former's skills and the latter's growth as an actor. Karan Johar's sinister Khambatta act is raw and real, and the last few minutes of the film help the director clinch the title of an 'actor', too. The ensemble cast is well cast in their roles, and Satyadeep Mishra deserves much praise for getting the word across with just a stare. Manish Choudhary, Siddhartha Basu, Kay Kay Menon, Vivaan Shah - all do adequate justice to their roles. Rajeev Ravi's cinematography is pitch-perfect. In all, Bombay Velvet doesn't match up to the expectations one had from it. Despite all the grandiosity, one needs to be well-equipped in patience in order to savour the film. The external embellishments render the film quite heavy. It teeters on the edge, but ultimately manages to sail through. Bombay Velvet is grand, exquisite, elaborate ... and deserves a watch for Kashyap's style.
'Bombay Velvet' is more like a roller coaster ride, as it takes you on a dizzy high with its charming ambience and music that is bound to stay with you for long, but later you are brought down not so gently with the underwhelming plot and lack of punches. Watch it for the experience.
The Bombay Velvet plot is littered with street fights, shootouts and murders on the one hand, and jazz soirees, bitter tabloid wars, fierce political rivalries, deadly depredations of land sharks and labour unrest on the other. All things considered, Bombay Velvet is, at best, a passable story of vaulting ambition, all-consuming love and destructive greed. What you leave the hall with is a sense of disappointment. Bombay Velvet has neither the softness of velvet nor the sweep of the city it is an ode to. Unlike its pugilist protagonist, the film punches well below its weight.
Bombay Velvet is marred by weak storytelling. Bombay Velvet spends too much time on period details and loses focus. But like Bombay Velvet’s production design and the look, its music also feels over-scored. It is good, but it is also too much.
The whole film revolves on the idea of ‘if I am the one who is getting the dirty work done then I should have a larger share in the profit’, but despite all the guns and jazz, the loverboy-gangster charm remains elusive and the film stops right before achieving the perfect intensity. It’s fast but not engrossing. Detailing is Bombay Velvet’s real deal and that makes it a watchable movie. Also, don‘t expect it to be another film on the line of Gangs Of Wasseypur 1 and 2. This time, it’s more about the masses.
Ranbir Kapoor looks perfect for his Cagney-esque part, complete with tommy guns and leery grins, but does not pull it off. And Anushka Sharma shines only occasionally. The music, composed by Amit Trivedi, is superb, though, even if it doesn’t break the dizzying bar set by ‘Dev D’. When you can hear it, and in some effective parts, ‘Bombay Velvet’ soars. In the rest, this thing doesn’t sing. It needed more zing.
Bombay Velvet is one of the most stylish-looking Hindi films, its glowing cinematography and sharp detailing presenting a heady, greedy city, full of nightmares and dreams. But Bombay Velvet has rough edges too. The film is so intensely stylized, it misses emotional pull. Its cinematography and performances, particularly Ranbir's edgy 'big shot', merit an extra half-star. But while Bombay Velvet is stylish, this fabric could have been smoother.
The first reaction to ‘Bombay Velvet’ – this is not an Anurag Kashyap film. This film panders to the diktats of a typical Bollywood film, something that Kashyap mocked and had complete disdain for. Ranbir Kapoor’s street-fighter act, his obsessive lover act- they all fall flat. Seasoned actors like Kay Kay Menon and Manish Choudhary are wasted, simply because thier roles are so sketchy. The worse casting decision however has got to be that of Karan Johar playing the villain Kaizad Khambata – he preens and pouts throughout the film and is basically insufferable. There was complete absence of chemistry between the lead pair. Kashyap made films from the heart and it struck a chord and here, he dilutes his style, attempting cosmetic precision – and the film remains just that – a superficial story with superfluous characters.