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.

Kahaani movie review

A seriously seamless thriller and one of the best in recent times. Set in Kolkata, the movie is raw, edgy and never falls off the radar.

The movie begins with a poison gas attack in the Kolkata metro that kills many. The person who planned it goes underground and no one knows his whereabouts.

Then begins another 'story' where a pregnant Indian woman Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi arrives in Kolkata from London, looking for her husband Arnab who has been missing for a while. Arnab was supposedly working at the National Data Center.

With the help of her own charm and one goodhearted police officer Rana, Vidya goes about looking for traces of her husband. During her investigation, the name Milan Damji comes into the picture. Milan looks similar to the missing Arnab.

Damji was a former intelligence agent who was the mastermind behind the metro gas attacks. Lot of people in the government are behind this scam and they want Milan's identity to remain under wraps. There is a contract killer Bob Biswas who kills anyone remotely associated with Milan's identity. On the other hand, Khan from the intelligence bureau is ruthlessly behind Milan and wants to nab him at any cost.

As the movie progresses, there are times when one party is used by the other in the effort to nab Milan. In the end it is a masterstroke as there is a chilling twist that gives goosebumps. Milan is killed but, the one who does it, is the suspense factor.

Another Vidya Balan special after The Dirty Picture. It takes guts to play an uncouth 7 months pregnant woman. She rocks. Some more awards will fall in her kitty for sure. The other support characters are all mostly Bengali locals with Parambrata Chatterjee as Rana leading the credits. Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the ruthless IB officer Khan impresses as well.

Kolkata has been captured in all its vibrancy. The climax durga pooja scenes are really riveting. The narration by the Big B in the end is a fitting end to a remarkable movie

VERDICT: One of the best investigative thrillers in recent times with one helluva twist in the plot. MUST WATCH

The Dirty Picture (2011)

The Plot
It is the real life story of the late South Indian item queen 'Silk' Smitha, with extra masala flavor added. Silk's journey is well documented, from being an ambitious small town girl named Reshma to her encounters in the film industry with various men ranging from a big star Suryakanth to his brother Ramakanth and finally finding a soul mate in a director named Abraham who initially hates her.

Silk carries her reel life glam avatar in her real life as well. She shuns the rules and lives her life the way she wants. She dresses uber glamorously, smokes and drinks to her hearts-fill. She is looked down upon, by the majority of the industry and she is betrayed by most of the men she trusted. Ultimately, she suffers major financial losses and decides to go away in peace.

Hits

• Vidya Balan. SEXY, SEDUCING, DARING, BOLD, VAMP-LIKE etc. etc. It is a shocking make-over where Vidya exposes to the maximum extent permissible on an Indian screen. It is a cleavage fest on screen and it is jaw dropping stuff. The over exposure of her belly could have been avoided. 
• Her acting skills have always been terrific. Be it the sexy/bold attitude or her anguish, she is the best actress around by a mile. Perfect combo of skin show and acting caliber - Kate Winslet like. She is a benchmark in daring and guts among the mainstream Indian actresses 
• Naseeruddin Shah as the southern superstar Suryakanth is natural and elegant as the ageing superstar. His mannerisms and casual attitude are classic. Emraan Hashmi is intense and earnest as always. 
• The dialogs send the masses into a frenzy. Such punch and raunchy in their meaning. 
• The songs are already popular. Oh La La and Ishq Sufiana are the picks. 
• The period feel is quite authentic save 1 or 2 glitches. 

Misses

• The item song featuring Silk and Shakila in the 2nd half is a sore miss. 
• The skin show becomes too much to digest beyond a point.
• The delightful Ishq Sufiana song doesn't suit the overall mood of the film. 
• Tushar Kapoor with his soft voice, is the biggest minus of the film 

VERDICT

A Vidya Balan festival. Sure to become a blockbuster among the masses. 

Ra.One movie review

The Plot
The movie is based on a far fetched idea that virtual characters in a video game can become real and roam around in the actual world.

Shekhar Subramanium is a gamer who designs a game for his kid Prateek, where the villain is deadly and is more powerful than the hero. The villain is Ra One and the hero is G One.

Prateek is super excited and feels great about his dad. He starts playing the game with the name Lucifer but, he doesn't complete the game. Ra One is not happy about this pause in the game and soon comes out of the game into the real world to look for Lucifer and settle the game with him.

Ra One wreaks havoc on the game's developers Aakashi and Shekhar himself, and starts chasing Lucifer aka Prateek. Just then, G One also comes into the real world and now he is the savior for Prateek and Shekhar's widow Sonia.

The game between G One and Ra One starts in London and continues in Mumbai. Ra One has the ability to take different human forms just like the villain in "Terminator". G One is the endearing robot on the lines of Chitti and he is like Arnold in "Terminator" as he protects Prateek and his mother Sonia.

After some terrific stunts in the local train, G One faces Ra One, with Prateek controlling his moves through the gaming console. Another far fetched piece of imagination.

The movie ends with the promise of a sequel. But, no one was excited one bit.

Hits

• The first face-off between Ra One and G One gives goose bumps and is a big high in an otherwise lackluster fare.
• SRK as the nerdy Shekhar Subramanium irritates with his idiotic Tamizh but, this was the only character in the movie that had at least some audience connect. As G One, his hairstyle is super cool. 
• Kareena looks smoking hot and contributes in making the songs a visual treat. Criminal, Chammak Challo, Dildara were all the few highlights. 
• Ambitious 3D and VFX. Best technical film seen in Indian Cinema by a mile. But, it was not flawless. Some instances like the train coming onto the road, were quite artificial. 

Misses

• The grand finale in the climax between Ra One and G One is a big disaster as it is just an avalanche of VFX thrown at the viewers with 0 emotional connect. 
• Just one theme is repeated in the BG score. A superhero film requires something else. 
• The comedy scenes involving G One in the second half have a Chitti feel to them. 
• In the special scene involving Rajinikanth as Chitti, he was so jaded, tired and had no charisma. Pitiable. It was a mere caricature of the larger than life superstar that Rajini was, not too long ago.  
• A plot devoid of logic, completely. Even considering the fact that it is a superhero film, the execution is equally botched. 
• Arjun Rampal just flaunts his body but his performance as Ra One leaves a lot to be desired. The Aakashi version of Ra One is also funny. 

Comment

• For all the supreme hype given, this movie is just plain silly. The exhibitors and distributors will have a tough time recovering their money parted to that super smart businessman SRK

VERDICT

Money has literally been burnt. The screenplay has no grip, minimum involvement factor and it tires the viewer very often.