It's a tale of four individuals. Kamath (Jackie Shroff) and Prakash Kaur Handa (Neena Gupta), two lonely widower. Madhosh Gupta aka Nanhe (Abhishek Chauhan), a poor ladies tailor in debt and Rawas (Monika Pawar). Circumstances lead Nanhe to be jobless and in dire need of money to re-start his tailoring job. He resorts to robbing houses of lonely elderly and Kamath, Prakash Kaur are among his victims. How Kamath and Prakash Kaur get to know each other to re-want to live their lives and how difficult the lives of Nanhe and Rawas are, inspite of them wanting to live their lives the way they dream of, forms rest of the story.
Mumbai is not just a city of dreams but a city full of stories. That is what resonates with me personally, despite my brief visits to the city. The beauty of this film is it is the city that brings these four characters alive on screen. Be it their insecurities, their loneliness, their dishonesty, their struggle to even their greed, Mumbai is what shapes them as human beings. From the grumpy lonely widower wanting to die and his equally grumpy lonely widower who wants to live. Each of these characters are meant to be with each other, not just to complete each other but that is what life intends for them. The screenplay and ofcourse the performances held me till the end, including Rakhi Sawant as Bilkis.
Having said that, Vijay Maurya deserves full credit for his direction and even for co-writing this with Payal Arora. There is no deviation from these four characters as their life unfolds. Building these characters as they chose to open up with each other. One couple has seen life, lived it too whereas the other is now seeing life. The way they perceive life, even with their day to day activities, there is this warmth these moments create which lasted long after the film ended. Ofcourse I yearned for the happy endings, that is what one does when they root for the characters but taking this journey through their lives itself was worth it. For me, this easily ranks among the best films of 2023.
