My first reaction to the movie was Brilliant stuff but that is also because I have been reading too much about totalitarian regimes, bureaucracy, human life having no value to all etc. kind of things too much lately and therefore I guess I reacted that way, for seemed so apt to what my thought process has been.
But after having given it a second thought, I realised the best part of the movie was the acting of Emraan Hasmi and Farooque Shaikh. Sadly the story is no hero, as you would expect from a political drama. Most of the background work looks half baked, there is no relationship or angle to the movie which has been done justice to. Be it Prosenjit's relationship or lack of it with his estranged wife (played by Tilotima Shome, the maid Alice from Monsoon Wedding or the lesbian friend from Turning 30), or that of his with Kalki neither the political nexus, other than mysterious accidents and murdered and mutilated bodies turning up, nor the whole displacement of people due to development work being carried out, really been explored. It's more like a bird's eye view into the story.
You don't understand why was the movie named Shanghai, for in the movie there is just an offhand mention of 'Cheen' and never the talk of how extensive the development was going to be, of its transformation into Shanghai instead the town of Bharat Nagar is transmogrified into a town of looting, vandalism, shooting, destruction etc. The movie feels in complete and the intermission you feel comes too soon, as if you are really expecting more should have happened.
It's a movie which does not satiate you although of course the loose threads do connect at the end but what really stands out in the movie is the acting of Emraan Hashmi. He is brilliant and to think he is the guy who is known more for his kissing than his acting, he is one guy who beats the other stalwarts in the cast of this movie. Farooque Shaikh is a delight, as the corrupt Principal Secretary and being such a huge fan of Abhay Deol, I really thought there wasn't enough homework done, some of the pronunciations were really forced, even the tamil did not look genuine enough. Not all tamilians, talk with a tamilian accent, he could have been a tamilian IAS officer without the accent, which really seemed to take alot away from his acting. Kalki gets it right, as she usually does as a troubled girl having personal issues of her own and at the same time dealing with other issues. Pitobash really just repeats what he does in Shor in the City. Supriya Pathak has about a couple of scenes in the entire movie, while she is the one who plots Prosenjit's murder. More screen space, more details is what I wanted.
This movie is an attempt in the right direction but does little after that. We know the stories, we know how the police gets henpecked, how people are murdered for political objectives, how in coalition politics there are no friends no foes, and how investigation commissions/committees are a big sham, what we would have really wanted is some more insight into things which are already known. I was expecting more dirt, more gore more black but I was given a little bit of this and that.
I guess I went in expecting a tad too much, from the Dibakar Banerjee and his crew and the movie did leave me disappointed. I wanted a lot more, a lot more insight instead I got only a reconnaissance of the theme. I give this movie 3 stars out of 5. I don't understand why the movie is being given rave reviews, when really it could have done a lot more. Unlike RDB, it will not revolutionise nothing.
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