Shanghai starring Emraan Hashmi , Abhay Deol and Kalki Koechlin  appeared on the screens today. The movie has a mixed response and viewers have voted it up for raising  the social cry.
Watching “Shanghai” is revisiting your daily local newspaper, full of scams, conspiracies and crime stories. In short, the film is a slice of today’s India.
Adapted from “Z”, a 1966 novel by Vassilis Vassilikos, Dibakar Banerjeer brilliantly exposes the reality behind the irony of India Shining.
The scenes are verbatim daily newspaper briefs.
The Movie starts with the Political drama when a Ruling party proposes a multi-million infrastructure project to convert a small town Bharatnagar to a world class city like Shanghai (and the title goes after this).
As expected some left Wing Activist start opposing the move on the grounds that hundreds of families would lose their shelters due to this. The activist dies  (actually killed ) out of an accident.
Investigation agencies take over from here. Abhay Deol is an High Ranking IAS Officer in-charge of the Case. He faces resistance from his seniors to drop the case and give accused a clean chit.
Emraan Hashmi plays a Movie Director who has some video having enough evidence to prove it as a murde, while Kalki was the the Eye-witness of the murder.
The whole movie revolves around this investigation.
While the film grips you, it’s the system that gets to you.
“Why did you do commit the murder, when you knew it is wrong,” Kalki asks the murderer.
Another dialogue – “Jeene se haraam lagta hai. Par marne se darr bhi lagta hai…” clearly shows the hunger for survival. It’s a sorry state of affairs, where the common denominator is the victim.
There is a simplistic nature to the narrative and archetype.
According to critics,  Abhay Deol and Emran Hashmi has played their roles  effectively and has been successful in embark a serious image in your mid. Deol, portraying a South Indian IAS officer, makes a mark for his role in the film. Emran Hashmi, as Jogi Parmar has done quite good job with his stained teeth and mawali moves. Hashmi has redefined his lover boy image in Shanghai .
Kalki Koechlin is also quite satisfactory in her role. She  has somewhat repeated her distressed characters in films like Shaitan, That Girl In Yellow Boots and Dev D.  Though a repetition, no wonder her performance in Shanghai was just marvellous.
The strength of “Shanghai” is its tight screenplay by Urmi Juvekar and Dibakar Banerjee and the meticulous details leave no scope for arguments.
What adds to the flavour is excellent cinematography by Nikos Andritsakis and the marvellous use of sound, both ambient and otherwise, to build up the tension in the political drama.
The controversial song “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and the item number “Imported Kamariyaa” are well-picturised and the latter is on the way to become the next favourite numbers at all ‘basti’ celebrations.
Despite its simplistic and down-to-earth locations, “Shanghai” has a nice hard-boiled vibe and a sense of semi-exotic danger. Definitely gives you a lot to ponder about.
(With inputs of IANS)