Mesmerising Moments | Editor's pen

Hi friends…

It’s difficult to choose one between Shanghai and Kahaani, two amazing offbeat movies of this year. For these two movies, an awesome Paan Singh Tomar, a promising Gangs Of Wasseypur, Barfi and expected blockbuster Talash, it looks like that we can call 2012 as one of the most outstanding years for Bollywood in recent past. But we will talk about them some other day. Today, I want to talk about these two different movies – Kahaani and Shanghai.

From different POVs, each of these two excelled. Kahaani was fast paced entertainment with awesome thriller quotient. You can’t find loopholes until you leave the theatre. You will be awestruck with the amount of energy Vidya exudes in her performance. Great detailing as well. On this point, even Shanghai earns quite a handful of brownie points. Amazing detailing in character development. But low on entertainment, high on thoughts. It let you understand about the irony in life and reality between infra development.

The one moment where Vidya works on computer (while standing) and Rana (Parambrata) looks at her with tender emotions (while sitting) as Vidya is extracting information from Police database makes me weak in knees while watching Kahaani. Perhaps the best piece from my namesake’s most successful movie. Shanghai, too, had an amazing moment. It almost brought tears in my eyes. Interestingly, it involved Emraan Hashmi. When he went to see his friend’s death body. How well he pulled off that odd scene. Remarkable. The lump in his throat. The pain in his eyes. The apocalyptic feel. He nailed it.

Next Edition will be a director’s special. Wait for it.

Love,

Sujoy

Shanghai | Just Short Of A Masterpiece | The Critique

Z is an awesome novel and so is the movie adapted from it. Shanghai is almost Z. What a sad fortune that rot in system as shown in Z suits situation in our country and what an irony that people are talking more about the entertainment value in movie than the subject being visited by the director. Hypocrites, aren’t we? Maybe to some extent Dibakar is responsible for it. He kept story to-the-point, realistic and tried to avoid not making it entertaining from B-grade cinema perspective. Good for us.

Fifteen minutes into the movie, you know the context but you don’t feel it. Its Act 2 where you start feeling the gravity of subject. Conveniently, in the name of progress, we try to take away the basic human rights of poor people who are defense less. A teacher turned revolutionary who has little control over personal self is almost killed. While his wife who seems to be estranged, keeps her calm while he is in hospital. His student who is in love with him, is hell bent on proving that it was not accident, it’s a conspiracy. A disillusioned photographer with dubious credentials can be the game changer. Lastly, an IAS who is not sure what to choose – career or duty. When he try to choose one, other lures him.

Story wise the movie has a strong case. Dialogues were kept real. They would have sounded stupid otherwise. Characterization is really strong. Accent wise Tamil character played by Abhay Deol was a little off-track but I won’t consider that a valid case. I am a bong and speak Bengali with a heavy Hindi touch due to my upbringing in Allahabad. Pace of movie can be questioned but I am not sure that it could have better or worse. Cast wise: Farooq Sheikh and Prosenjit are just too good. Their persona on screen is remarkable. Abhay Deol and Kalki played their characters as if it’s a cake walk for  them. On a second thought... it was. Emraan Hashmi... This guy has delivered goods in many of his previous movies. However the glam took away the credit. He has finally arrived with a bang.

Dibakar Banerjee has done a really good job. May be its not as good as his previous outing but still better than most of the releases we see. As a learner, I have a question: There was a subtle romantic track between Kalki and Emraan which was avoided. Why? Over to Dibakar.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh