To begin with, CityLights brings together a talented bunch- the director who gave us Shahid, Hansal Mehta yet again works with the very talented Rajkumar Rao who earned a National award for the same film and also, on board is Mahesh Bhatt who strongly backs the project to ensure it makes the right noise. And with such a talented lot, there is no doubt that the expectations will be sky high. Though this film essentially is the remake of the BAFTA nominated British film Metro Manila.

Tales highlighting the innocent who arrive from the countryside to a metropolis, falling prey to the scheming and calculating ways of smooth talkers and getting corrupted and tarnished in the process have been a staple diet of cinema for eons. Hansal Mehta presents the immoral and dark side of Mumbai in his newest outing CITYLIGHTS, an adaptation of the 2013 British-Filipino crime drama METRO MANILA, directed by Sean Ellis. For those not conversant about METRO MANILA, the well-made film won tremendous critical acclaim and awards, besides getting selected as the British entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards. Indeed, it's a herculean task to recreate a movie that has won laurels across the globe. And what makes matters arduous is that a majority of remakes tend to look inferior and mediocre when compared to the original source. Not CITYLIGHTS. Hansal borrows from METRO MANILA, but the talented storyteller makes sure CITYLIGHTS is not a xerox or replica. Much like the original source, CITYLIGHTS leaves you troubled, disturbed and distressed. That's one of the key reasons why the film works!

As bad as a mediocre afternoon TV soap. Metro Manila is a neat little drama-thriller that brings a quietly artistic taste of poverty, sacrifice and desperation to a sub-genre that is disinterested in pandering to movie clichs. Hansal Mehta, the director of the terrific and understated Shahid and his star Rajkumar Rao were the perfect choices to remake Metro Manila. Oh boy, what a disappointment. Metro Manila vaulted between sensitivity, action, pacing, character development and social commentary, and thanks to solid direction it all just clicked perfectly. In City Lights all of those elements are placed haphazardly, and the film becomes a mediocre afternoon soap.

Soul-destroying poverty can drive people into deep cesspits, and the struggle to stay alive can be heart-rending. 'Citylights' sets out to tell us the story of a young couple and their little daughter forced into migrating from their village to the big, bad city. to help us personalise your reading experience. Deepak Singh (Rajkummar Rao) and his wife Rakhi (Patralekha) soon discover that Mumbai,' jisme koi bhookha nahin sota' (no one sleeps hungry), isn't exactly paved with gold. They are pushed to the brink, and find themselves trying to find a spot to sleep, to work, to eke a living. The going is hard, the city unforgiving and unrelenting.

Soul-destroying poverty can drive people into deep cesspits, and the struggle to stay alive can be heart-rending. 'Citylights' sets out to tell us the story of a young couple and their little daughter forced into migrating from their village to the big, bad city. to help us personalise your reading experience. Deepak Singh (Rajkummar Rao) and his wife Rakhi (Patralekha) soon discover that Mumbai,' jisme koi bhookha nahin sota' (no one sleeps hungry), isn't exactly paved with gold. They are pushed to the brink, and find themselves trying to find a spot to sleep, to work, to eke a living. The going is hard, the city unforgiving and unrelenting.

Soul-destroying poverty can drive people into deep cesspits, and the struggle to stay alive can be heart-rending. 'Citylights' sets out to tell us the story of a young couple and their little daughter forced into migrating from their village to the big, bad city. Deepak Singh (Rajkummar Rao) and his wife Rakhi (Patralekha) soon discover that Mumbai,' jisme koi bhookha nahin sota' (no one sleeps hungry), isn't exactly paved with gold. They are pushed to the brink, and find themselves trying to find a spot to sleep, to work, to eke a living. The going is hard, the city unforgiving and unrelenting.

