Shor in the City

Horns! Bombs! Noise! Loudness! Violence! Blood! Knife! Wives! SxXx! Ashanti ! Shor are words not new to us. Infact they reside in our society quite... read more

Horns! Bombs! Noise! Loudness! Violence! Blood! Knife! Wives! SxXx! Ashanti ! Shor are words not new to us. Infact they reside in our society quite abundantly. No wonder the material for this movie seems apna sa (familiar to us).

Rating 3.75/5

Story
Shor In The City (siTc) comprises of three nested stories all based in Mumbai
1) an NRI from land of opportunities coming back to India to create opportunities HERE. However! he still likes the girl with think accent. His life changes once he encounters goons demanding protection money.
2) a lover who is being force to see polished bridegrooms BUT she loves somebody else - A batsman who aspire to be in the local Ranji team and can go to any limits to fix his place in the team.
3) a newly-wed couple who are shy of each other and are still not known to each other. The couple is an interesting one where the wife is educated and the husband runs a book piracy business (in an ethical manner that is). His supporters are small time robbers and they all manage to pull off quite a unique robbery that of a book manuscript before its official release.

Star Cast
In a movie like this, stars dont work. We need actors and there were quite a few in siTc
Never heard talent Pitobash Tripathy plays the character of Mandok and who survives by committing small crimes. His make-up is in your face and has a fantastic resemblance to Natha of Peepli Live.
Tusshar Kapoor one of the finest stars son acts in this movie surprising everybody. Surprising here he gets something to speak (courtesy - channel Ekta) and gives a good performance. He maintains the same subtleness as he did in Gayab (unwatchable) but maintains dignity throughout.
Sendhil Ramamurthy is good in the role of NRI with his accent complementing the character very well. All other actors except Nikhil Dwivedi (main lead of My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves! remember) and Preeti Desais (plays the character of accented girlfriend of NRI) are fine.

The best part of movie is its story and compliments must be given to the trio of Raj Nidimoru (also the director), Krishna D.K. (also the director) and Sita Menon for writing an engaging script. Music is a standout in Shorr. Saibo and Karma (Suraj is back) are numbers of opposite taste and have that typical new song addiction. Screenplay is ok, could be better along with cinematography.

AG verdict - You know you are watching something worth enough if you dont have any clue about the ending till the last 15 minutes. Shor In The City as a thriller works on this and does not disappoint. Definitely watchable.

A bit of philosophy Karma is a bitch. Do you agree? I do!

mere ghar mein shor hai,
Mere dil mein shor hai,
Ab kahan jao,
Jab mere chain mein bhi shor hai
(Noise is there in my house, noise is there in my heart, where to go! When noise is there in my comfort)
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Story 1:Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy, Heroes) has returned to India to set up a business venture. He falls in love with model Shalmila (Preeti Desai) ... read more

Story 1:
Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy, Heroes) has returned to India to set up a business venture. He falls in love with model Shalmila (Preeti Desai) and wants to be a part of the city and its life. But his fairy tale has its share of goons (Zakir Husain, Sarkar) whose constant extortion demands make life difficult for him.
Story 2:
Saawan Murthy a.k.a. Savvy (Sundeep Kishan) a talented aspiring cricketer, wants to make it to the Mumbai under 22 team, but not before he can cough up a good chunk of money to pay off the selector, so they can select him for his talent!
Story 3:
Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor) is a bootlegger, running a book piracy business along with his 2 colleagues a.k.a. petty thieves Mandook (Pitobash Tripathy) & Ramesh (Nikhil Dwivedi). Mandook, the pun on the hindi words mann dukh and Ramesh steal a bag and discover it to be full of guns and explosives. They intend to sell the loot and make big money. But due to an incident, Tilak, thinks of doing away with their life of petty crime and stick to his publishing business, lending only moral support to his friends.
Ekta Kapoors latest film, by director duo by Raj Nidimoru & Krishna DK (99) is the above 3 stories with the back drop of the Ganesh festival. The entire sequence of events plays out during the 11 days of festivities, colour and noise.
The 3 stories have no connection besides Tipubhai (Amit Mistry, Yamla Pagla Deewana) and they remain disconnected from each other till the climax. The directors have taken their own time to build up the plot and it takes till intermission for the 3 protagonists to reach their melting points. Post interval, the pace of the film does drop, making one wonder about the length of this erstwhile short film.
The cinematography by Tushar Kanti Ray is first rate. The manner in which he has presented Mumbai, is excellent. Likewise the story and screenplay by Raj/DK/Sita Menon is good. The dialogues are not heavy and filled with intelligent humour. Not much scope for music here, thank God for no item songs. But Karma is a bitch and Saibo might ring a bell with few.
Preeti Desai does not have much work in the film besides showing the viewers that she was the Provogue model. Girija Oak (Taare Zameen Par) as the helpless girlfriend is excellent. Radhika Apte (Rakht Charitra) initially is hardly there but is good. Mainly the film belongs to the men.
Zakir Hussain is excellent. Nikhil is good, especially in the climax. Tusshar comes up with a different performance from his usual Golmaal / Aggar type of roles. He blends into his character beautifully. Sundeep Kishan shows extreme vulnerability as the boy whose entire life is being taken away from him. Sendhil is again natural as a NRI stuck in circumstances beyond his imagination. But the highlights of the film are Pitobash and Amit Mistry. Brilliant, is an understatement for the performance that these two have delivered.
Although the editing does take a heavy beating in the second half, but due to the non expectations the film does pleasantly surprise you.
The Directors have shown some brilliant moments in the film. It sort of equates to a strong moment for each of the characters once in the film : be it Sapnas sheer happiness in talking to her husband, Tilaks remorse at seeing the injured child due to their mischief. The childs reaction to Tilak leaving is something which not only gave me a sense of relief but brought a big smile to my face. It was the best in the film. Likewise, Mandooks joy on landing his hands at the AK (they could not confirm whether it was a 47 or 56 till the end and neither am I an arms expert), the manner in which he makes an old adversary shit in his pants or his arrogance in dealing with the arms dealers. Tipu bhais shock when he is introduced to Tilak bhai or his handling of his daily affairs be it stars or his mother! Abhays acceptance of the city in the finale, when he finally gives in and becomes a part of it and with the colours of the city on his face and the noise in his soul! The film has a serious subject but the light hearted manner in which it has been presented shows the true dark nature of the city.
I feel the product needed to be marketed in a different light, with all due respects, but not many people have seen Heroes so they will not know who Sendhil is and for the crowd who does, they might perceive it to be another gift from the sister!

