Movie Review: Shanghai

Dibakar Banerjee just about manages to put a straight face till the end of the film and let his characters use only Hindi to maintain the anonymity of the city where the action in his latest film Shanghai takes place. Indeed, the director who is known for his meticulous detailing in his earlier works brings it to  forte delightfully all the way to its end in this brilliantly acted but ultimately simplistic film. 

Shanghai is quite simply the best acted film I have seen off late where every one of its ensemble cast has perfected their role and live dthem with utmost conviction. Hashmi and Deol breathe life into the roles they play and never put a step that is out of character with either the men they play or the place they come from. The supporting cast was even better in fact with Prosenjit’s majestic presence leading them. However Kalki falls short when compared to the others and Pitobhash should ensure that he doesn’t get typecast however brilliant in this role he might be.

The problem with the film is that it does not seem to have a great story that can stand tall on its detail and the director seems to be rather preoccupied with the acting, subtle nuances of the characters and the Bharat Nagar kitsch in general. He knows just what type of characters inhabit the place and what goes around it. Indeed his knowledge about the place seems so superior that what he chose to show on screen comes out as hugely underwhelming and I’m sure there was more to be found in the archives than what Shanghai had to offer.

Apart from convenient deaths of important players at crucial times, the writing never manages to create an intriguing conflict over the two hour span. The fact that the film was based on a book should have allowed the writers to establish a stronger narrative flow. They have done a great job at indianizing the story (so much so that if we were not told, we would not have guessed it to be an adaptation of a Greek Novel) and seemed to be content with it. 

Towards the end of the film, I was a bit unsatisfied as I walked out of the theatre, because I was never able to connect myself emotionally with all that was happening on screen. Also, all the characters have clear motivations and can be categorized completely as either black or white with little or no greys at all. There are no layers and probably none were written or intended. This is certainly not the best DB has to offer and we are not going to let him get away with this.