Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

samitbabu I watched "Shanghai" yesterday and it is a decent Indianized adaptation of "Z" by Costa Gavraswhich had far reaching consequences in the real world. You can read the real life implications in my other review of the classic itself.Good acting from Deol and Emraan Haashmi carried the movie all over. There were some dramatics hrown in for Indianing the story but that goes with our taste and spirit. Same for a couple of songs and an Item number, to make it commercially viable.Mr Banerjee adapting from the Costa Gavras movie after 40 long years probably proves once again that a classic is "timeless". It is good that he did pay homage to the original during the name casting which some very well known directors sometimes miss so sorely ; example SLB when he made "Black" from "The Miracle"..

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.

ragmayur Right from the beginning of Indian cinema, Bengali directors have been phenomenal in contributing spellbound movies to Hindi cinema. Dibakar Banerjee (Khosla ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Oye, Love sex aur dhoka) continues this legacy, and Shangai is the latest evidence for that. From the casting to the performances to the story to the bg-score to the dialogues, everything scores full marks for this political thriller, set in the contemporary India.The story begins with a preplanned accident of Dr. Ahmedi (Prosenjit Chaterjee) , a political activist, who raises voice against a leading political party which is trying to encroach the slum area of Bharatnagar. Rest of the movie is about gathering the evidence about this by his student (Kalki koelchin), with the help of Jogi, (Emraan Hashmi), a porn movie maker. Meanwhile, T.A.Krishnan, a bureaucrat (Abhay Deol), is brought in to the case, to investigate in the favor of the political party. Do the circumstances and the system in the contemporary India, will be successful in doing any justice? forms the climax.What I liked: Story Abhay Deol as a south Indian doesn't speak like the way usually a Tamilian is shown in Hindi cinema. No forced accent Emraan Hashmi performs naturally as the rustic guy (He should take a break from the Bhatt camp and act in movies like these) Pitobash was extremely good as the gullible youth of Bharatnagar A very realistic approach for such a themeWhat I did not like: Affair between Dr.Ahmedi and Shalini was unnecessary. It did not make any sense to the story.

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.