(Spoiler : The review reveals the basic plot of the film)
Dibakar Bannerjee, one of the most promising directors of the present times, struck a great chord with the audience with all his three movies made till date based on diversified subjects. So after proving his visionary creative talent to the world, he decides to enter a more difficult territory of making an intense political thriller like a challenge, only to return with a fine political revealer, interestingly called SHANGHAI.
As a matter of fact, Hindi Film Industry has not made many successful political thrillers like the west since our cinema mostly aims at only entertainment as an escape from the real life. So as a subject it was indeed a brave and path-breaking choice made by Dibaker, who is sure going to be respected much more as a director post SHANGHAI. However, at the box office there is going to be a different story all together as the film certainly has much lesser elements for the masses going against all the expectations from the director of Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and Love Sex Aur Dhokha. In fact all these three films had a certain dose of fun and comedy in their narration which was widely appreciated both by the critics as well as the viewers. But as far as SHANGHAI is considered, it is undoubtedly going to be a “Critics movie” more than the masses.
The film is based on Greek writer Vassilis Vassilikos' political novel "Z" on which director Costa-Gavras also made his project titled "Z" (French) in 1969, which means “He is Alive” in a symbolic form. It received 2 OSCARS and was widely appreciated by the Academy Award Jury and many more festivals all over. The subject revolves around the events surrounding the assasination of a political leader who gets run down by a speeding truck after giving a provoking speech. As he dies due to the attack, it is declared an accident and an officer is appointed to investigate into the case. But having seen Costa-Gavras's classic, I can say that where “Z” is a sober, intense and realistic adaption of the novel, there “SHANGHAI” tries to walk on the same line while adding many deliberate commercial angles in its script to cater the Indian taste. For instance, the inclusion of 2 songs which don’t really serve any purpose, the avoidable extra-marital affair of the honest leader and Emraan Hashmi portrayal as a porn film-maker. It seems that Emraan’s illegal profession is simply added just to make the proceeding more spicy, whereas the inclusion never gets used properly in the entire script. Being made for Indian audience, Dibaker completely molds the real life inspired political plot into a more appealing version in his own unique style which eventually hits you hard only in the last 40 minutes of its duration.
In the first half it all keeps moving at an average speed with Kalki impressing the most, followed by Emraan Hashmi. But there is very less of Abhay Deol in this period of film and he actually comes into action post intermission with a brilliant climax. Set in a fictitious city, the film talks about the same old predictable settings of political conspiracies, corrupt system, greedy politicians and their loyal workers ready to kill anyone for their party benefits. But SHANGHAI actually scores much higher than all the earlier political thrillers made in the country mainly due to its subtle and calm treatment of an intense plot which keeps you engrossed especially in its second half. Yet, if you are only there in the theater, looking for the entertainment as enjoyed in Dibaker’s previous films then you might feel majorly dissatisfied in the end since the film is strictly meant for a selected audience familiar with this particular genre.
Here I would like to point out a very questionable drawback in the film which was not expected from a director like Dibaker. Now just imagine that a political leader (in 2012) gets a tip that a videographer has a tape which can reveal the real truth about his criminal activities. Now if he sends his goons to raid the videographer’s house then what instruction they would have or what will they go for searching or aim at destroying first standing in the middle of that house. Obviously they would go for all the tapes, computers and hard disks visible in his house because that’s where the evidence can be hidden in the first place. But in SHANGHAI, a group of people raid the videographer house, throw everything out on the road but very strangely leave a whole CPU (Computer) lying right under the main editing table just like that. May be only for Emraan Hashmi, who later picks it up and presents as the only evidence against the culprit to sum up the film. For me, this was a big major loophole in the script (not in the original) which should not have been there in an otherwise well made film by Dibaker Bannerjee.
Ignoring the above mentioned point, SHAHGHAI also scores well due to its polished performances lead by Kalki, Emraan, Abhay & Pitobash. Frankly, imagining Emraan Hashmi in an ugly kind of getup and then, the “Kisser Boy” accepting the role too, shows the commitment from both the actor and the director towards their profession. Emraan takes a major transforming leap with this in his career and Abhay Deol once again proves that he has got a great understanding of the medium which he uses perfectly while selecting his projects. Both Emraan & Abhay superbly play their characters with elegance but somehow I still felt like seeing less of them in the entire film. Perhaps I was expecting more scenes involving the investigation featuring the two (like in the orignal "Z"). Being the only leading female character, Kalki shines brightly as a surprise package of the film because the girl could have been easily declared as a misfit to the role due to her western looks. But she honestly scores even better than Emraan & Abhay as the distressed girl fighting for her interest. After the lead cast comes Pitobash who is repeatedly exceptional in his short role along with Prosenjit Chatterjee, making a strong impact as the opposing leader. Farooque Sheikh and Supriya Pathak show their sparks towards the end and the supporting cast performs well in their brief roles.
Musically SHANGHAI also made me think about another sheer wastage of efforts in the Film Business. The question it raises is that when you are only going to use 1 or 2 songs in the movie itself then why to record a whole soundtrack of 6-7 different songs which are not going to reach the listeners at all unless the film becomes a big hit. As a result, though Vishal-Shekhar come up with just an above average score in this flick, still their whole effort of composing and recording the other songs of SHANGHAI would go un-noticed. Nevertheless, Cinematography remains the asset of the film as always in a Dibakar Bannerjee directed movie.
On the whole, for me SHANGHAI remains a fine political thriller but not a great one and certainly not a film made for the masses. It lacks the entertainment factor needed to win over the viewers and it also doesn’t have the pace of an energetic powerful thriller (may be due to the absence of a suspense element in its predictable plot). But the film undoubtedly becomes a worth praising effort majorly due to its execution and superlative performances derived from the entire cast by the talented director.
Admittedly, my review here is based on the fact that I have seen the original Oscar winner “Z” which has a more realistic or analytical depiction of the plot, with a distinctive climax and no deliberate additions of any female characters. But despite of this fact, SHANGHAI still remains a different kind of attempt from director Dibakar Bannerjee wherein he is not able to surpass his previous three films comparatively.
Ratings : 3 / 5
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