India v/s Bharat. Review on Shanghai

Dibakar Banerjee has always made movies based in Delhi. Though all his movies have impressed, it seemed that he was comfortable in weaving characters based in Delhi. This time he weaves a story set in a fictitious town on Bharatnagar. And boy, does he make an impact.

The 1st half looks a bit stretched with Banerjee taking his own time to introduce his characters. But once the real drama begins, it keeps you spellbound. The last 20-25 minutes are the best ever for any movie. Not once does it seem that you are watching a movie. The characters, dialogues, situations seem so real that you feel you have yourself experienced something like this. The performaces and the brilliantly written characters make this movie the finest movie of the year. Full marks to Mr. Banerjee for extracting the best performances from actors who arent exactly known for their performances(Abhay Deol is known more for his choice of good scripts than his acting a la Aamir Khan).

Banerjee already had a readymade bound script in form of the novel Z, but this is where a good director differs from a bad director. Even Atul Agnihotri had a script in form of One Night At a Call Centre by Chetan Bhagat, but look how he spoilt it. Banerjee spins a unique narrative style around the story touches you, movies you, shocks you and thus entertains you.

The music is excellent and the picturization is even more better. Vishal Shekhar have proven their versatility with this album. The cinematography and camera work are very effective make you a part of the movie. Emraan Hashmi as the porn videographer who helps Kalki Koechlin is at his best. He lets go of his serial kisser tag with this movie. Abhay Deol as the IAS beaurucrat investing the case again gives his best performance and not once does he make you aware of his Madrasi accent, such natural is his acting. Kalki Koehlin as the activist gives a loud performance at times(though that was the demand of her character) but overall her character graph is so well written that it makes you forgive everything else. Prosenjit in a brief role is very good. One looks forward to more Hindi movie from this Bengali superstar. The supporting cast is good.

Overall, Shanghai hits you hard because of incredible direction and makes you think about the sad state of politics in our country. After watching a 3rd grade movie like Rowdy Rathore last week which gave me sardard, this one gave me khudkhushi(i.e. khud ki khushi). A movie where you need to use your brains at every step, this one is the best political thriller from B Town after Panther Panchali. Cheers for this one. Worth even a 500 Rs. ticket.