rjrenju
There were many reasons for which I went to theater to watch this film, 1. Acting skills and selectiveness of Imran Hashmi. All of his recent movies were minimum guarantee movies. 2. 2 beautiful songs which I wanted to enjoy in big screen (khudaaya and duaa). 3. Positive reviews.But I was terribly disappointed with the movie. This was a 2 hour movie, but I felt like I spend around 5 hours in theater, I was totally uncomfortable. It was a horrible experience because I was having huge expectations. I felt asleep at times and woke up suddenly by hearing the screaming of kalki.. These are some of my findings. 1. First of all, I agree that this may feel like awesome for some audience. It is a dark political thriller, but its not entertaining, movie was moving slooowly. 2. Those 2 songs which I mentioned above were not in the movies. I don't know whether the dua song was cut, but the khudaaya song was made just for the film promo. There is no such situation in the movie where you can include that song. 3. I think Abhay deol was totally wasted. He is a good character, but not all suitable for this role.Imran hashmi's acting was appreciable. Believe me he is very near to bagging a best actor award.
sashank_kini-1
Not very often do mainstream Indian film directors fully channel their vision onto screen; the true potential gets vaporized in an attempt to please the audiences. Also coming in the way is the director's self indulgence, profoundly seen in Ram Gopal Varma's recent ventures, rendering a discordant and utterly baffling soup. Case in point the unbelievable, WTF ending in Sarkar Raj 2 that implicated almost half the cast as baddies (in the third installment, maybe even gardeners and fisher-women may be working for some international drug cartel). What most directors lack is a balance, yes, Indian movies are known worldwide for their colors but let those colors be bright, not gaudy. A majority of them cannot create believable characters or a plot and showcase it on the screen, and I'm just talking films – if I start blasting Indian television soaps, it would probably make up an entire book!This bastardizing of Indian films either to make money or ape foreign movies had caused me to take a break from Bollywood. I didn't even buy Vidya Balan's Kahaani, which seemed to be an Eat, Pray Love with Bidya (It's Vidya btw…) one moment and a claustrophobic femme fatale action movie the next. Never overemphasize mundane sequences in an action film, let them stay primly in the background. Four scores and seven years later… or, maybe a month or two later, I saw myself sitting comfortably, with no popcorn in my hand and a bunch of immature boys below my row, in a PVR theater in Baroda, waiting for Shanghai to start. The attendance seemed very poor, but it was a respite for me – a better air-conditioner effect! The title of Shanghai seemed to cover almost the entire screen, already pumped up to make a statement (Jaago Grahak Jaago Re… like) and the names of the cast and crew followed, some familiar, some not very. And then began the movie. The first shot is a bird's eye view of a city, which looks poles apart from Shanghai and seems more like Mumbai (the film is shot in Maharashtra). The next is a close up shot of a hairy, messy Bhagu as he talks about mutton. The short, pint-sized man then proceeds to assault a shop-owner with his reluctant partner Jaggu. The opening scene itself sets the tone for the rest of the film – we are in for plenty of close-ups, some impressive camera effects such as slow motion, dim and grim lighting, succinct and clever dialogues, dark humor and believable characters.The movie discusses a familiar concept: Bharat Nagar, a fictional city, is flourishing with new infrastructure projects backed by IBP, the ruling political party headed by Madamji (played wisely with demure restraint by Supriya Pathak). But we already see how demagogically the party runs by using common men as pawns. Only Dr. Ahmedi (Prasenjit Chatterjee), a dissident social worker raises his voice and comes to India to forewarn people about the trickery of IBP – he believes the poor are being deceived regarding their relocation. His campaign in Bharat Nagar is supported by his one-time student Shalini Sahay (earnestly played by Kalki Koechlin) who left the States after having an illicit romance with the married man. After the speech, when Ahmedi sternly rebukes the police for not maintaining enough protection, he is hit by a truck all of a sudden. This event is filmed by a videographer/pornographer Joginder Parmar (diligently portrayed by Emraan Hashmi, who also developed some peculiarities for his slightly obnoxious character), who also covers interviews by IBP and such. In the fracas, Joginder and Kalki's lives intertwine when the former's friend has some evidence of foul play in the event. Also working on the case is a studious, no-nonsense bureaucrat T.A Krishnan who strives to collect new evidence but finds (i) a pudgy, gluttonous politician Kaul (a scrumptious performance by Farooq Sheikh) who pressurizes him to close the case immediately and (ii) obdurate police officers who are scared to tell the truth.One glance at the poster of the film, I never would've imagined this was a political thriller; the poster is very misleading and makes this seem like a typical murder mystery with a detective in the form of Abhay Deol. Alter that, please. The movie is a smart political thriller that proceeds in 'City of God' style and has traces of Tarantino and Hitchcock in the sense that its various disparate characters gradually come closer as the climax approaches. The performance by everyone is understated and this is partly because the script deals cogently with action, dialogues, location and effects. Never does it get too artsy or too clever or too frenetic. The characters aren't shown completing one task throughout the film and there are scenes which give them depth; for example, the dangerous Bhagu is insulted by his English teacher, which could be a stimulant for his violence. I heard an interview where Dibakar Banerjee