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| Yeh Saali Zindagi Movie Review |
Rating: 
Genre : Crime, Comedy
Running Time : 134 Minutes.
| Cast | Irrfan Khan as Arun, Arunoday Singh as Kuldeep, Chitrangda Singh as Priti, Aditi Rao Hydari as Shanti, Saurabh Shukla as Mehta, Sushant Singh as Satbeer, Vipin Sharma as Tony, Yashpal Sharma as Bade, Prashant Narayanan as Chote, Vipul Gupta as Shyam, Tarun Shukla as Guddu, Madhvi Singh as minister's daughter |
| Produced By | Prakash Jha |
| Directed By | Sudhir Mishra |
| Music | Nishat Khan |
Before Satya, there were no crime noir movies. There was this stray movie about a person taking to a life of crime, but there was no movie that actually showed the dark underbelly of crime. Of course, Satya paved the way for all kinds of movies set in the world of crime, from serious action movies to comedy. Sudhir Mishra once again enters into the dirty, grimy lanes of crime to set his best movie till date, Yeh Saali Zindagi.
Plot Review:
An intricate plot that is as delightful as it is confusing.
Yeh Saali Zindagi is about four protagonists, and how greed and other sins change their lives and make it an inexplicable mess. There’s a commonplace ruffian, who is fresh out of prison and is trying to make amends with his young, beautiful wife. That he is the brother of a corrupt police officer who wants him to do one last job is not helping matters much. Then there’s a Delhi businessman who is hoodwinked by his partner into selling his company, and he has no other option but to work for him for a while as an employee. And of course there is this club singer who thinks that a politician’s son has fallen in love with her, but only after she unknowingly breaks the businessman’s heart. Little does she know that her love is about to be sacrificed at the altar of power and greed.
The politician’s son is kidnapped, the businessman meets the singer and falls in love with her, and the commonplace hoodlum tries to make peace with his wife – leading to some happenings that they wouldn’t have dreamt in the most fantastic of their dreams.
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| Yeh Saali Zindagi Actor |
The plot of Yeh Saali Zindagi is a bit contrived and complex, but that does not mean that it is a boring plot. Every story arc and plot point that it begins is a coup de grace, and only adds to the madcap journey that the protagonists are enduring into the badlands of crime and greed.
Crime and kidnapping is a proper profession in the forgotten states of India, and whatever is portrayed in the movie is quite in tandem with the new reports that we read about day in and day out.
The plot has it all, danger, hope, love, and above all, the basic factor of human survival. Definitely, this is one of the best plots to come out of Bollywood in this year or even this decade. The only issue is that the viewer should watch the movie with rapt attention, or else they will end up thinking who kidnapped whom, who is saving whom and who is working for whom! But this movie is definitely worth a second watch, so there’s no problem with that.
Direction and Screenplay Review:
Sudhir Mishra excels as the director. A treat to watch.
Sudhir Mishra is a director sans competition when it comes to making such quirky, relevant movies. He wields the camera well and the screenplay rocks. There is not a moment of boredom in the entire movie, and you just want to know what is going to happen to the protagonists! The camera work and angles in this movie are specifically brilliant. The screenplay works in creating an aura of fear for the protagonists when they are kidnapped. There are some iconic sequences in the movie, like where the hoodlum cocks a gun on the driver’s neck and kisses his wife, while covering his son’s eyes. This scene works well to give a description of the hoodlum, someone who believes in making his own fate and achieving it – come what may.
Yeh Saali Zindagi has been accused of having some and many cusswords, but go out on the streets today and you will find more cusswords coming your way than in the entire movie!
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| Yeh Saali Zindagi Actress Photo |
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| Yeh Saali Zindagi Kiss Photo |
Performance Review:
Irrfan Excels, Chitrangada Seduces.
Irrfan Khan has made a career of playing the bitter, earthy, grey characters, and this movie shows why. He excels as the businessman who has hopeless fallen in love with a woman who does not quite understand him. Arundoy Singh makes a cracking reentry into Bollywood as Kuldeep, the hoodlum. This is an actor to watch out for. Aditi Rai Hydari has an earthy sensuality that creates a crackling innuendo in every scene that she shares with Arundoy Singh – adding the more important three letter factor to a crime caper. Chitrangada Singh is a treat to watch as a woman who is suddenly put in the thick of action. She works well as the woman who has to think on her feet to save not one, but three lives, and there’s only one that she really cares for at the moment – hers!
Music Review:
Peppy, today music that will not bore you.
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| Yeh Saali Zindagi Poster |
Yeh Saali Zindagi music comes up trumps on all counters. The highlight of the album is Shara Ra Ra and Yeh Saali Zindagi, both peppy, politically incorrect songs that are foot tapping numbers that you will love to hear and hum all through the day. Dil Dar Ba Dar has a sufi touch to it, and the poetry in it is something that is rarely seen in recent albums. Kaise Kahein Alvida is a silent long song that tugs at your heart strings right from the start
