The hugely anticipated Bombay Talkies released this Friday to a fantastic response.

Here are some critics' reviews.

Ratings:3.5/5 Review By: Rajeev Masand Site:CNN IBN (IBNLive)

You may have a favorite amongst the four stories, because yes, this is cinema, and it touches different chords in different individuals. But there’s no denying that Bombay Talkies is a breath of fresh air – a wonderful gift to audiences on the 100th birthday of Indian cinema. I’m going with three and half out of five for Bombay Talkies. Through four consummate storytellers, we’re reminded just how much the movies mean to us.

Ratings:4/5 Review By: Taran Adarsh Site:Bollywood Hungama

Backed by Viacom18, the four prolific film-makers set out to narrate stories that are unconventional, borrowed from real life, about the common man. Also, each of those stories has a reference to Indian cinema/stars. The challenge lies in not merely narrating a story within a budget, but also narrating a tale effectively encompassing myriad emotions… On the whole, BOMBAY TALKIES is one of those infrequent movies wherein you get to eyeball the superior efforts of four top notch film-makers in less than two hours. This reality alone makes the film a compelling watch, while the superior performances and absorbing themes that the movie prides itself in only serve as an icing on the cake. This celebration of cinema is a must watch!

Ratings:4/5 Review By: Anupama Chopra Site:Star World ( Hindustan Times)

Bombay Talkies is a unique experiment that works very well. I’m going with four stars. The collaboration between four leading directors also suggests a confidence and maturity that was rare to find in the industry even a decade ago. I believe that things can only get better from here.

Ratings:3.5/5 Review By: Srijana Mitra Das Site:Times Of India (TOI)

Bombay Talkies (BT) celebrates Bollywood's centenary - by deconstructing Bollywood's formula. Loving families, skin-tight genders, glittering stardom and happy endings get tossed about by the four directors here. Does this work? Yes - and no.So, BT's a good experiment, celebrating movies, mindsets and Mumbai's moods - but it isn't the coolest film doing so. Woh picture abhi baaqi hai, mere dost. Note: You may not like this film if you like Bollywood inside its formula.

Ratings:3/5 Review By: Saibal Chaterjee Site:NDTV

Each segment of Bombay Talkies has its moments, either in terms of the quality of the acting or in the little narrative sleights that hit home.One is left with the feeling that a once-in-a-century cinematic experiment should have had more heart and heft. But do not let that put you off. In encapsulating the dreams, disappointments, falsehoods, flashes of truth, elements of emotional artifice and inescapable realities of life, these four stories, each distinct in emotional timbre and visual feel, do present, within their limited ambit, a range of cinematic expressions that are in themselves laudable.

Ratings:3.5/5 Review By: Shubhra Gupta Site:Indian Express

Bombay Talkies is a film that gives you what all good films should: it has stories, it has emotion, and it has drama. It has people you want to know. You want to tap them on the shoulder, and ask, 'hey, you got a minute? Sit, talk to me.' Finally, Bombay Talkies fills you with hope. If Bollywood can make a film like this, then it must be doing something right. Bombay Talkies speaks of you and me, and speaks to you and me. Not all segments are

Ratings:3.5/5 Review By: Tushar Joshi Site:DNA

With each one of them being successful in delivering commercial hits, Bombay Talkies offers them a platform to indulge and explore another side of their creativity. Mind you these aren't necessarily art-house stories and each chapter has that signature stamp of their makers. Bombay Talkies is a format that needs to be praised for its concept. The sequencing of the stories works and the pace is swift, never showing signs of lethargy. If this was a tribute to 100 years of cinema, then we need to have an array of directors from different genres pay such homages more often.

Mere Dad Ki Maruti actor Saqib Saleem has done what very few mainstream actors in India would dare to do. He has kissed a man. He shares a liplock with Randeep Hooda in Karan Johar’s segment in Bombay Talkies.



Saqib, who’s just two films old, admits it was a risk. “When I read the script I was very apprehensive. That my character is gay is established from the very first shot of the film.

To be honest, I wouldn’t have done the role if the director was not Karan. I knew he would handle the character and his sexuality with sensitivity. I was in safe hands.” Saqib, who is now apprehensive about how his family would react to his unconventional role, adds, “I saw the role as a challenge. Also, I liked the fact that the character was not overtly effeminate. He’s normal working-class guy. That’s how most of my gay friends are.

They’re very normal people who behave normally in real life.”

About the kiss Saqib says, “Well, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall dared to kiss in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. I can tell you, Randeep and I were very awkward doing it.

Karan somehow got it out of us in one take. And that awkwardness was just fine because that’s how Karan wanted it to be between our characters.”

Saqib’s parents who are entrepreneurs have still not seen the film. But his girlfriend has.

“And she was just relieved that I kiss her much better than I kiss Randeep on screen.

Credit must go to Randeep for that scene. He was a thorough professional. I just followed Karan and Randeep’s cues and got over the kiss in one take,” says Saqib.

Incidentally, Randeep had refused to play a gay character in Mira Nair’s The Migration  short-film on AIDS. Irrfan Khan had played the role.