said 'we shouldn't bring in Dr. Ahmedi's infidelity as a shortcoming of his political agenda' because both the matters aren't closely related. Such details are what make characters leap alive, and we don't get dead flowers like the ones in Ra.one.The award season should be teeming with Shanghai's cast, all for best supporting roles: Deol, Hashmi, Sheikh, Chaterjee, Koechlin, Tillomala Shome (in a short yet memorable performance as Dr. Ahmedi's wife), Pathak and even Tripathy. I hope some, especially Deol and Hashmi, do get some recognition. The writing, cinematography, music should strike some gold (or bronze or whatever metal they use to make the lady). The best film, I'm slightly unsure because Shanghai is a one-time watch; as some critics rightly pointed, there could've been more. The movie has made a statement successfully but it's lacking background. But I also feel it's been some time since I was so invested in a Bollywood film. The Indian mainstream cinema needs a change, and movies like Shanghai should make some difference. My Rating:7.6/10
jmathur_swayamprabha
In the beginning of this movie, the cover page of a book written by a character of this movie (Dr. Ahmedi) is shown and the title of the book reads as - Kiski Pragati ? Kiska Desh ? (Whose progress ? Whose nation ?). And that's what this movie is all about. So many development projects have come and are coming being termed as the ladder to the progress of the nation. But the question is - what do we mean by nation ? Hence, the related second question is - whose progress is it going to be ? If this nation does not belong to the poor and the underdog, then whom do these things purport to bring prosperity to ? Aren't most of these so-called development projects conspiracies to deprive the commonfolks of whatever little possessed by them and pour further wealth into the already brimming coffers of those occupying key positions in the government and the administration of this 'great' country ? Quite naturally, there are several activists also visible who oppose such projects. Definitely all such activists are not having genuine intentions behind their opposition. The opposition of some of them may be motivated and they may be having their own axes to grind. However, it's the duty of the victims (or would-be victims) to identify their genuine well-wishers among them and lobby behind them. And such people do take a risk of their own life as well. The powerful ones having vested interest in such projects will definitely like to eliminate the opposing ones. Shanghai tells the story of one such elimination only.A social activist - Dr. Ahmedi (Prosenjit Chatterjee) is opposing a development project - IBP which is likely to dislodge the lower class people of the concerned town - Bhaarat Nagar. When he is going ahead with his mission in the company of his ex-student and admirer - Shalini (Kalki Koechlin), a truck tramples him. The truck driver is caught but the conspiracy behind this so-called mishap is deep whose strings lead to some very powerful and high profile people in the government. An enquiry commission is set up to look into this mishap due to which Dr. Ahmedi is fighting for his life in the hospital now. This single member commission is headed by an IAS officer Krishnan (Abhay Deol) who comes to know of some evidences linked to this apparently a mishap but actually an attempted murder, through a videographer - Joginder (Emraan Haashmi). Some more murders take place which are of expendable people involved in or knowing about the murder conspiracy chalked out at a very high level. However Krishnan with, his wit and conviction, is though not able to reveal the truth before the world or stop the project from materializing but at least able to prevent the conspirators from enjoying the fruit of their conspiracy.The revelation shown in the climax is not reliable because the apex level politicians never allow themselves to be caught in some tape / CD. There are many layers between them and the real executors of their plans which never allow them to directly come into picture in such a way that some concrete evidence is left for anybody else to see / hear. Besides, the way Krishnan blackmails the lieutenant of the chief minister - Kaul (Farooq Sheikh) to toe his line and also involves the coalition partner in his mission, is too simplified to be true. And his denying to go abroad on promotion is also too far-fetched as well as the other things that appear on the screen in written form when the movie has ended. This slipperiness of the director has not allowed the movie to become an outstanding movie.The Bollywood filmmakers have made Emraan Haashmi typed for the roles with a definite flavour. In a different role, he has got an opportunity to show his mettle and he has done it with finesse. Kalki Koechlin is a good actress but she has also been typecast to play a certain type of roles only. Shanghai is another example of her typecasting. The supporting cast has done exceedingly well including Supriya Pathak and Farooq Sheikh who have come together after three decades (last time, they had come together in Baazaar - 1982). Farooq Sheikh has done something like his Jee Mantri Ji act (a TV serial that had come many years back, portraying Farooq as a minister). Prosenjit has impressed in the low-footage role of Dr. Ahmedi which is the base of the complete story. The show-stealer is Abhay Deol whose underplay is simply outstanding. He is a highly talented, yet low profile actor who can never act bad. Despite being a script-based movie without any undue weightage for any character, Abhay draws attention as the well-educated and sincere bureaucrat.Shanghai is a high-tension drama sans entertainment (though some humour has been inserted through Farooq Sheikh's facial expressions in the climax scene). It hits hard instead of entertaining the viewer. Hence, little wonder, it has flopped on the box office. It bares the ugly, true face of 'progressing' India on the screen. Will you be interested in seeing it when you have already seen enough of it off the screen ?
