yunusitboss Shanghai(U/A)-------------Rating: 3/5 GOOD*It is a political thriller which starts slowly but ends up with a great twist... *Emraan ashmi character was awesome. where kalki-abhay were average.... *Songs were not good except "bharat mata and khudaaya" where as direction and camera was taken into the realistic feel....Story starts very slow but wraps up fast in the climax..... - Actress was disappointing in her performance....Prime leader of a campaign against a big government project is killed in what appears to be a road accident. An IAS officer is ordered to probe the incident and the veils of falsehood begin to drop.

kumar aditya There are so many movies out there based on Indian politics, this one definitely stands out. Directed by dibakar banerjee this movie movie does give a highlight of his talent. Be it the perfect star cast, or the flawless acting by each actor in the movie, the director definitely succeeded in making the movie seem real.Although the story is originally based on the novel "z" and has already been adapted into an Oscar winning movie based on Greek politics previously, this movie seems to be tailor made from the point of view of the Indian politics in the present scenario. This movie doesn't get boring a minute from the start till the end. Power packed performance by abhay deol truly inspires me to be a better person and fight for justice.Emraan hashmi, just one world, VERSATILE!To sum it up, i would say,it is not the story but the way it has been presented that enlightens you. Truly this one goes into my list of well directed movies and is definitely worth watching, if you are still in doubt.

Kalpitt Tandon It takes a maverick director to craft a cinema so bleak and brutal in its portrayal of truth that it has the power to provoke debates and lead to heavy handed argumentation. Dibakar Banerjee steers a political thriller so acidic in its content and so bitter in its handling that it hits you hard in your guts and leaves you wanting for more.When an activist leader, Dr. Ahmedi (Prosenjit Chatterjee) is mowed down by a fast moving truck in what appears to be an accident, the hypothetical city of Bharatnagar boils down into a war field of riots and horrors. A student of Dr. Ahmedi, Shalini (Kalki Koechlin) becomes convinced that it was not an accident and was a preplanned murder. She along with a local photographer Jogi (Emraan Hashmi), who claims to have decisive evidence, fights for justice in a city brimming with deceit, bureaucracy and corruption. A high ranking official Krishnan (Abhay Deol) is given the responsibility of investigating the case. At its core, Shanghai carries the notion of development at the stake of humanity. As the slogan of a prominent party IBP in the movie goes, "Kasam khoon ki khayi hai, Sheher nahin Shanghai hai", Shanghai is treated as a metaphor for all the progress and evolution that the party promises in bharatnagar. Yet, regardless of the ballgame and skin crawling riots and unforgiving violence, the citizens of bharatnagar, proudly sings, "Bharat Mata Ki Jai". 'Shanghai' is a painfully slow movie. So, the viewer who has to sit back in the first hour only has his comfort in the beautiful little nuisances spilled across the screen. Dibakar Bannerjee has an eye for the details and he hits all his notes correct in detailing the landscape of silver screen. It is in the second hour that the movie grips the audience and sucks us into the world so true yet so oblivious to our naked eye.Dibakar Bannerjee who previously directed Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), Oye Lucky Lucky Oye (2008) and Love Sex Aur Dhoka (2010) shows superlative skills of direction and writing. The script is savage and brutally raw. Shanghai is an atmosphere driven movie and the screenplay scores brownie points by depicting the circumstances as authentic as they could have been manifested on the silver screen.The film tends to get distant from the viewer and is deliberately a tad sluggish. Kudos to the star cast with Emraan Hashmi leading from the front with a visceral portrayal of a middle class citizen. With Shanghai, Abhay Deol gets another coat in his armor and he is undoubtedly, 'the dark horse' of Bollywood cinema. Kalki Koechlin shines again as a lone girl seeking for justice in a ruthless system.'Shanghai' is merciless and forces the audience to ponder over the state of our nation. It is by no means a yet another 100 crore blockbuster. It is an intelligent political thriller with a noble intention and a callous crime drama at its heart. Rating: 3.5 / 5