Does it have The Y Factor:Yes
Rating:7/ 10
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4 months down and the only film on my must watch list was Dhobhi Ghat. Not any more, with Shor in the city I have found the best Hindi film of the ... read more

4 months down and the only film on my must watch list was Dhobhi Ghat. Not any more, with Shor in the city I have found the best Hindi film of the year so far. Ironically like Dhobhi Ghat this too is an ode to the city of Bombay & has stories intersecting each other.

PLOT KYA HAI? - In the 11 days of Ganesh Chaturthi 3 lives of Tushar Kapoor, Sendil Ramamurhty & Sundeep Kishan intersect each other.

WHAT WORKS - the screenplay is extremely engaging and keeps you involved right from the beginning. I dont know what is about quirky characters and out of the box actors that make a film worth its time. In this one I found Pitobash Tripathy as Mandook. Every scene that he is in becomes a treat to watch. He along with Nikhil Dwivedi reminded me of the boys from Gomorrah. Nikhils character is the weakest in the film along with Preeti Desais. Amit Mistry( loved him in 99) though not in the lead gets a better role. Sendhils mysterious character is the intriguing part of the film. He is one character whose back story I was interested in. Tushar Kapoor is probably in his best form after golmaal and Radhika Apte ( she reminds me of Shefali Chhaya) just makes me wanna fall in love all over again. Girija Oak as Sandeep Kishan girlfriend is a complete natural. The little moments and observation in the film is what stays long after its over. Things like an office assistant talking about having noodles with his boss to his wife, Amit Mistry talking to someone at home about what to cook for dinner right in the middle of an arms deal. The film is filled with such marvelous moments & some cool black humor.

WHAT DOESNT WORK Sandeeps track is the weakest & gets a bit repetitive after some time also Sendhil & Preeti Desais love track doesnt work. I so wanted to see more of the others especially Mandook.

FINAL FEW WORDS Shor in the city is for every Hindi movie buff deprived of good cinema. Its not entirely fresh but much better than the rest.

RATING : ***

TICKET METER : worth any amount of money.
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hor in the city is part of the new breed of movies that uses fairly unknown actors and an edgy urban setting to tell you their stories and I am rea... read more

hor in the city is part of the new breed of movies that uses fairly unknown actors and an edgy urban setting to tell you their stories and I am really enjoying this experience. It is such a relief not to see our usual pan caked heroes in leather jackets and jeans so tight that they have to walk frog legged, romancing heroines who are clones of each other.

Shor follows four separate stories that get braided together as the movie progresses somewhat like Metro-life in a city. There are a couple of gangsters, a pirated book seller with a college educated wife, an NRI trying to start a business in Mumbai and an aspiring cricketer with a girlfriend who is about to be married off. The story is about their hopes, aspirations and struggles and how their lives change through circumstances created by them or happenstance. The movie ends on a positive note that makes you realise why Mumbai is a city of dreams for so many people.

Tushar Kapoor is the only name commerical name and as the book seller he does a good job. Its good to see actors like him trying out different roles.At least he wont be stuck in the Golmal groove forever if he continues like this. Sendhil Ramamurthy as the NRI impresses but Abhay Deols girlfriend Preeti Desai in her debut role has a couple of scenes but nothing to impress you. Pitobash Tripathy playing the slightly loony gangster Mandook is the shining star of this movie. Another Dobriyal in the making perhaps?

