Masand's Verdict: Mumbai Meri Jaan is honest effort

EARNEST EFFORT: The film examines psychological effects of 7/11 on the survivors.

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Cast: Soha Ali Khan, Kay Kay Menon, Irrfan Khan

Director: Nishikant Kamat

Few films are as earnest and straightforward in their intention as director Nishikant Kamat's Mumbai Meri Jaan, which also opens at the cinemas this weekend. Placing the Mumbai train blasts incident of July 11 2006 at the very core of its drama, the film examines the mostly psychological effects of that unfortunate event on its many diverse protagonists.

For the upper middle-class family man played by R Madhavan, the recurring images of less fortunate commuters losing their limbs and their lives are so hard to get out of his head that he becomes obsessed with the idea of a better life away from India. For Soha Ali Khan who plays a promising television journalist, the tragedy is more personal, and one that makes the often insensitive nature of her job painfully clear. Through Kay Kay Menon, who plays a frustrated unemployed Mumbaikar, the film's director urges us to confront the prickly issue of racial prejudice, while Irrfan Khan plays a poor coffee-vendor who spreads fear as a form of revenge against a society that has no place for him. The film's strongest track, however, is the one involving the two police constables -- played by Paresh Rawal and Vijay Maurya - who give the film some of its best, and undeniably its most poignant moments.

Mumbai Meri Jaan has its heart in the right place and makes some very valid points, but it also takes its own sweet time doing so. The track featuring R Madhavan, for example, is stretched beyond necessity. We get the point early on, but the screenplay plods along laboriously making the point over and over again, as if it's hammering you on the head with its message. As far as the Soha Ali Khan track is concerned, there's a very real issue that our attention is drawn to - the exploitative nature of the media - but it's done in such an exaggerated manner that there's a serious risk of it being treated as something of a joke.