bobbysing As a subject this was indeed a brave and path-breaking choice made by Dibaker, who is sure going to be respected much more as a director post SHANGHAI. However, at the box office there is going to be a different story all together as the film certainly has much lesser elements for the masses going against all the expectations from the director of Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and Love Sex Aur Dhokha. In fact all these three films had a certain dose of fun and comedy in their narration which was widely appreciated both by the critics as well as the viewers. But as far as SHANGHAI is considered,it is undoubtedly going to be a "Critics movie" more than the masses.The film is based on Greek writer Vassilis Vassilikos' political novel "Z" on which director Costa-Gavras also made his project titled "Z" (French) in 1969, which means "He is Alive" in a symbolic form. It received 2 Oscars and was widely appreciated by the Academy Award Jury and many more festivals all over. Having seen Costa-Gavras's classic, I can say that where "Z" is a sober, intense and realistic adaption of the novel, there "SHANGHAI" tries to walk on the same line while adding many deliberate commercial angles in its script to cater the Indian taste. For instance, the inclusion of 2 songs which don't really serve any purpose, the avoidable extra-marital affair of the honest leader and Emraan Hashmi portrayal as a porn film-maker. It seems that Emraan's illegal profession is simply added just to make the proceeding more spicy, whereas the inclusion never gets used properly in the entire script.In the first half it all keeps moving at an average speed with Kalki impressing the most, followed by Emraan Hashmi. But there is very less of Abhay Deol in this period of film and he actually comes into action post intermission with a brilliant climax. Set in a fictitious city, the film talks about the same old predictable settings of political conspiracies, corrupt system, greedy politicians and their loyal workers ready to kill anyone for their party benefits. But SHANGHAI actually scores much higher than all the earlier political thrillers made in the country mainly due to its subtle and calm treatment of an intense plot which keeps you engrossed especially in its second half. Yet, if you are only there in the theater, looking for the entertainment as enjoyed in Dibaker's previous films then you might feel majorly dissatisfied in the end. Here I would like to point out a very questionable drawback in the film which was not expected from a director like Dibaker. Now just imagine that a political leader (in 2012) gets a tip that a videographer has a tape which can reveal the real truth about his criminal activities. Now if he sends his goons to raid the videographer's house then what instruction they would have or what will they go for searching. Obviously they would go for all the tapes, computers and hard disks visible in his house because that's where the evidence can be hidden in the first place. But in SHANGHAI, a group of people raid the videographer house, throw everything out on the road but very strangely leave a whole CPU (Computer) lying right under the main editing table just like that.Ignoring the above mentioned point, SHAHGHAI scores well due to its polished performances lead by Kalki, Emraan, Abhay & Pitobash. Frankly, imagining Emraan Hashmi in an ugly kind of getup and then, the "Kisser Boy" accepting the role too, shows the commitment from both the actor and the director towards their profession. Emraan takes a major transforming leap with this in his career and Abhay Deol once again proves that he has got a great understanding of the medium which he uses perfectly while selecting his projects. Being the only leading female character, Kalki shines brightly as a surprise package of the film because the girl could have been easily declared as a misfit to the role due to her western looks. But she honestly scores even better than Emraan & Abhay as the distressed girl fighting for her interest. After the lead cast comes Pitobash who is repeatedly exceptional in his short role along with Prosenjit Chatterjee, making a strong impact as the opposing leader. Farooque Sheikh and Supriya Pathak show their sparks towards the end and the supporting cast performs well in their brief roles.Musically SHANGHAI also made me think about another sheer wastage of efforts in the Film Business. The question it raises is that when you are only going to use 1 or 2 songs in the movie itself then why to record a whole soundtrack of 6-7 different songs which are not going to reach the listeners at all unless the film becomes a big hit. As a result, though Vishal-Shekhar come up with just an above average score in this flick, still their whole effort of composing and recording the other songs of SHANGHAI would go un-noticed. Nevertheless, Cinematography remains the asset of the film as always in a Dibakar Bannerjee directed movie.On the whole, for me SHANGHAI remains a fine political thriller but not a great one and certainly not a film made for the masses. It lacks the entertainment factor needed to win over the viewers and it also doesn't have the pace of an energetic powerful thriller (may be due to the absence of a suspense element in its predictable plot). But the film undoubtedly becomes a worth praising effort majorly due to its execution and superlative performances derived from the entire cast by the talented director.Admittedly, my review here is based on the fact that I have seen the original Oscar winner "Z". But despite of this fact, SHANGHAI still remains a different kind of attempt from director Dibakar Bannerjee wherein he is not able to surpass his previous three films comparatively.