The story moves at a brisk pace and the music is quite funky and complements the movie very well. This is a sound track that deserves a second hearing. There are a couple of very good scenes- the street chase, the sweet romantic moment between Tushar and his wife and a few others that are so intricate in their detailing that they put you in the moment.

This is a movie worth watching. Full paisa vasool bhai!
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Director duo Raj-Krishna initiated their Bollywood outing with a thoroughly amusing yet unmemorable 99 (Kunal Khemu, Cyrus Broacha). Traces of them... read more

Director duo Raj-Krishna initiated their Bollywood outing with a thoroughly amusing yet unmemorable 99 (Kunal Khemu, Cyrus Broacha). Traces of them being great storytellers werent missed in the terror-comedy.

They somehow have a fixation with bombs and petty thiefs, with maniacal chaos, and conspiracies. And at such scale, it initially comes across as seemingly impossible but trust them to take you through on an impossibly thrilling roller-coaster ride, backed by heart-thumping tunes, and some of the greatest performances we can recollect in recent times.

Shor in the City is a classic instance of one of the finest screenplays written and a phenomenal editing (Ashmith Kunder), all this shot crisply, the attention of the camera zooming at such devouring instances, you are captivated in that dark-cell, too overwhelmed to react, because this film, dear spectators is made to kick you off-guard.

The film is cleverly broken into 3 sets of people not quite belonging to a contrasting societal stature, but with ambitions, and aspirations towering the moon. Sendhil Ramamurthys Abhay is a foreign-returned guy, aiming to carve out a profitable small business in the city, and is facing chaos in the form of getting the logistics at place, and setting in motion the wheels of his vision. Petty crooks disguised as aides, are a plenty a cleverly written trio, who later on reveal their murkier side by demanding hefty protection money. Approaching the nearby cop will be willingly inviting disappointment.

Another cluster of three Tusshars Tillak, Pitobashs Tripathys Mandook, and Nikhil Dwiwedis Ramesh are an epitome of the hopeless lot, struggling and stumbling everyday challenge, from being voluntarily employed with eccentric activities like Tillaks book-piracy (They kidnap Robin Sharma for his yet unreleased manuscript. Brilliant, this) to trying to sell their way into a supposed realm of gold by accidently coming across a bagful of arms, ammunitions. Chaos is metaphoric in the madness of their daily business, and the sadness and thanklessness and the eccentric pleasure in doing the insane. At one instance, one dynamic player (Mandook) just decides to blow up a bomb, because he hasnt seen things exploding live, and yes, they go ahead.

The third story Sundeep Kishans Savan the strongest of the lot is of an up and coming teen with an irrefutable passion to be in the cricket team, battling demons on the both ends of the pitch the shadowy way for an entry in the T20 team, to his girlfriend whos helplessly caught in a situation of getting married elsewhere.

Shor in the City scores heavily in its unmistakably strong characterization each of them so poignant, you go overboard with at least one emotion that they evoke. So if there is a sense of deep sympathy for Abhay whos compelled to reach the other side of law to set the matters straight, there is gnashing of teeth at those shady little goons. Abhays transition is effortless from being an innocent and ambitious biz person to getting his hands dirty the HEROES actor adds a lot of depth to his person that is conveyed by his bustling anger.

Ditto for Tusshars Tillak whose life is partly revolutionized as he flips through The Alchemist and seeks a life of spirituality and solace, but not before morally aiding his cronies in a climatic bank heist.
Sundeeps provocation is well-justified and his character completion is near-perfect. For him, its the sheer helplessness, and frustration that we emote.

Picking up an unusually strong element of chaos the screenwriters exploit the theme to full potential by demonstrating it in varied, interesting hues. Also added in a beautifully plausible fashion is the comedic feature that is more situational than deliberate.
But above all, Pitobash Tripathys city cheapster, wannabe cool act deserves all the shining glory. He is so terrifically convincing, you beg for more of his screen-presence.
Watch out for a scene in the lavatory of a shady bar, wherein he is torturing an unsuspecting person for a previous rivalry.

The makers show immense intelligence as one of the stories of Abhay is chronicled through the 7 day Ganesh festival, with completion metaphorically reaching at the time of visarjan. Classic.
As the film comes to a pulsating termination, you are beguiled, and maddened, muted and awed by the unraveling chaos, as Tusshar Kanti Rays camera invades into the unseen or say the, overlooked sights of the city, and how exceptionally well are the three stories knitted into one frenzied lot.
Dialogues bear a charming authenticity; they are more like conversations of real people clandestinely tapped.

Thus, rest assured that Raj-Krishnas Shor in the City robotically registers itself in Indian cinemas history. Many thanks; you guys have elevated our filmy standards to mounting heights. And Ekta Kapoor, you are a woman of paradox, you make us cry on the idiot box, whereas those cries are converted into spells of disbelief as you financially aid in charting out historic, cinematic delicacies. There, take a bow.

And all you, you dont have one plausible reason to safely skip this one. Thatd be tragedic to say the least.
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