Directed by :- Dibakar Banerjee
*ing : Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechelin, Prosenajit Chatterjee
*ing : Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechelin, Prosenajit Chatterjee
At a time when movies like Ferrari Ki Sawari
and Rowdy Rathore were pulling in the crowds to the theaters,
with mindless fare, Director Dibakar Banerjee tries to evoke the
audiences’ grey matter with his slick and classy Shanghai India , drawing parallels with places in Orissa,
Jharkhand, Chattisgargh or even Bengal . Dibakar Banerjee sees through the
state of affairs and indeed dares to speak up about the corporates-politician
nexus.
The movie follows Dr Ahmadi, a social activist who is leading a people’s
protest against an SEZ (Special Economic Zone) which is about to displace a
huge population in a fictional town called Bharatnagar. The SEZ is, but, projected as a
for-development by the ruling party.
This is evident from the very start, but not from the story line, but
rather through the billboards that we see on the roads when the camera pans
‘Bharatnagar’. The movie is full of such
minute details and symbolisms that we audience tend to know about only on
closer introspection. See for example
the very first scene of the movie where the character played by Pitobash
Tripathy, ransacks a book-shop and blackens the face of the owner of
the shop. All we see is a book on the
background with the title ‘Kiski Pragati Kiska Desh’ with the picture of the
author, Dr Ahmadi (Played brilliantly by Prosenajit Chatterjee)
on the cover. We immediately know that
the rioting and the ‘bandh’ is against his anti-SEZ protest and we instantly
know who Dr Ahmadi is without even showing him on the screen. Or sample this
scene where Kalki calls Emraan on his cellphone. Nowhere in the movie we are told or shown
anything about Emraan’s interest for Kalki, but we come to know when the
caller-id of his phone flases Kalki’s name as DREEEMGIRL, with extra E’s.
Soon, Dr Ahmadi lands in Bharatnagar to address a public gathering and
he is killed in full public gathering by a truck driven by a drunkard. The Government constitute a committee, headed
by the IAS Officer TA Krishnan (Abhey Deol in a sedate performance) with
a brief to wind up the investigation into his murder in double quick time by
terming it as an rogue accident. But
Krishnan dwells deeper and finds out the truth.
Kalki Koechelin who plays Dr Ahmadi’s student and his love
interest and a porn-videographer, Jogi Parmar (Emraan Hashmi)
assists the bureaucrat in unraveling the
knots of the conspiracy of Dr Ahmadi’s murder.
The beauty of the movie is in the details as mentioned earlier and also
because no character is either Black or White. Even Dr Ahmadi has his own
failings and is shown having a weakness for attractive students. He married one of his students (played by Tilotama
Shome) and is simultaneously tagging along Kalki.
Emraan Hashmi’s performance as Jogi Parmar is absolutely
stupendous. Here is the serial kisser,
the way we know him, playing a character with a low self-esteem and quite
surprisingly, sports a Pot-Belly and ugly teeth. I have always liked his ambitious chracters
played in various movies who always laid women earning the tag of serial
kisser, but here he left me absolutely speechless with his performance. He
surely deserves a Best Actor Award.
Apart from the above, Abhay Deol as TA Krishnan, the IAS
Officer, and the two cameos by Supriya Pathak as the woman Chief
Minister and Farookh Sheikh as her Political Secretary is worth a
hundred mentions and makes the movie that much more delectable. Pitobash Tripathy as a street-smart party man
dazzles. Prosenajit Chatterjee is a
veteran and he plays his part as is expected from an actor of his statute.
The movie, is dark, stark and it is a classic stuff and is simply the
best movie of the year. Don’t miss it at
any cost. It will entertain you, and at
the same time, open your eyes as well as to what is happening around you.
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