Lets hope that director Dibakar Banerjee shall watch his own film, say, ten years later and actually wonder- What the hell’s happening?!” At least then he would realize what he made the audience go through! He seems to have got too inspired by watching VB’s Kaminey the very first time!
IPS officer T.A. Krishnan (Abhay Deol) is in charge of an attempt-to-murder case that is dubbed to be an accident by corrupt officials. Shalini, the victim’s cousin (Kalki Koechlin) and Joginder, a videographer (Emraan Hashmi) play a key role in finding evidences. Will they succeed?
Shanghai has the typical small town flavor- an ambience of local stores, rural folks, mud, desi dances, gullible mob, political prevalence, unscrupulous officials, ludicrous English etc. Several hand-held camera shots add value to story telling. There is no particular development in any character; incidents are the tool of story building. The execution of the film captures its essence with the climax doing little. There are interesting points that unfortunately don’t last long. There is not much humor, but the little attempts at it are pretty successful. The one mentioning Ramdev Baba could not have had a better timing!
If there is something evidently missing, it is good music. Bharat Mata Ki Jai has a transitory effect.
Kalki Koechlin well depicts an unbalanced state of mind. Emraan Hashmi adds good humor. The gold tooth perhaps was meant to be our substitute for a golden script! Abhay Deol does a fantastic job. His silence speaks and so do his words!
'Shanghai' is a classy name for a not-that-classy film! Now isn’t that quite like classy promises for not-that-classy attempts?!
RATING- 3 stars
IPS officer T.A. Krishnan (Abhay Deol) is in charge of an attempt-to-murder case that is dubbed to be an accident by corrupt officials. Shalini, the victim’s cousin (Kalki Koechlin) and Joginder, a videographer (Emraan Hashmi) play a key role in finding evidences. Will they succeed?
Shanghai has the typical small town flavor- an ambience of local stores, rural folks, mud, desi dances, gullible mob, political prevalence, unscrupulous officials, ludicrous English etc. Several hand-held camera shots add value to story telling. There is no particular development in any character; incidents are the tool of story building. The execution of the film captures its essence with the climax doing little. There are interesting points that unfortunately don’t last long. There is not much humor, but the little attempts at it are pretty successful. The one mentioning Ramdev Baba could not have had a better timing!
If there is something evidently missing, it is good music. Bharat Mata Ki Jai has a transitory effect.
Kalki Koechlin well depicts an unbalanced state of mind. Emraan Hashmi adds good humor. The gold tooth perhaps was meant to be our substitute for a golden script! Abhay Deol does a fantastic job. His silence speaks and so do his words!
'Shanghai' is a classy name for a not-that-classy film! Now isn’t that quite like classy promises for not-that-classy attempts?!
RATING- 3 stars
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