Our cinema’s future is bright. There are a lot of movies which are based on innovative ideas. These are not formula based but path breaking. We know that Mumbai never goes to sleep. Catching the restless on-the-edge mood of a city and its people who refuse to fall off that edge of the hurtling local train that takes thousands of destinies every day to their work and then back home, "Shor..." throws forward the kind of seductive cinema that makes you think about the quality of life we all lead, irrespective of the city that we occupy, or rather, the city that occupies us.
Mumbai, in co-directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK's idea of things, is that giant monster that consumes everything that moves. The characters are all sufferers of that traffic-jam freedom that comes to a commuter stranded in the middle of a highway in a car with nowhere to go and nothing to do with time than to spend it in idle retrospection.
The mood of this tense, clenched and systematically gripping humane thriller is so spiritedly Mumbai-centric you congratulate the director's vision after the last shot of the work swishes by. The rapid movements of images of extreme emotional crises and the following violence are so skillfully put forward you don't feel you are being manipulated into staying captivated to the screen. You flow with the frenzied pace of a people whose lives are out of control.
"Shor In The City" sticks you down to its brilliant screenplay from the first frame when we see the three surprised teenagers Tusshar, Nikhil Diwedi and Pitobash negotiate the crowded streets of Mumbai in search of prey. The characters work both as predators and as victims. They feel the gun gives them the right of way when, in fact, the traffic snarl of life has got them by their balls.
There are three heroes with their 'Mumbai' stories to tell. Sawan (Sundeep Kishan) wants to play national-level cricket. Tilak (Tusshar) wants to give up a life of crime to concentrate on reading and housekeeping (in that order). But the most interesting strand in the lucid lineup of conflicted characters is the NRI Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy), whose dreams of setting up his own business in the city are turned into a nightmare by goons who muscle into his work-place and life with menacing insidiousness.
The interaction between the NRI and the goons is chilling to the core. Abhay's lapse into a life that he had possibly left behind is charted in a zigzag of humour and satire.
The pace is so relentless, we don't even get a chance to clap the even narration that defines these jagged lives as they hurl towards karma that we are not allowed to guess.
The co-directors succeed in remaining many steps ahead of the viewers. The masterly editing (Ashmith Kunder) and the moody earthy cinematography (Tushar Kanti Ray) aids the director in building a conflagration of compelling montages that add up to a climax that doesn't quite add-up…and correctly so. There are no efficient conclusions to these lives that are stuck in their desperate bid to escape their karma.
Karma, the theme song tells you, is a bitch. Watching the people who move through their designated suffering with such furious fluency, you have to agree with the opinion that destiny deals a bitchy blow to most working-class people in the cities.
"Shor In The City" is a work covered in an inspiring glory. The characterization is so accurate and the dialogues so wholly familiar to the minds and hearts of the characters you wonder which came first that the people in the movie or the film itself.
Tusshar as the bad-boy finding salvation in books and wife gives an interesting spin to his character. This is a far cry from his over-the-top Golmaal adventures.
Nikhil Diwedi and newcomer Pitobash as Tusshar's accomplices are completely in tune with their characters blending so well with the milieu you are sure no one gave any of these actors a second glance on the streets of Mumbai where the script often ventures out.
Sundeep Kishan as the boy who wants to play cricket and get wedded brings a certain simplicity to the tangled goings-on. The female characters Radhika Apte as Tusshar's straightforward but strong wife reminded me of Tabu in "Viraasat".
There are be noticeable cameos by Amit Mistry (as a street goonda who specializes in organizing dharnas), Zakir Hussain (as an extortionist) and several other actors who bleed a brilliance into the plot for just fleeting moments before vanishing into the crowds of Mumbai.
Overall, it is worthy to watch which is the portray of the city of dreams, goons, guns and glory.
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