Average.

Good : Decent performance by Sonakshi , Romantic parts worked well
Weakness : uneven screenplay , ineffective direction and presentation , movie gets lost at some points.

Noor is a film by Sunhil Sippy. This film is based on the book “Karachi – You are Killing Me” by Saba Imtiaz. The film’s plot had tremendous potential but the movie does get lost in the midway. It starts as if it is focused on Noor’s journey, but later, it shifts to focus on many issues viz. the shallowness attached with today’ journalism, organ trafficking, how ethics and humanity are dying in the world, environmental issues, how unsafe the cities have become etc. This is where the film also becomes shallow, lacks depth. In spite of Sonakshi portraying the titular character very well, the film is unable to adopt a focused approach to storytelling. But certainly, it is a feel-good film.

The eponymous character Noor is played by Sonakshi. As her name implies (Noor means ‘Light’) she is seeking light/brightness in her professional as well as personal life. She starts her day with the statement ‘I hate my Life’. She keeps whining about everything in her life: a faulty geyser, her domestic help Malti’s (Smita Tambe) frequent leave, priority given to her cat Dimpy by her father, her weight gain, her twitter followers less in number than her weight, not excited in doing regular stuff, irritation on being asked to interview celebrities like Sunny Leone etc. She is a topper in Journalism and interested in doing issue-based Journalism, but her boss Shekhar (Manish Chaudhary) keeps drifting her attention to the topics which attract TRPs. Noor is not too happy with her personal life too. She does miss love in her life. Her friends Zaara (Shibani Dandekar) and Saad (Kanan Gill) do pep up her life. She has support system at home in her father (played my MK Raina) and her housemaid Malti. Noor meets Ayan Banerjee (Purab Kohli), a journalist cum photographer and falls in love with him.

Situations so happen that Noor gets ‘the story’ which she was looking for. She does cover the story, but that changes her life forever. It becomes a learning point for her that as a journalist, she just can’t get carried away but she needs to be responsible too.

What happens thereafter? What story does Noor get to handle? What events transpire after that? How does Malti become an important thread of the story? What shape does Noor’s relationship with Ayan take? How Zaara, Saad and Noor’s father support her during a crisis? Does Shekhar ever agree with Noor’s desire of doing issue-based journalism and what support he extends?

Sonakshi enacts Noor very well and she is very much likeable in the film. Her style statement is also appropriate as per the character. Kanan Gill who makes his film debut with Noor is natural and spontaneous. MK Raina does play his role of an empathetic, supportive father very well. Shibani Dandekar as Zaara has small role, but she is also good. Smita Tambe is very much noticeable and good as Malti.

The film Noor begins as her transformational journey of how she changes her statement from ‘I hate my life’ to ‘I love my life’. But the screenplay which later gets deviated by focusing on multiple issues, lacks the initial quirkiness, becomes shallow, lacks depth. A one-time watch.

With just a week left for "Baahubali: The Conclusion" to hit the screens, there are no other major releases in the horizon. Well it's quite understandable after all this mammoth movie will certainly swallow anything in its path in the initial phase. However, we did have women centric movies take centre stage amidst this lull with "Begum Jaan" last week & Sonakshi's "Noor" this weekend. To be frank, I didnt even know that such a movie was even going to release & hence had no expectations at all. Hmm...in such a scenario it should be easier to satisfy the audience in me isnt it, but did it mange to do that???

Noor (Sonakshi Sinha) is a journalist who aspires to be the next "Barkha" but her boss assigns her to cover news on subjects which is nowhere even remotely related to meaningful journalism. Her personal life was also a mess & she spent most parts of the day cribbing about her very existence. The only people who brought a smile to her face were her close buddies, Zara (Shibani Dandekar) & Saad (Kanan Gill). But things started to look brighter when she meets Ayan Banerjee (Purab Kohli), an ace photographer & they hit off in due time. On the professional side as well, she stumbles upon an organ harvesting scam when her domestic help, Malti (Smita Tambi) confides in her about the misfortune that had befallen on her brother. Will this story be the break that Noor was waiting for???

Based on Saba Imtiaz's "Karachi, You are Killing me!" (which I haven't read), Sunhil Sippy have made a movie which is a concoction of rom-com & investigative journalism. But the sad reality is he wasn't able to do justice to either of them especially the latter one. The manner in which the protagonist goes about her job would have even made an amateur journalist cringe in embarrassment. Even when Noor messes up stuff, instead of standing up & sorting it out, Sunhil chose to make the character run away from it. The only thing that actually works (that too, partially) is the rom-com part which kinda reminded me of "Bridget Jones's Diary".

On the technical side, Keiko Nakahara's visuals were fine while the music by Amaal Mallik was average. Even though the movie is just under 2 hours, it still manages to test our patience. Sonakshi has done a fine job in the lighthearted portions but ends up short in the other parts. Smita Tambe was brilliant while Shibani, Purab & Kanan have done justice to their parts.

Verdict: "Noor" will struggle to stay afloat beyond this weekend even though there is no other competition. Sunhil could have surely done a lot better with the basic story line that he had, unfortunately it wasn't the case as it culminates in a muddled climax as well. In short, don't bother!!!

Rating: 2/5

Regards...Ben

Film review: NOOR

Rating - * * *

Get ready for a surprise package in this film. That is Noor or Sonakshi Sinha. She has given a very endearing performance, mature and lively. Her character is well etched, self- depreciating but confident. She is ably supported by rest of the cast. Good direction, tight script and some really funny sequences make you love this movie.

Don't listen to the critics. Go for it.