Shanghai : Movie Review

Here is a quick review of the new release (relatively 7 days old, as of today) - Shanghai.

Plot:
''Sone ki chidiya, dengue malaria, gud bhi hai, gobar bhi, Bharat Mata ki jai."
It's a song from the flick. In fact the whole plot revolves around this central theme.

Bharatnagar, a fictional town, is undergoing a revolutionary face lift SEZ exercise named as International Business Park. Mr. Krishnan (Abhay Deol) is the Vice Chairman for this government aided project (an IAS officer). A certain Indian-US-based college proffessor Mr. Ahmadi (Prosenjit) is against this project and is trying to create a mass revolution in residents of the Bharatnagar. The story starts getting interesting as soon as Ahmadi is assasinated through a via-pawn-executed political plan. The other protagonists/charachters get in the plot as they were linked to either the site of Ahmadi's assasination or the person himself. What comes ahead is a series of dirty yet realistic events which lead the audience to know as to who the real culprits of Ahmadi's murder were and how the charachters reacted / responded to various events in their lives.

Strengths:
Abhay Deol, Farrukh Shaikh, Kalki, Emraan Hashmi, Pitobash Tripathi, Script, Imported Kamariya :-)

Weaknesses:
Dibakar Bannerjee (Director) should have been bit more elaborative when the movie explains/lays out the stand of protagonists because almost all of them have chequered roles. This negligence leads to confusion in minds of layman masses in audience as to who has a postive role or who is negative. In fact a kid behind my seat was shouting at his mother "Mom, Abhay Deol is good guy or bad guy ??" Having an extreme slant towards mindsets of Shyam Benegal or Govind Nihalani, can sometimes cost you serious revelue losses in commercial cinema.

In fact, what I quote as the weakness above, is of great strength in front of a discerning audience.
The protagonists, with shades of gray, show you various colours of their roles. It makes the movie look convincing and real-life inspired.

Abahy Deol is the dark horse who yet again impresses in a well crafted and well executed role.  (Please ignore his not-so-perfect tamizh accent dialogues)
One person who unexpectedly surprised me is Kalki. The last time she impressed me was in Dev D (Yes, I could not watch her flick - "The Girl in Yellow Boots"). The scenes in which she reacts to police in hospital and the one, in which she finally meets the murderer Anant Jog, are par-excellence.

Yet another trivia: This brings Farukh Shaikh and Supriya Pathak together after long long years.
Last time they worked together was in the wonderful "Bazaar".

I would have loved the movie much more hadn't it been yet another fact-accepting, submissive and dark story.
Imaginative but thought provoking movie where the good man knocks out the bad man off the ring is always a mass as well as class entertainer. e.g Singham, Ghulam etc.

My Take: 3.5*
(Could have been a 4* movie, if some inspiring/motivating climax could have been thought of)

Chalaa Taani,
Neo.