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A staggering tale of love, death, dreams and the dichotomy of “Bollywood” .
The film at the surface is about a flower seller’s dream to marry a man who is of a different religion but the inter laced sub plots in the film comments on the existing Kashmir issue and also the religious intolerance existing in modern India. The way the Golden age of Hindi Cinema is shown through the music of the 1950s and a character mentioning Guru Dutt is praiseworthy. The director also tangentially satirizes the star system existing in Bollywood and the unreality of the stories we tell through a very intelligent scene at the end. A character who is mentally living in the past and is not over the death of her husband, deserves a separate film in itself.
The way the film transitions from a vibrant color palate showing New Mumbai to black and white showing Old Bombay is terrific. Elevating a flower and giving it a voice and character of its own was tremendous.
My only issue with the film was that it tried to say a lot in its minimal run time. There are a lot of sub plots which makes the film cluttered. Nevertheless, Bombay Rose is an interesting watch and definitely a breath of fresh air.
Rachit Daruka
BBA-3
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