Metro In Dino Ending Explained And Movie Recap

Well, I don’t have many good things to say about the latest Anurag Basu musical Metro In Dino, but as I write this, I’ve also come across the popular opinion on the internet—and apparently, people really liked it. I can’t argue with the fact that people fall out of love with their partners and start liking new people all the time, but a cheating story cannot seriously justify itself with softcore music and the tired wrap-up of no matter what you do outside the house, the one who waits at home is the person you want to be with for life. Life in a Metro was about how, in a bustling city, people yearn for love while grappling with infidelity and loneliness in a much more grounded and mature way. Basu’s  sequel, however, feels dialed up for a new-age audience that wants to see kids discovering their sexual preferences, husbands sneaking behind their wives to swipe on Tinder (they call that ‘Linger’ here), with Pritam and his troupe trying to save the sinking ship with songs that are nowhere near the timeless quality of the original. The problem is, the kid plotline is handled with such juvenile clumsiness that it borders on caricature, reducing something nuanced and deeply personal into a shallow, box-ticking subplot. The Tinder storyline fares no better—it’s presented as if infidelity can be brushed off as a quirky gag rather than the emotional earthquake it actually is, leaving the audience with nothing more than cheap laughs and hollow drama. What’s most disappointing is the lack of emotional maturity in the way these characters are written; they’re glossy but vapid. Aditya Roy Kapur, the casanova of this generation, ends up looking and acting the exact same way he did in Basu’s earlier film “Ludo”—which also followed multiple intersecting characters dealing with love, chaos, and choices, but did so with far greater skill and narrative balance. In the end, Metro In Dino feels like Basu tried too hard to modernize Life in a Metro for the new generation but in the process stripped away the very soul that once made the original resonate. The songs dragged on with such mediocrity that I found myself running back to the original album, only to restore my faith in Pritam’s music. To wrap this up and start talking about the film, I must quote one person on Reddit for saying, “This movie did something to me even Hinge could; it gave me commitment issues.

Spoilers Ahead

What happens in the film?

Metro In Dino revolves around four couples, each struggling with their own problems. Kajol and Monty, played by Konkona Sen Sharma and Pankaj Tripathi, are an ordinary married couple with a teenage daughter, Pihu. When Monty hears a colleague bragging about his affair, he begins to rethink his own relationship. He starts wondering if their romance has withered under the weight of daily responsibilities and decides to join Tinder. However, when Kajol discovers this, she creates a fake profile on the app, matches with him, and sets out to test how far Monty would actually go in chasing another woman.

The second couple is Shruti and Akash, who were once carefree and adventurous in their younger days. But as they are now in their thirties, their spontaneous trips and long night outs are replaced by Akash abandoning his dream of becoming a musician in expense of the safety of a corporate job and eventually marrying Shruti. Meanwhile, Shruti struggles to conceive and even has to quit her job as a journalist to avoid living apart from her husband.

Next is Chumki, Kajol’s younger sister, who never really figured out her path in life until she found herself stuck in a corporate job where her boss gropes her daily. Her social anxiety prevents her from speaking up. Her boyfriend, Anand, works in the same office but cares more about staying in his boss’s good books than standing up for Chumki. Things take an unexpected turn when Chumki, after spending Holi drinking all day, stumbles into the wrong apartment. There she encounters Parth, Shruti’s best friend, a travel vlogger, theatre actor, and commitment-phobic womanizer. Parth is there for a casual hookup when he finds the drunken Chumki, and in the chaos, he unknowingly answers Anand’s call, making things worse. Anand assumes Chumki is cheating, forcing her to meet Parth again to sort out the misunderstanding.

The final couple is Sanjeev and Shivani, parents of Kajol and Chumki, whose marriage has run the course. Sanjeev is a devoted father but a neglectful husband, while Shivani feels she wasted too much of her life never pursuing her own desires. When she receives an invitation to her college reunion, Sanjeev forbids her from attending. Another recipient of the invitation is Parimal, who lives near the iconic Howrah Bridge with his daughter-in-law, Jhinuk. Parimal lost both his wife and son in an accident, and Jhinuk has since dedicated herself to caring for him, sacrificing any chance at a life of her own. When Rohan, her longtime admirer from college, reappears and offers her a job in London, Jhinuk refuses. She has no interest in leaving Parimal, as her care for him runs far deeper than obligation.

Love or Lust: The Crossroads of Modern Relationships

Chumki makes up a lie that Parth is one of her friend’s husbands, and Shruti steps in to play that friend. Together, they meet Anand and manage to gaslight him, which somehow leads into a musical number at a club where everyone bursts into song about whether what they feel is love or lust (ishq ya tharak). And yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds. Even though Chumki makes Parth delete her number, she can’t help but stalk him online, watching his videos and having the time of her life. Parth, clearly taken with her, begins to meet her as well. But Chumki shows no intention of hooking up. Instead, they clash over what matters more: Chumki’s stable, planned life with a longtime partner, or Parth’s restless philosophy that relationships don’t really make sense. Chumki dismisses him as a commitment-phobic manchild, but Parth plants a thought in her head that sticks—maybe Anand isn’t the dependable partner she thinks he is, and maybe he wouldn’t stand by her in a real crisis.

