Shanhai - well worth the trip!

Dibakar Banerjee’s honesty shines through, right at the beginning, when the credits start rolling, with the acknowledgment that “Shanghai” is based on Vassilis Vassilikos’s novel Z.

What impacts you most is the skill & ability of this fine director (he got it so right with the delightful “Khosla ka Ghosla” & the cheeky “Oye Lucky, Oye Lucky!”) to customise a book, set in Greece & adapt it so perfectly to a desi setting.

Warning: not your feel-good, weekend watch! “Shanghai” chills you with the cruelty & ruthlessness associated with politics & the dirty games, politicians play; it disturbs, as it forces you to accept, that despite the fact that it’s based on a piece of fiction, you have to digest the uncomfortable truth that, the higher people climb on the political ladder, the lower they are willing to stoop, to crawl their way to the top!

A social activist, protesting against a mega housing project launched by the Chief Minister, dies, when he is hit by a speeding truck – murder or accident, that’s the plot in a nutshell, of this political whodunit.

For those, puckering up for apna ‘serial kisser’, Emran Hashmi, sorry! As the sleazy, vernacular, videographer, willing to do anything for a living (even shooting cheap porn!), who plays a key role in the investigation of the murder, Hashmi makes you realise, that under that flippant, kisser, playboy image, simmers a fine actor.

Abhay Deol, the Tamil Bureaucrat, in charge of the enquiry, is convincing, as the blue eyed boy of the Chief Minister, who realises that there is more to the accident than meets the eye & despite opposition from the highest places, powers on!

Kalki Koechlin, hmmmmmm … don’t quite get her as an actress; as the student/lover of the victim, determined to seek justice, she fails to impress.

Farooque Shaikh, the smooth talking assistant to the CM, is spot on & makes you remember what a fabulous actor he is. Supriya Pathak playing the ambitious CM, so believable & real!

I didn’t quite understand the significance of the title, till this bright, young girl, who I bumped into, in the washroom, explained that “Shanghai” refers to the aspirations of the Government, who want to make India, the next China & are convinced that the end justifies the cruel & ruthless means!

A harsh story about ambition & greed, of frighteningly corrupt cops, who are portrayed as puppets in the hands of the politicians & how truth can be twisted any which way;

Board that flight to “Shanghai” – it may not be top notch entertainment, but will make you reflect, ponder & worry!

Dibakar Banerjee, Tussi Great Ho!