Movie: Noor
Direction: Sunhil Sippy
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Kanan Gill, Shibani Dandekar, Purab Kohli
Music: Naren Chandavarkar, Benedict Taylor
Cinematographer: Keiko Nakahara
Editor: Aarif Sheikh
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance
Rating: ∗∗½
What is it about: It’s a comedy-drama, which is based on Pakistani author Saba Imtiaz’s novel “Karachi, You’re Killing Me”. It follows the misadventures of the Noor played by Sonakshi Sinha and is directed by Sunhil Sippy.
Why it’s disappointing: It’s just another Bollywood film, which gives you a great anticipation through its promos and trailers but lacks to deliver the quality entertainment as it promised. We were very excited to catch this one, due to the premise constructed by the makers, but it disappoints at most intervals. I’m not saying it’s all together a bad film, but it doesn’t hold its ground, how it should have.
A struggling journalist, who is bend over to make it big doesn’t have the grit nor the depth, which makes “Noor” quite weak and whinny. Director Sunhil Sippy packaged it with an amazing team but couldn’t make the best out of it. The film looks great on the silver screen, but doesn’t leave an impact on the audience. It’s quite random, doesn’t hold on to the core subject but wanders most of the time, and at one point is quite clueless.
What to watch out for: What makes “Noor” a decent watch is its lead and central cast’s performances which were convincing. Even though the characterization of “Noor” was quite flawed, Sonakshi Sinha does the damage control with her commendable performance. Then there was Purab Kohli who did a decent job. With this film we can conclude that Shibani Dandekar is a beauty with great talent, hoping to see her in better and challenging roles. Debutante Kanan Gill was a convincing and a commendable one. Manish Chaudhary was a good one.
The cinematography Keiko Nakahara was splendid, never seen Mumbai in this tone and it was shown at its best and the most delectable way. Editing was good by Aarif Sheikh. Music by Amaal Mallik was good and the remix version of “Gulabi Aankhen” was a good one.
Verdict: Sunhil Sippy, couldn’t do justice to a potential script. If at all it was given the attention it required, would have been a landmark role for Sonakshi Sinha. Can watch once for its performances and technical brilliance.
