Shanghai review

3.5 / 5

Highly acclaimed director Dibakar Banerjee’s latest offering is Shanghai. It is based on the novel Z by Vassilis Vassilikos. The movie has a very interesting star cast of Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol and Kalki Koechlin. This film has been distributed by PVR Pictures and produced by DBP and NFDC. The trailer gave us exactly what to expect – a political thriller based on an investigation into a ‘planned’ accident. Does the actual film satiate our appetite for a riveting investigative thriller?

Bharat Nagar is a typical Indian city (fictional) comprising a lot of naïve, uneducated locals who are all blindly passionate about their ruling party IBP. A big business proposal, also called the IBP (International Business Park) is about to come to this place thereby making it a major developmental hub and a possible Shanghai in future.

The ruling party is firmly behind this business idea. But, social activist Dr. Ahmedi (Prosenjit Chatterjee) wishes to let people know of the actual ground realities of this project and how people would be driven out of their own homes and lands for the sake of this infrastructure. The political bigwigs are obviously not pleased with Ahmedi and wish to eliminate him from the scheme of things, with the help of some naïve citizens of the city. An accident is planned and the doctor is sent into a near death situation. An investigation starts under the helm of the sincere T.A. Krishnan (Abhay Deol), a high ranking bureaucrat.  

Shalini (Kalki), Dr. Ahmedi’s fierce supporter is dying to expose the people behind this accident while Joginder (Emraan), a videographer who is also into pornography, backs Shalini in her pursuit of justice with some important evidence.

The above incidents were all nicely packaged in the trailer itself. Now, whether the actual culprits are exposed, whether the pursuit for justice is fruitful and what happens to the aforementioned protagonists is what Shanghai, the ‘movie’ is about.

Emraan Hashmi has pulled off a really different role in his career for the first time. He has totally gone for an ugly, de-glam look with a paunch as well. His teeth are colored, his laughs are typically rustic and his dressing sense is anything but classy. But, his character wins our hearts. Great show by Emraan. Kalki is fierce and aggression personified. Her character’s motives are lofty and honest. Abhay Deol is a Tamilian in the movie and his English has needlessly been tweaked to make it sound like a Tamilian’s. For example office is pronounced as ‘affice’. A needless gimmick. He speaks broken Tamil also for few seconds and is shown listening to the Vishnu Sahasranamam too. Abhay is required to underplay and he does it well. Prosenjit Chatterjee looks majestic with his beard and spectacles.

There are a lot of local character artistes too, who have done their parts well. The songs by Vishal-Shekhar are among the entertaining elements in the movie. ‘Bharat Mata Ki’ is a chartbuster already. Shanghai has an amazing BGM score too. The movie in fact warrants a repeat just for the pulsating BGM score. The music for the climax and the end credits roll take the cake.

To conclude, Shanghai is another worthy offering from Dibakar Banerjee. He has taken Indian politics as the main subject area and based a nice investigative thriller around it. The way the police and high ranking officials are merely puppets used by politicians according to their whims and fancies, is an oft-repeated plotline in Indian films. But, here it has been shown in a realistic manner without any overt cinematic licenses. How small Indian towns are exploited in the name of big infrastructural development is very relevant to the current times.

The movie is gripping from the word go. You will find yourself sucked into the happenings on screen. The item numbers could have been avoided though

VERDICT: A taut investigative thriller with generous doses of politics.

That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011)

The Plot
A British girl, Ruth is in Mumbai to look for her father, Arjun Patel. Her only piece of memory is a letter that her father wrote her before leaving her and her mother. Ruth works in a massage parlor where she has to satisfy numerous clients everyday for a mere 1000/-. She calls it a 'handshake' or a 'happy ending'. She is also given a raw deal by the many authorities she contacts to find about her dad.

Ruth also has a troubled relationship with her boyfriend who gets mixed up with some local gangsters. Ruth manages all this trauma and bravely continues to pursue her dad.

Finally in a shocking twist, she realizes who her father is and walks away, leaving everything behind due to the sheer magnitude of the realization and the weird explanation she gets from her father.

Hits

• Kalki Koechlin is the only real known face in the movie and she is an Anurag Kashyap constant. She moves around like a doll and impresses in 2 scenes - the scene where she bares her heart to her boyfriend and in the climax shocker
• Naseeruddin Shah has a small cameo as the only concerned customer for Ruth. He is natural as usual
• Ruth's boyfriend, the Kannada gangster and the massage parlor proprietor are other characters that get some screen time and gel well with the movie. 

Comments

• Beyond a point, Ruth's routine with her customers becomes quite nauseating. Overdone
• Too many foul words just for the heck of it, sometimes. 
• Slow and steady pace. 

VERDICT
Hard hitting cinema by Anurag Kashyap but, not for everyone. 

