Watch City Lights For Free

To me, this movie is perfection.

hyped garbage

How sad is this?

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There is a moment in the film where the two lead characters find themselves utterly broke, with barely enough money to feed themselves. They are also in possession of an artifact which, if they are found with, might lead to a considerable amount of jail time. As they sit with each other, crying and consoling each other, the background score changes to a song that roughly translates into "You're the reason I smile. You're the reason I sing." This, at a moment when neither of the characters is doing either of these things. The scene then cuts to one of the most non-passionate love making scenes I've seen in cinema.That, more or less, is what happens in the entire movie. It simply runs through scenes meant to evoke various emotions - anger, grief, humor. All the scenes, however, leave you devoid of any emotion. At no point do you connect with or sympathize with any of the characters in the movie. You don't feel angry at the bad guys, you don't feel sad when the good guys lose. When the characters cry in grief at their misfortune, you only wish they would hurry on with the story already. And when the movie ends on a positive note (surprise?), you couldn't care less.I am not sure why that is. The story itself is pretty good. Two simpletons move into a city in search of a fortune, and soon learn the unforgiving ways of urban life. The reason none of it works might be attributed to a few things. One, the direction. The movie cuts through some of the best moments too quickly. Most of the times, you will wonder whether it really happened. And by the time you figure out that, yes, it did indeed happen, you would have moved past caring. Two, the acting. None of the actors are really convincing. In parts, they overdramatize the scene which again snaps you out of the film and makes you realize you're only watching filmed footage. Three, the background score. It doesn't matter what kind of a scene it is - love making, shooting, desperation - they all have the same romantic score (mentioned earlier) in the background.The film was founded on a good idea. It is a shame it ended up so emotionless.

In a film of such relentless intensity, the songs (although they aren't of the lip-synched variety) and the background score seem a tad excessive, if not entirely out of place.But CityLights is a Vishesh Films production, and hence the soundscape is anything but run of the mill. Jeet Ganguli's musical score is first- rate, but the lilt and the lyricism of the numbers appear to somewhat soften the blow that the film seeks to deliver. In the end, what lends CityLights the power to offset its rare weaker moments is its unwavering commitment to a realistic mode of storytelling.CityLights has its heart in the right place, and it is a heart that is backed by a ticking mind that is able to grasp the subtler shades of human behavior without tripping on over-sentimentalism.CityLights isn't a feel-good entertainer. It is a film that shocks, provokes and seeks to prick our collective complacency and apathy. That obviously adds up to infinitely more value than the price of a multiplex ticket.

http://moviereviewsbybinduc.blogspot.in/2014/06/citilights.htmlCityLights is a film with intense human drama. Hansal Mehta (Director) and Rajkummar Rao (Actor), duo of Shahid fame, have once again collaborated together to contribute a brilliant piece of art to the Bollywood. It is so painful to see how the innocence of an ordinary villager and his family gets exploited in the citylights of metro. Hansal Mehta has wonderfully and very realistically encapsulated the challenges faced by a destitute family in the metro. Various adversities faced by the family viz. loss of business in the village, rural migration, extreme poverty, exploitation by the city etc. are well captured in the movie. The movie left me with tears in eyes, rather actually broke my heart. Kudos to Hansal Mehta for making this movie so realistic, profoundly moving, tangible and believable and at the same time 'minus melodrama'.Deepak Singh (Rajkummar Rao) moves to Mumbai after losing his Saree shop (in a village in Rajasthan) to the debtors along with wife Rakhi (Patralekha) and daughter Mahi. Great moments of family togetherness, love between Deepak and Rakhi are shown while in village, which probably gave them confidence to move to the unknown Mumbai and try for a better living. Deepak's friend Omkar, who was supposed to pick them up from the Mumbai railway station, did not turn up. Deepak is cheated and happens to lose whatever money he had. Life turns out to be really challenging for them with not having roof over their heads. Then starts their desperate efforts to survive. Deepak manages to get a job in Active Security Bureau, a group of security force, with his background as an ex-army driver, but his job is kind of life-threatening. Life takes a mysterious turn from there with his partner / boss in job Vishnu (Manav Kaul). It is difficult to understand his intentions. One kept wondering whether Vishnu is good or bad. Rakhi lands up as a bar-dancer, although very very reluctantly.Does life improve for Deepak and family? What all events unfold in their journey to survive in the metro Mumbai ? Who all partner with them in their journey of survival and how? Do Deepak and Rakhi lose their rustic innocence in the citylights? Are Deepak and family able to re-establish the once-happy-family image? Are they able to manage to keep going against the inimical forces that surround them? Is there any flash of light at the end of the tunnel?There are certain heart-wrenching scenes: the manner in which Deepak sits in front of the Saree shop in the village while realizing that he has lost the same; their migration to Mumbai with hope in the eyes, but losing the same the moment they land up in Mumbai; desperate attempts by Deepak and Rakhi to seek job / accommodation; helpless / embarrassed Rakhi standing in front of the Bar-Manager who tries to scan her whole body and the last one to mention is the tragic and shocking climax.Both Rajkummar Rao and Patralekha (his real-life girlfriend) have added so much value to the roles of Deepak and Rakhi through their effortless performances. Manav Kaul as Vishnu has also given an exceptionally well performance. The music by Jeet Ganguli is absolutely soulful and as per the genre of the movie. The songs 'Muskurane' and 'Ek Chirraiya' are very good.

Citylights marks the collaboration of Vishesh Films and the award- winning duo of Shahid fame, director Hansal Mehta and actor Rajkummar Rao. The camp which has an enviable legacy of films portraying realistic issues and the harsh veracities of life adapts the subject from Sean Ellis's much celebrated flick 'Metro Manila'. With an unflinching inside-look at the harrowing experiences of a poor family which migrates to the maximum city for a better life, Mehta jolts the comforted.Deepak Singh, played by Rajkummar Rao, is a poverty-stricken farmer who moves to Mumbai along with his wife,Raakhi(débutante Patralekha) and daughter Mahi with a hope for better survival. Little does he know that life is not a bed of roses, he gets duped by tricksters upon his arrival and even spends nights on the pavements. Penury forces Raakhi to take up the job of a bar girl while Deepak, trying his hands at daily wage work, eventually lands a job in an armored truck company. He befriends his seemingly compassionate superior Vishnu Sir(Manav Kaul)whose arrival signals a downward spiral for him. Mehta constructs this socially poignant drama with vivid moments only to culminate the story with a devastating end, while surreptitiously carving its way to become a thriller.Maintaining dim-light atmospherics(Shahid Deja-vu) which gels with the mood of the plot, his treatment has a docu-drama feel. Yet the director is never impassioned. The selection processes of the protagonists for their respective jobs provides space for humor and giggle amidst the raw cruelty that they face in their daily fight for existence. Jeet Ganguly's music(a little overdone with those background scores) augments the proceedings to permeate the emotionally walled-up zones of our minds.Lending emotional heft to the plot, Rajkummar Rao approaches his character with so much of realism that's bound to leave your feet numb. The phenomenally talented actor overcomes the lacunae evident in the form of no pressure-cooker urgency or repetitive maneuvers to project grimace.Patralekha pitches in with a sterling performance and makes her suffering palpable.Manav Kaul, who was last seen in Kai Po Che, is the real surprise package( Rajkummar and Manav teamed in Kai Po Che as well !)- quite unassuming yet ballistic.There were days when parallel cinema reckoned with names like Bimal Roy, Satyajit Ray and Guru Dutt. Citylights discreetly takes us back to those good old times where filmmakers put the truths on the table with unapologetic ferocity. Quite heavy and gut-wrenching, yet it has a soul.