SHANGHAI REVIEW BY SAMEER VALECHA

SHANGHAI REVIEW BY SAMEER VALECHA:

Star cast: Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin Kashyap, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Pitobash, Supriya Pathak, Farooque Sheikh and Anant Jog

Director: Dibakar Banerjee

Producer: PVR Pictures (Ajay K. Bijli, Sanjeev K. Bijli)

Music: Vishal-Shekhar

Genre: Drama / Political Thriller

Censor Details: U/A (Hindi)

Review: A political activist played by Prosenjit Chatterjee meets with an accident in an Indian city gearing up for elections. A lone girl (Kalki) believes it to be a murder. A porn filmmaker (Emraan) claims to have proof that will bring the government down. A high-ranking bureaucrat (Abhay) is brought in by the government to damage control as the enquiry Commissioner. The three of them blow the lid off the Indian dream called Shanghai.

Dibakar Banerjee highly known for films like LSD, Khosla Ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye is back once again with yet another interesting concept called ‘Shanghai’ which is based on the famous novel ‘Z’ by Vassilis Vassilikos. Banerjee has presented the German story in the Indianized Avatar that seems to have worked well. He has picked up a very unique topic and deserves all the credit. Altough the story takes about 20 minutes to pick up but that can be excused given that the film turns excellent after that. Screenplay by Banerjee and Urmi Juvekar is fast paced and well written.

The star cast of this film was very unusual with Emraan Hashmi and Abhay Deol coming together and sharing the screen space, as they both are different kinds of actors. But they both have done well in their parts, especially Hashmi who has adopted a brand new look of a Geek in this film. Kalki was good as always. Prosenjit did well in his small yet effective role. Pitobash carries on good form from his debut film. Supriya Pathak, Farooque Sheikh and Anant Jog did an all right job. Music by Vishal-Shekhar was good with tracks like ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai, Imported Kamariya and Khudaaya’. Even tracks like Duaa and Morcha are energizing. But the screenplay doesn’t offer much for the music and more often it was used as Background Score.

Overall, Shanghai is watchable for some great acting and Splendid Direction. In fact due to its raw storyline I would recommend this for all.

Paisa Vasool: 70/100