City Lights

Unable to make a living in Rajasthan any more, Deepak takes his wife and small daughter to Mumbai. The city swallows them on the first day: nowhere to stay, no work, nobody trusting anybody. Deepak eventually gets taken on as a guard on an armoured cash van, and his wife accepts the first job she is offered. Neither of them understands what they have agreed to until later. Hansal Mehta's film is the official Indian adaptation of Sean Ellis's Metro Manila. It never asks you to pity the family; it shows step by step how the exploitation actually works. Rajkummar Rao and Patralekhaa keep it measured throughout. Mumbai here is not the city of dreams but a place that uses people up fast.