Meanwhile, Monty finds great joy in unknowingly flirting with his own wife. He even brags about it to his colleagues, one of whom happens to be the film’s director, Anurag Basu himself, which is played for laughs. Almost everyone in the office agrees that married men deserve the right to sleep around, and Monty fully buys into the idea. So when Kajol (under her fake profile) asks him to meet at a hotel, he shows up in an all-black outfit with a rose tucked into his pocket, ready for romance. Instead, Kajol and her friend blindfold him, strip him, and leave him stranded in the corridor for everyone to see. By the time Monty stumbles back home, he finds Kajol is leaving with their daughter, throwing his clothes on his face. What follows are months of depression, until Pihu bluntly tells him he’s not even trying. That pushes Monty to start relentlessly chasing his wife.

Kajol, on the other hand, takes a trip to Goa and meets a handsome young man grieving the loss of his girlfriend. He’s sweet, charming, and openly tries to woo her. Kajol humiliates Monty repeatedly and almost gives in to the younger man’s advances, but ultimately stops herself because, frustratingly enough, she’s still in love with her husband. When Monty knocks at the door, he finds her with the topless young man as she hurriedly pulls on her shrug, which shatters him.

Back in Calcutta, Parimal wants Jhinuk to move on with her life, but she refuses, choosing instead to stay and care for him. Things shift when Parimal reconnects with his college girlfriend, Shivani. Kajol has already called out Shivani for being a coward who forgave Sanjeev for cheating when they were young. Shivani always told herself she chose her children over her dignity, but when her own daughter calls her a doormat, she finally snaps. She leaves Pune for Calcutta and the reunion, determined to reclaim some piece of herself.

Parimal and Shivani fall back into old rhythms, and though they know they can’t truly be together, they decide to push Jhinuk toward independence. Their method? Outrageously cruel. They stage a scene as if Shivani were a prostitute Parimal had been pursuing for years, and now he has finally claimed her. Together, they berate and belittle Jhinuk day after day. Parimal curses her out in ways she cannot endure, and at last, she decides to leave. Even then, she shows her grace by touching his feet before walking away.

Meanwhile, Shruti moves to Delhi, where she meets Rohan, a charming cameraman and devoted single father. She is drawn to him instantly. Back in Mumbai, Akash struggles as a musician despite even managing to send his songs to Imtiaz Ali. Months pass, and he remains stuck doing ad gigs with delayed payments. His marriage falls apart under the silence, as Shruti grows busier and posts constant pictures with Parth, which eats away at Akash. When Akash finally decides to surprise her in Delhi, Shruti is on the verge of sleeping with Rohan, but Akash’s constant calls make her change her mind. Parth shows up to pick her up, and Akash catches them together outside her building. He lashes out, picking a fight with Parth. Shruti snaps, declaring Akash a failure, projecting his own misery onto her and dragging her down with him. She decides to have an abortion, and Akash remains completely in the dark about her pregnancy. 

Do the lovers find their way back to each other?

Chumki urges Sanjeev to try and win Shivani back, and Sanjeev, desperate to find his wife, heads to Calcutta. What he sees there breaks his heart: from a distance, it looks as though Shivani has married Parimal. The grief silences him, leaving him unable to even approach her. In a heated moment, he punches Parimal during a gathering of Shivani’s old friends. Somehow, this leads to Shivani forgiving him, and Sanjeev wins her back simply by being a cutie again. Parimal, left alone once more, finds peace in knowing he is no longer holding either Jhinuk or Shivani back from pursuing their own happiness. Akash finally gets his big break when he happens to be in a studio at the right time. Imtiaz Ali, struggling to book Arijit Singh for his new soundtrack, spots Akash and offers him a chance. The song is about a father singing to his newborn, reflecting on how the child changed his life. But Akash can’t go through with it. The irony hits him too hard—he chose ambition over fatherhood. He walks out, rushing back to Shruti, who, unable to go through with the abortion, is still carrying their child. Akash realizes his mistake: it’s Shruti who gives his life meaning, not music, not fame. 

Chumki, through a series of humiliations, finally recognizes that she’s stuck with the wrong man simply because it was the safer option. Anand not only ignores the fact that her boss gropes her daily but even suggests she should put up with it, since angering the boss might affect his own position at the company. That’s the last straw. Chumki slaps her boss in the middle of the office, reclaims her dignity, and quits her job. But just as she’s rediscovering her power, she remembers that Parth is getting married, having suddenly decided he can’t spend his whole life as a playboy.  Chumki rushes onto the train carrying Parth and his family to his wedding in Shimla, where she confesses her love. But when Parth proposes marriage on the spot, Chumki refuses—she’s not ready. For once, she’s choosing herself. She walked away from Anand even after he quit his job and begged for forgiveness, because she no longer wants to stay in a relationship that binds her to a man she isn’t certain about. She’s seen her mother and sister lose themselves in such compromises, and she refuses to repeat their mistakes. Still, Parth won’t let her go. He literally stops the train and insists on giving their relationship a shot. Chumki agrees on one condition: that no one else ever sees him naked again. It’s a funny beat, considering nearly every man in the film—except Akash—is obsessed with cheating. The two then decide to fake-marry anyway, because Parth’s inheritance is at stake. Monty seizes this moment to apologize to Kajol, promising to stand by her through the best and worst of times. She accepts, and they reconcile, making Pihu finally happy to see her parents acting like a normal couple again. Pihu herself remains confused about her sexuality; at one point she even makes her best friend uncomfortable by touching her while she was asleep—a borderline creepy subplot that the makers decide to brush under the rug.

In Metro In Dino’s ending, everyone ends up together, and the film’s moral seems to be that cheating is perfectly fine—as long as you can gaslight your partner into believing you’ll never do it again. Pritam and his crew close the film with another forgettable song, and that’s that. The takeaway, apparently, is that your heart is allowed to wander, and falling for new people is just part of being human.

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