Shaitan (2011)

The plot

Amrita Jaishankar aka Amy has a very trouble teenage life due to the death of her mother. She constantly thinks of her mother and she believes that her mother Saira is still alive. She doesn’t mix with her father and her step mom. She is basically very depressed.

Then she meets Karan Chopra aka KC at a party and she is introduced to a new gang of junky friends Zubin, Dash and Tanya. Amy joins this gang and bonds big time because she feels new. This gang goes about the town drowned in drugs and booze and cause a major accident where 2 are killed on the spot.

The investigating policeman Malwankar is after them for money to protect their identity from coming out. They plan a kidnapping drama where Amy would be kidnapped by her friends and her father would be asked for the ransom money which would be used to pay off the policeman. Dash is the planner and he gets this plan from Shomu who had planned a similar drama to perfection.

But this drama goes haywire as more deaths and a major media frenzy is created by the disappearance of the gang. Arvind Mathur is given charge of this case. He is an aggressive go-getter who has his own rules and is a real terror. He has a troubled family life with his wife.

Through his network, he gets to know of the truth. What happens to the gang of 5, who dies, who is alive at the end of the day, what happens to Arvind’s family life and what happens to the policeman Malwankar who is the actual root cause of the kidnapping drama, is what the ending is about. There is also a track involving a drug case with a German girl and 2 Kenyan drugsters.  

                                                                        

Hits

• The plot is stunning. Totally raw and highly impactful. Hollywood in style and execution
• Rajeev Khandelwal as the aggressive cop is terrific. The stubble, his handsome fit looks and the powerful eyes are a real treat. His intro scene will make any superstar jealous. 
• The gang of 5 have all done well be it Kalki Koechlin, Shiv Pandit or the guys who play KC, Zubin and Tanya. Very natural and highly talented. Life like performances
• The sound track goes along with the movie and is sort of cult like. Koya Koya Chand and Josh Junoon in particular are quite mesmerizing. 
• The cinematography and editing are top notch. Particularly the car accident scene and the way the reactions of the 5 are portrayed in the aftermath. Highly graphic images but brilliant nevertheless
• Some of the scenes are hard to stomach and very raw like the accident scene, Amy’s dope trips where she scratches herself, the rape attempt on Tanya, the mind-blowing shooting sequence between the Kenyans and the cops using the dead body of the German girl as protection. 

VERDICT

Indian cinema’s new age face. Lot of disturbing scenes but, that’s how Indian cinema should be in the future. Hats off to Bejoy Nambiar and Anurag Kashyap for this absolutely brilliant MUST WATCH film.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)

The Plot
3 long time friends, Kabir, Arjun and Imran decide to go on a bachelor road trip to Spain, to celebrate Kabir's last few days of bachelorhood. The plan is to try out 3 surprising adventure sports that would help overcome their fears. Deep sea diving, sky diving and bull fighting are the 3 chosen sports.

The 3 guys realize their life's true existence and after the trip they get what they want in life and are free from all confusions. Arjun meets his true love Laila, the sea diving instructor. Imran knows the truth behind his mysterious father and Kabir realizes that his marriage is nothing but an effort to appease his family. Some solid male bonding and dreamy romance are also part of the package

                                                                           
Hits

• The 3 adventure sports have been shot like a dream. We can literally feel the adrenaline rush and the swirl of emotions. Beautifully shot. All the 3 episodes take the cake.
• The Spanish locations are worth catching up on the big screen. Magnificent locales. We yearn to see these places
• Farhan Akhtar as Imran scores the maximum brownie points among this ensemble cast. He is spontaneous with his jokes, emotes well and dances cool too. 
• Katrina Kaif as Laila is every man's dream girl and her pleasant smile and elegant dressing add to her splendor. She emotes very well nowadays. The way she rides the bike and proposes to Hrithik is one solid romantic moment
• Hrithik as Arjun carries the business dude look with the yo accent and the money minded nature perfectly. He is a Greek God, plain and simple. His reactions when he is about to leave Laila are really endearing. His friendship with Farhan has its share of frictions and it pans out nicely in the end. 
• Abhay Deol's voice is girly but still he impresses with his honest portrayal. The Dev D star is better off doing the drugged and spoilt brat rather than playing the rich and decent lad. 
• The songs are a major plus and they are picturized as expected, in a grand manner. 'Paint it Red', 'Udi', 'Senorita' you name it, the movie has it. 

Misses

• A bit slow in the second half with a cameo for Naseeruddin Shah thrown in. Anyone could have done this role but, the surprise factor is what must have brought Naseer in. 

VERDICT

Bollywood's answer to the Hollywood road-trip genre with a nice message about 'living life to the fullest' and 'following your heart'. Fairy-tale like and feel good to the core.