Story: Impoverished Deepak takes his wife and child to Bombay to survive - but is the family lost in big, bad city lights? Review: So, Citylights is based on Sean Ellis' acclaimed Metro Manila, but it also unlocks the doors to other movies in your mind. This is both a strength and drawback for this remarkable film. Deepak Singh (Rao) loses his village shop to debt and migrates to Bombay with wife Rakhi (Patraleka) and child Mahi for a new start, ostensibly provided by friend Omkar. But reaching Bombay, the family never finds Omkar. Instead, Deepak and Rakhi find tricksters, bar-girls, criminals, armoured guards - and a devious plot. Can this little family survive the big city?

if entertainment is what you are looking for, stay away from Citylights. Citylights is a story we have seen many times before. However, the execution of the film by the National Award-winning director Hansal Mehta makes the film intensely gripping and thought-provoking. The film tells the story of Deepak (Rajkummar Rao) and Rakhi (Patralekha) who migrate from a Rajasthan village to the city of dreams, Mumbai, for job, money and a better life. Once they reach there, they realise the city is not what it promised to be. While she has to take to dancing in city's seedy dance bars, he gets lost in the maze of black money.

Soul-destroying poverty can drive people into deep cesspits, and the struggle to stay alive can be heart-rending. 'Citylights' sets out to tell us the story of a young couple and their little daughter forced into migrating from their village to the big, bad city. Deepak Singh (Rajkummar Rao) and his wife Rakhi (Patralekha) soon discover that Mumbai,' jisme koi bhookha nahin sota' (no one sleeps hungry), isn't exactly paved with gold. They are pushed to the brink, and find themselves trying to find a spot to sleep, to work, to eke a living. The going is hard, the city unforgiving and unrelenting. For Vishesh Films to 'officially' remake a film ( 'Citylights' is remade from the 2013 UK-Phillipines 'Metro Manila' ) is new. Seeing the Bhatts come back to grit and realism, after their string of sex-horror schlock, is nice. And teaming up with Hansal Mehta and Rajkummar Rao, who gave us 'Shahid', one of the best films of last year, is nicer still.

Metro Manila is a neat little drama-thriller that brings a quietly artistic taste of poverty, sacrifice and desperation to a sub-genre that is disinterested in pandering to movie clichs. Hansal Mehta, the director of the terrific and understated Shahid and his star Rajkumar Rao were the perfect choices to remake Metro Manila. Oh boy, what a disappointment. Metro Manila vaulted between sensitivity, action, pacing, character development and social commentary, and thanks to solid direction it all just clicked perfectly. In City Lights all of those elements are placed haphazardly, and the film becomes a mediocre afternoon soap.

An intense human drama delivered in the form of a riveting thriller, CityLights deals with the oft-repeated theme of rural migration. Director Hansal Mehta imparts both weight and style to the film. He does so with impressive precision and lightness of touch. CityLights is the story of a couple whose rustic innocence is suffocated by the soul-crushing challenges of living and surviving in a big city. CityLights may not be exceptionally unusual in terms of its storyline, but Mehta's modulated, deeply felt treatment of the grim narrative material informs the film with a sense of urgency and unfailing relevance. He gives us characters that are tangible and believable. In articulating the aspirations and disappointments of the two protagonists, Mehta does not resort to gratuitous melodrama.

When a film has the Bhatt name attached to it, expectations soar. Especially when it comes to film\'s soundtrack. For their new film Citylights, Jeet Gannguli has composed the music and Rashmi Singh is the lyricist. The album starts with a superb track Muskurane which is very likable. You can see Mukesh Bhatt\'s influence in the way Arijit Singh begins the rendition. Bhatt has been responsible for at least one flagship number in the soundtrack of each of his films. Here, he chooses the right combination of Jeet, Rashmi and Arijit for a beautiful love song which is lyrical and poetic with a lot of fluidity, Muskurane is also accompanied by an unplugged version by Mohammed Irfan, which is equally enjoyable.

National Film Award winner Hansal Mehta collaborates with his National Film Award winner muse Rajkummar Rao for his upcoming film CityLights, which is an official remake of the British film Metro Manila. Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt's Vishesh Films is producing the venture along with Fox Star Studios. The film chronicles the journey of a common village man who shifts to Mumbai for a better livelihood. He along with his wife overcome the various challenges that come their way. Having so many impressive people altogether in a film, the music definitely needed to be coming from one of the best. There are huge expectations from Jeet Gannguli's next album after his very successful Aashiqui 2. So do the songs impress us? Let us find out in the song by song music review:

What's Good: Raj Kumar Rao is simply captivating. The guy's fascinating rendering gives Citylights fluidity and intensity. The film's first half has the edgy factor and is perfectly crisp. What's Bad: The convoluted climax and the film's poignant story that has been battered to death by cinema, sucking out all its novelty.