exinator

There has indeed been a lot of "shor" throughout 2011. The cacophony of corruption , the noise made by Anna Hazare against it , the cheer of India triumphing at the cricket world cup , the hullaballoo of the royal wedding , the euphoria surrounding Osama's death and not to forget the annoying IPL trumpet.

We are indeed living in noisy times. Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK get it right stating with the title itself.Mumbai in the last few years has ceased to be the dream city conjured up by Bollywood over the years. It has emerged into the city of the Slumdog , of Aamir , of Dhobhi Ghat and now as a noisy ,dirty and eccentric metropolis.

Three stories run parallely during the Ganpati festival. Each story deals with fringe characters desperate to make it into the mainstream. So we have petty criminals , foreign returned Indians and an out of favour cricketer. In Inarritu style they criss-cross each other's lives which culminates into the climax.

Hats off to the directors for the mood they lend to the film. The opening credits run amidst chaotic Mumbai streets where cars narrowly miss you. A sense of claustrophobia persists throughout along with intense , scorching heat. The bustling and crowded outdoors , the narrow dingy lanes , the deserted rooftops hardly give you any breathing space. The viewer is immediately overtaken by a sense of visual noise.

The sudden cuts coupled with edgy music and pedestrian language keeps the narrative tight. Again , hardly any breathing space anywhere. The performances blend into the story. Pitobash as Mandook stands out. Special mention for Tusshar (he's dropped the Kapoor) here for whom its been a long journey from Bore to Shor .

The 'shor' gets heightened as Tilak (Tusshar) who been married for a while now hardly even knows his wife. The story unfolds during the Ganesha festival with his idols dotting the city. But its almost as if God himself has been rendered helpless against the times. Is he just an excuse for another festival? While the ending may remind one of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver , its best left to the viewer to be the judge of it.

This is a film "full of sound and fury" Signifying existence in between -Sushovan Sircar for MuvieMadlyDeeply.com

Young kid : Hey Mister are you really the Irishman? Danny Greene: What about it? Young Kid: My cousin says you have more balls than anyone else, he wants to be just like you! Wonderful piece of Cinema, starring Ray Stevenson best known for his role as Titus Poulo in the legendary T.V series Rome. Stevenson stars in and as Danny Greene, a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970's. Greene who looks to turn over a new leaf in the second half of the movie by going legitimate faces the wrath of the Mafia.

The Mafia are after him he don't care! The Cops are after him, he don't care! Calls himself a descendant of the Celtic Warriors in short " one tough son-of-a-gun!" The movie follows Greene's rise to power, although his practices were corrupt he maintained a certain amount of dignity and a code to how he went about doing his work.

Great performance by Stevenson, but poor supporting performances makes the viewer lose the flow of the movie, Director Jonathan Hensleigh fails to use actors like Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer effectively, definite shades of the Scorsese classic Goodfellas in the narrative perspective, in fact the knife stabbing scene behind the car boot is directly lifted from there, Alas Jonathan did not have Joe Pesci to liven up the screen! All-in-all an entertaining watch, witty dialogue, powerful scenes, fast narrative and one of the few movies these days with a great background score. The U.S.P of the film is Stevenson's performance, the guy has tremendous screen presence and he carries the movie alone. I would give it a 7/10.

Anshuman Bagri for MuvieMadlyDeeply.com