Metro… In Dino Review: In the heartbeat of the city, love bleeds quietly and beautifully — the Anurag Basu way

Metro… In Dino Review: Three couples from different walks of life and from various cities in India are grappling with life one day at a time. Monty (Pankaj Tripathi) and Kajol (Konkona Sen Sharma) have been married for over a decade and have lost their spark. Chamki (Sara Ali Khan) and Parth (Aditya Roy Kapur) are figuring out life like the usual Gen Zs. Akash (Ali Fazal) has to push aside his plans of becoming a singer after his family forces him to get married to Shruti (Fatima Sana Shaikh). Shibani (Neena Gupta) has lost herself and has the urge to find her calling again after 40 years of being married to her husband (Saswata Chatterjee), and Parimal (Anupam Kher), a widower, is trying to survive one day at a time, processing his grief. When these five worlds collide, the sparks that fly are of love and longing.

Metro… In Dino Review:

The 70 mm is a magical window into emotions and the varied ways they can be presented and expressed. Love, being one of the most experimented with and portrayed emotions, is interesting every time a filmmaker tries to explore it while wandering through the alleys with all heart. Some see it in longing, some in hope, and a few even in separation. The way Anurag Basu sees it is quite unique. Love, for him, comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms without any regard for the world around. His stories are where the surrounding sound goes mute, and heartbeats are elevated. So, “Log Kya Kahenge” is never a problem in his universe, which lets the characters breathe in the visually vibrant dream that he creates. Maybe it’s a bubble, but it is his bubble, where no one walks away without redemption, even if it means not sticking with the one you love.

So, when he decided to revisit one of his most loved blueprints, it did come with some resistance, but everyone knew there would be an abundance of love and hope placed all over. Enter Metro…In Dino, a soul sequel to Life In A… Metro. Seven people again collide, and sparks are created as the friction only intensifies to finally lead to a day when all of them will find their bus to redemption—or maybe the toy train in one story’s case. But just when we thought this would be a simple rehash, Basu, from the very first frame, makes you aware that you are about to witness a take on love at the decibel that people today want to hear things in. So we are not going for the subtle Life In A… Metro tone—this is more vibrant, peppy, and demands your attention with shock value.

In case you’re someone angry about the change in tonality, maybe blame your attention span and also that of the people around you. Written by Basu, with Samrat Chakraborty and Sandeep Shrivastava helping him on dialogues, Metro… In Dino is a story that wants to talk to every generation but also remind them collectively that love is what will always drive them home, no matter what. Basu forms a wheel through which all of these seven main characters and everyone around them—even the ones watching—will go through, and the message does land like it should. The grammar this time is Jagga Jasoos meets Ludo in the world of Metro. There is a musical unfolding, while a comedy of errors is taking place and these love stories flourish. The maze is set, and Basu wants it to breathe.

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Not denying that he also wants the audience to lift a bit when he decides to make the characters narrate their lives as they were before they entered the film. But when there are good actors enacting what Basu gives them, you don't mind doing that heavy lifting. These are interesting characters. A couple that has lost the spark and, in the quest to find it back, land on a dating app chatting with each other—husband unaware about it. In another, the husband is scared that marriage will kill his dream of becoming a singer, but the wife will do anything to help him pursue that dream—even if it means aborting her baby. Another woman has spent 40 years being a wife, mother, and homemaker, suppressing what she always wanted from life. And of course, there are two who represent the puzzled Gen Zs, who look at love with a profit and loss formula.

So when all of this comes together, there is ultimate chaos, and that is where Anurag Basu flourishes the most—we have seen that happen twice already. What works very well for Metro… In Dino is how he manages to shape every single character grey. Flaws make them human, and that leads to them being relatable. You have seen these people around you—you are probably one of them—and that connects you to the story at higher levels. What wins here is the fact that the filmmaker is not offering you solutions; he is probably standing there screaming even though he doesn't know any, and this story is his way of finding those. Preaching becomes a part of the screenplay much later, and in a very balanced quantity, which makes this a good immersive experience where the audience and the story become one.

The orchestrated mess, however, feels abrupt when it suddenly jumps to the serious conflict at a very random juncture. The performances bring the grip back, however. Add the visual language that Basu uses to bring you back. The lights are used amply, the frames are like paintings. Anurag Basu’s obsession with balconies and terraces continues, and so does his love for properties set right next to a railway track or a metro bridge.

Talking of visual language—every time Fatima Sana Shaikh and Ali Fazal hug, there is a rawness, almost like they aren't acting, and these are the moments actors probably crave for. Or when Neena Gupta just sits and gives advice to her daughters in the most non-preachy way, like mothers do. I can pay to just see Konkona Sen Sharma roll her eyes at every dumb thing that happens around her—even if it means Pankaj Tripathi (who has to be the best performer out of the lot) clicking a pout selfie of his. Aditya Roy Kapur gets to play a character tailor-made for him, so there is no room to go wrong. Sara Ali Khan gets the Gen Z clumsiness right, but there are also parts that feel overly done.

Anurag Basu weaves a musical that brings your dream of a band singing around you in certain situations to life. While the album of the first film is iconic, for lack of a better word, this one is decent. Some songs sound the same, and probably that reduces the shelf life somewhere. Having said that, some songs are well composed, beautifully sung, and brilliantly executed. Talking of flaws, there are many loopholes in the roadmap—the biggest being: how did Chamki find Parth’s number the first time when they did not even exchange it in their first meeting? Plus, the CGI in some scenes is very immaturely done, making the job look adolescent. The movie even forgets to build some dynamics well enough for us to root for them. Like, it forgets that there is a rift between Parth and Akash until the very climax sequence. But Metro… In Dino does find its way to redemption.

Metro… In Dino Review: Final Verdict

Even with flaws, Metro… In Dino is an earnest attempt to tell stories where love and hope prevail, and there is so much beauty in the world that it is enough to silence the noise around. People meet, stories collide, sparks fly, and Anurag Basu makes sure he has a lot more new to offer than the last time.

Metro… In Dino hits the big screen on July 4, 2025. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more reviews like these and everything else from the world of streaming and films.-