Take a bow, Dibakar!. Review on Shanghai

Leaving aside the fact that the film moves at an arguable pace, the film is a riveting yet subtle political drama. Even if the shock value that the film builds up to towards the end portions is predictable (you could smell it from a distance) it does make one sit up and notice, and does something that very few films of modern cinema can claim – making one think. Every character is etched out with panache and the attention to detail is exemplary.

Dibakar deserves a standing ovation, more than anything else, for how he strictly sticks to the kind of cinema he believes in, after being at the helm of three acclaimed films in a row. It is crystal clear the man knows his art well. And considering his ambitions with this venture, he has not only succeeded in showing what he intended to, but at several junctures he surpasses himself in how he executes certain sequences. He's only growing with his every film.

This is a film that employs minimal background score; the sounds that one hears constantly throughout are of the rallies and of the party workers, running water in a distant background in a dilapidated office building, high-decibel sounds of a microphone gone wrong and the like. When the background score is employed, it complements majestically with slow-mo scenes, lending the sequence a poetic sleight of hand. Banerjee’s unique and deft touches are evident in every frame, and it is remarkable to see how he doesn’t give in to dramatization just for the sake of commercial reasons. He knows what effect the film should carry, and on that note, it doesn’t, even for a moment, has an inconsistent tone that does injustice to its overall feel.

This, quite simply, is a film every film follower should watch, because even if its political undertones reflect incoherence on certain levels, that may well be discussed in length by those who consider cinema to be a powerful medium in representing sociopolitical issues. (One can smirk at how Dibakar is clever enough to name the city under question ‘Bharat Nagar’, an aptly titled one, even if the sarcasm is a little too obvious).

To summarize, it is not your idea of popcorn weekend entertainment, but one that has a lot in store for people who believe cinema to be much more than mere 'Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment!'......