Shanghai- Caustic, honest and in your face Movie.

This film made me curious and eager right from the first promo that was out. This film is not here to make you cry. This film is not here to make you laugh. This film is here to make you think. It stands right there in your face. This film hits you hard at the little patriotic corner of your heart.  It makes you cringe and feel helpless. This film doesn’t say anything that we don’t know of, but says things that we brush under the carpet. Things we all know but are scared to talk about. Things we read about. Things we feel helpless about.

The film, adapted from the novel ‘Z’, given a soul by Dibaker Banerjee and Urmi Juvekar (screenplay), starts off with a backdrop of political hooliganisms happening in the undeveloped town of Bharat Nagar. The Chief Minister of the State, Supriya Pathak as Madamji, is worshipped by her party workers who are nothing but a group of self proclaimed social reformists called the Morcha, working for the “PRAGATI” of the town. The hooliganism cutting to seemingly innocent and visually negligible characters played by Pitobash Tripathy as Bhagu and Anant Jog as Baggu, keep you hooked on the screen for a couple of minutes without realizing what exactly they are up to. Cut to Emraan Hashmi as Jogi Parmar, an adult film maker. He is rusty, evil, but a cheapskate with a heart.  He seems like a guy who will indulge in any immoral activity for a dime. You will yet not despise him. His ‘STD blocked hai’ line will make him endearing to you for a moment. This film then moves on to Abhay Deol as T.A Krishnan, the regular Tamil Brahmin intelligent bureaucrat you will come across. The ex IIT alumni is a man with high morals. He is applauded as one of the most sought after officials in the bureau.  Cut to Prasenjit Chatterjee, the soul of the film, playing Dr Ahmedi. He is a socialist professor and political activist. He is out to save the bustling city of Bharat Nagar from an upcoming infrastructure project backed by the ruling political party that will wipe out the existence of the local population. In spite of death threats, warnings foreseen by his adheren, Kalki Kochlein as Shalini Sahay, Dr Ahmedi lands up in Bharat Nagar. Dr Ahmedi looks out for Shalini and the chemistry between them has a short span on screen but it is captured enough to let you into their world. Fate turns around for everyone when Dr Ahmedi is attacked in the middle of a crowd of more than 100 people and the attack is masqueraded as an accident. His wife, Tilotama Shome, lands up in Bharat Nagar to be by her husband’s side. Farooq sheikh as Kaul, Principle Secretary at the CM’s office, leads on T.A Krishnan and sends him to Bharat Nagar to investigate into the “accident”. To write the incident off as Police force negligence, lack of co-ordination in the force, a premeditated murder or just an accident, is left at Krishnan hands for disposal. In terms of on camera, the movie is swept off by Abhay Deol. The seemingly harmless humble man is the surprise element of the movie. In this chaos of uncovering the truth and investigation, Krishnan uncovers the multi faceted ruling party that seemed as a sheer facade with shocking revelations which you ought to see in the movie. The last 5 minutes of the movie is going to leave an impact on you. And the last 30 unspoken seconds actually says it all. Trust me. But that, I am not going to tell u ;)

The movie has an amazing stability in the script. No loose ends. Nothing is left unexplained, yet nothing is explicit. You are going to figure crucial bits of the movie yourself. The editing is done aptly making it short, crisp and cut almost to perfection. The costume designing by Manoshi Nath and Rushmi Sharma is tailor made for the characters, literally. The music by Vishal and Shekhar is just right for the flavour of the movie. The songs aren’t thrown in just for the heck of it, including the item song Imported Kamariya.

The real star of the movie is Dibakar Banerjee. His realistic direction yet again leaves you gasping for more. He keeps it simple and sensible. That’s one thing you will see in his last releases too. Either Khosla ka Ghosla or LSD, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye or Shanghai, the unfeigned attempt at movie making is reflected in every frame of the movie. Standing ovation is what he deserves. The only complaint I have is that there were obvious differences in the re runs of the most crucial scene of the movie. In every rerun the scene looks different though it is the same. Spot it if you can once you see the movie. Other than that, it’s absolutely worth watching, again and again AND AGAIN. Superb, mind blowing movie of the year!!!! GO WATCH IT NOW!!!!

Rating-4/5