Shanghai

Take any of your favorite political thrillers. What you'd find is political insight and compelling suspense, seamlessly woven to demystify your flimsy notions and beliefs about that subject. While the protagonist peels the layers off falsehood, you experience the joy of veils dropping. You get more than just the solution of a mystery; a new interpretation of the event, a shocking perspective. Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai is one such political thriller. This terrific film hits you like a hurricane and terrifies you to bits. It has an abiding effect that will haunt you even hours after you've left the theater. If you enjoy true cinema, go for SHANGHAI.. Else, better wait for SRK or FARAH KHAN's next POPCORN FLICK!! Go for SHANGHAI for Kalki Koechlin, for Emraam Hashmi,for Abhay Deol, for the Music & for everything you want from a masterpiece! And next time you end up comparing why do Bollywood standards do not reach Hollywood, stay quite! You don't deserve a word!

10/10

Dibakar Banerjee, Abhay Deol and Emraan Hashmi. There cannot be any better reason to watch this movie and well, it's worth the expectations. Shanghai, the Desi adaption of Z by Vassilis Vassilikos is a fine thriller.

First things first, you can feel the Dibakar Banerjee style in each and every frame of this around two hour movie. In first ten minutes itself, the culprits are revealed and there is no whodunit feeling in first half, but thanks to brilliantly panned screenplay (courtesy Urmi Juvekar and DB), the tension builds on in a continuum till the climax and climax pays it off.

The power of Shanghai lies in its characters and subplots. Director leaves much upon the imagination of viewers but, still it is amazing to witness such a powerful cinema with a short and simple story. Abhay, Emraan and Kalki play their milestone characters and they play with such an ease that it is impossible to picture any actors in their shoes. Prosenjit Chatterjee, though plays a cameo, makes his presence felt throughout the movie, which is incredible.

Shanghai could have been a loud political thriller with grungy background score and over the top acting, but DB chooses the path less traveled. Like his last three films he chooses his own subtle and proportionately dramatic storytelling that makes it a standalone from clichéd and crass political thrillers. In order to keep the intensity of such a mature subject, Dibakar has deliberately avoided soulful songs like Khudaya and Dua, and placed situational tracks like Bharat Mata Ki and Imported Kamariya, which is a courageous effort.

The negatives? First half takes a bit more of time to create the situations and subplots making the movie a bit drag occasionally. Apart from this, I can't find out any other loopholes in this movie.

Watch it or not? If you are a fan of "the real powerful cinema", do go for it.

Shanghai is a delight from head to toe. Dibakar Banerjee is without a doubt my favourite bollywood director of recent times. Already it's a hell of a job matching the standards of LSD, Oye Lucky and Khosla still he manages to pull off a gritty tale with such panache which compels me to compare him with the Hollywood great Quentin Tarantino. The city of Bharat Nagar is about to have a turn of fate as the ruling government tries to convert it into an infrastructure marvel but then there's a proclaimed personnel and social activist Aahmedi played by Bengal's very own Prosenjit Chatterjee. But the ruling party has other plans for him as he is brutally injured in a hit and run case which leaves Shalini(Kalki Koechlin) to fight it out to the find the truth behind the proclaimed accident. Imran Hashmi plays Joginder Parmar who's a videographer come pornographer who has some evidence that might help things fall into place for Aahmedi. The real kick comes when Krishnan(Abhay Deol) in given the responsibility to find out the truth. What works for Shanghai is that even though so much is going around all the time there is this definite attention given to each and every detail that you are just kept glued to the screen. Plus there is the fine twist in the end as well. The scenes without any background score, a Dibakar Banerjee trend I suppose, the gritty yet amicable screenplay everything is I personally love. You actually can feel through the scenes as they pass.

The performances are exceptional be it Abhay Deol, Kalki or even Hashmi as he steps inside shoes which one would never consider to fit him. But then that's the sheer genius of Dibakar Banerjee. Still though call me greedy I expected a little tiny bit more drama. But then nothing is perfect. After 'Kahaani' it is in my opinion the second best movie I have set my eyes upon in 2012. Take A Bow Mr.Director!

There is only one word to describe the cinematography, the set designs and the dialogues, and that is Exceptional! You don't just watch the scenes happening, you feel them. The movie is a real thrill ride. The action scenes are well pictured and the music is electronically haunting. Never, in the run time of the movie, you will get a chance to move your eyes from the screen to any other object.

The film is hardly one hour-fifty minutes long, and you wish that there was no interval. You don't need one when you are watching a crisp and thrilling film like this one! It's an engaging thriller with a political backdrop, and the performances are mind blowing. Kalki Koechlin is fabulous. Pitobash Tripathy is superb. Abhay Deol has captured the nuisances of the south Indian accent perfectly. He is restrained and strong. But the star of the show is Emraan Hashmi. It might turn out to be too intelligent for Emraan Hashmi fans who generally come to see him smooch his leading lady. So we will have to wait and see if a brilliant film like this is lapped up at the box office or not. Shanghai shocks, engages and makes a powerful statement. Dibakar lives up to the standards he has set for himself.

Just coming home after watching the movie, and I was really really impressed with... Everything. While coming back, I heard some friends say it was boring and not very good, which made me write this review:

Watch It if you are looking for some serious cinema. Definitely Watch It if you have a brain to actually THINK about what the movie is trying to say.

I've been disillusioned with Bollywood for some years now, but every year, there come some movies which are absolutely top class, which actually say something rather than throwing undercooked brainless (un)comic crap at us. Shanghai is one of the former, and nearly everything is well done in this movie.

The direction is very good and tight, the background score is very apt, the cinematography is fantastic, as is the editing. And although the story is actually not very new, revolving around the general hopelessness we associate with Indian politics and law, the way Dibakar Banerjee presents it, and the (un)happy-ending really makes it shine...

I think that the movie may probably not do extremely well in theaters because "most" Indians go for mindless comedies these days, but those who want to see a GOOD movie, This is definitely one for them.