Yeh Saali Zindagi : Movie Review

Yeh Saali Zindagi is a definite entertainer

Director : Sudhir Mishra

Cast : Irrfan Khan, Chitrangda Singh, Arunoday Singh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Saurabh Shukla, Sushant Singh, Yashpal Sharma, Prashant Narayanan & Vipul Gupta.

                Yeh Saali Zindagi happens to be a good entertaining movie made in a long time. A musical romantic thriller in its genre, YSZ surmounts in almost every single department. The credit has to be given to the 2 time National award winning director Sudhir Mishra who gives another master stroke in the form of YSZ continuing his legacy of offbeat films including the likes of Dharavi, Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, Chameli & Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi, but unlike his most of previous work, YSZ is a definite entertainer.

The film stars Irrfan Khan as Arun who works in a finance company of Mehta (Saurabh Shukla), a double dealing deceitful finance goon. The duo are in a black money flip-flop white money business where Arun neatens the unlawful money of gangsters, politicians and high profile businessmen. In an episode of imparting legal imputation on a pub owner with a motive to rack up his property, Arun unintentionally meets a beautiful singer named Priti (Chitrangda Singh), sister and partner of the pub owner and falls for her alluring looks. After having learnt that Priti has nothing else apart from the pub property Arun decides to help Priti come out of this nuisance. However Arun in return obtains nothing but a mere friendship from the stingy Priti, who becomes occupied with her boyfriend Shyam (Vipul Gupta); son of a business tycoon and soon starts avoiding Arun. Mehta warns the infatuated Arun and pushes him to forget Priti and his one sided love story. On the other side Shyam is leading a double life and has a fiance who is a daughter of a politician and this is where the trouble begins.

Kuldeep (Arunoday Singh), an outlaw living in the outskirts of old Delhi is married to Shanti (Aditi Rao Hydari) and has a 5 year old son, however his wife wants to make their ways apart due to the anti social behaviours of Kuldeep. However, he assures her that he will discontinue his crime life forever, but secretly agrees to perform one last job before he retires from the crime world to ensure the financial security of his family. And this last job is nothing but a task of kidnapping the politician's daughter along with her fiance Shyam. A local brigade of outlaws leaded by Kuldeep go for the kill but unwittingly abducts Shyam with Priti instead of the politician's daughter. This is where Arun finds himself in a pickle of either to risk his own life for a girl who does not love him or to leave the city where already people are after his life.

The film has portions of narratives by Arun and Kuldeep, both justifying their enslavement to their respective love interests by doing things which have no personal incentives , unleashing their Unconditional love. Unusual to find such feelings in today's age of flings, we are pushed to believe the Platonic love of Arun by his subtle behaviour towards Priti. And in the midst of all these kidnappings and gunshots the one thing that keeps the entertainment moolah always on the top is the dark humour which the director manages to create quite effectively and 'consistently'. Be it the bad-mouthing one liners of the bizarre gangsters or the conversation of the underworld siblings Bade (Yashpal Sharma) and Chhote (Prashant Narayanan), all comes as a laughter bonus in every scene one after another making the viewer wait for another one to come and believe me the viewers are not disappointed at all. One of my favourite comes from a mad gangster who says "Side Income hai Bhai" after a fellow crook asks the reason why Priti is trying hard to save Shyam. Even the greedy cop Satbeer (Sushant Singh) joins the party and smashes a sixer off the last ball.

Of the cast, Irrfan Khan deserves a standing ovation for enacting such a difficult role effortlessly. He is simply superb and is one of the biggest strength's of the film. Arunoday Singh with the 'Hulk' looks was last seen in Mirch and Aisha earlier, looks like a prominent talent to watch out for. Chitrangda Singh as the mysterious Priti is good. Aditi Rao Hydari was last seen in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Delhi6 in a small role but she makes a good debut in a lead role of the beautiful wife of Kuldeep. Also all the supporting actors have given their best in their respective parts, be it Saurabh Shukla, Yashpal Sharma, Prashant Narayanan or the Delhi bad boys. The music of the film excellently supports the story with some real nice tracks. Kaise kahein Alvida..., Dil dar ba dar... and Sararara... make the best of songs.

Many of the recent films have had the dialogues which have gone across the line, including the likes of Kaminey, Ishqiya, Peepli Live and No One Killed Jessica. The raw language trend continues with YSZ, infact the film faced some censor issues prior the release on the usage of the word "Saali" in the title of the film. Ironically the script makes YSZ as the most suitable title for this film. Written by Mishra himself YSZ comes up as a winner in the end. Not a movie for family audiences, but this one is a treat to watch for those who like cinema to its core. For a brave move by an ace director and excellent performances, i would go for a 3.5/5 for YSZ. Thank you Sudhir Mishra for the real entertainment!!!

Official Poster

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