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Shor In The City

An engaging peep into the edgy yet fragile lives of Mumbai's people, their relationships, provocations, dilemmas and life-altering decisions.

Namrata Joshi

Updated on:

Starring: Tusshar Kapoor, Radhika Apte, Pitobash, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Zakir Hussain
Directed by Krishna DK, Raj Nidimoru
Rating: ***

N
ot only does Shor In The City inventively capture the sights and sounds, energy and spirit, chaos and precariousness, frustrations and conflicts of the Maximum City, it also provides an engaging peep into the edgy yet fragile lives of its people, their relationships, provocations, dilemmas and life-altering decisions. The criss-cross of lives that the two filmmakers knit on screen shows a keen, observant, quirky and darkly humorous eye.

The narrative spans the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, the days when the noise on the streets gets deafening. The focus is on three sets of characters. A ‘pirate’ publisher, Tilak (Tusshar), with his two ‘tapori’ cronies (Pitobash and Nikhil Dwivedi), kidnaps a popular author whose next book he wants to publish and sell at traffic signals. An aspiring cricketer Saawan (Sundeep Kishan), is dying to get selected in an under-22 cricket team even as his girlfriend is under threat of a forced marriage. And, expat Abhay (Sendhil) has decided to return to his country to set up a small business, but can’t escape the clutches of the extortionist mafia. The twist comes with a chance discovery of a bagful of ammo and weaponry. A bomb goes off, Kalashnikovs tumble out, a bank gets robbed and lives converge in irreversible, sinister ways.

There are throwaway vignettes that grab attention. Like Tilak’s bride Sapna (Radhika) counting away her wedding gifts. Or the newly-weds bonding over Paulo Coelho. Or Tilak’s conscience pricking him so much when he finds pages missing in his pirated publication that he orders a reprint.

The film hinges on the ensemble performances and casting director Atul Mongia seems to have literally plucked faces from Mumbai’s streets—the fresh, unknown talent leaves a lasting impression, like the hyper-kinetic, goofy but innocent crook Pitobash or Suresh Dubey’s slimy sidekick of the don. Radhika Apte is Bollywood’s big new find, gorgeous in her kohl-eyes with an expressive face to boot. As for the sparkling soundtrack, while Karma Is A Bitch might be the pulsating new popular song of the young, it’s Shreya Ghoshal-Tochi Raina’s melodious romantic duet Saibo that lingers on.

High Fives

Bollywood

  1. Dum Maaro Dum
  2. Chalo Dilli
  3. Shor In The City
  4. Thank You
  5. F.A.L.T.U
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Hollywood

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  2. Rio
  3. Madea’s Big Happy Family
  4. Water for Elephants
  5. Prom

Pop

  1. E.T (Katy Perry and Kanye West)
  2. S&M (Rihanna)
  3. Blow (Ke$ha)
  4. Just Can’t...(Black Eyed Peas)
  5. Till the World (Britney Spears )

Courtesy: Film Information

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