Very rarely one comes across a movie where the story rises above all the protagonists and becomes the main character of the movie. "Yeh Saali Zindagi" is one such movie. Inspite of having known names like Irfan Khan, Yashpal Sharma, Saurabh Shukla, and not so known like Chitrangda Singh, Arunoday Singh and Prashant Narayanan, it is the story that binds you for the 2 hours running time of the movie. The story does slack some times in between for 5 - 10 mins, but for the rest of the time keeps you completely engaged and guessing "what next".
The story is about love, money and revenge, but then there is nothing new in that. What is new is the criss cross of multiple story lines which end up meeting at one point or the other. Arun (Irfan Khan) is madly in love with Priti (Chitrangda Singh), who in turn is in love with Shyam. Shyam is about to get married to the Daughter of Minister Verma. Minister Verma works closely with Bade (Yashpal Sharma) a don and Bade has all account of Verma's black money. Verma gets Bade arrested and in his efforts to get free, Bade involves his protege Kuldeep (Arunoday Singh). Arunoday is himself having domestic problems, but ends up kidnapping Shyam, and by mistake also picks up Priti. Now Verma is involved as he has to get his future Son-in-law released, Arun gets involved as Priti has been kidnapped as well. There is a inspector Satbeer (Sushant Singh) , who fluctuates between his duty, greed and loyalty towards Bade. The highlight in all this criss cross and confusion, the story of the movie that rises above all these characters, keeping the viewer guessing what is going to happen next.
Acting wise, Irfan's voice over during the entire film are better than his acting and Chitrangda Singh has an accent throughout the movie (feels very odd and distrubing frankly!). Arunoday Singh has done a decent job along with Sushant Singh. Also Arunoday has tried to be the next Imraan Hashmi via this film. Both Yashpal Sharma and Prasant Narayanan (As Chote) have a small role. Frankly the biggest disappointment of the movie is the role played by Prashant Narayanan. An actor of his caliber should have had a much meatier role than this.
There is Comedy, Drama, Action, Emotions and lots of swearing (not to be watched with kids). Direction by Sudhir Mishra is good and he keeps going back and forth in time in order to keep the viewers engaged. Old delhi has been used as a additional character in the movie nicely. Net net a nice movie to spend your 2 hours on. Watch it just for gripping Story line and a nice controlled editing. Go for it!!!
