It’s OK not to have too many expectations from “Shor in the City” — I know I didn’t. After all, it doesn’t have a great star cast, there hasn’t been too much buzz around it and except for the music (the lilting ‘Saibo’ number especially), the promos didn’t really stick in your mind.
The movie, however, is a whole other story. This is a smart film — one that hooks you from the get-go and doesn’t let up. Co-directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D K are sure of their craft and confident in their script and it shows.
The film follows several characters through the course of eleven days in Mumbai during the Ganesh festival. Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor), a small time printer who deals in pirated books, Sawan, a cricketer, whose ticket to the future depends on bribing a selector and Abhay, (Sendhil Ramamurthy) who returns to India from the United States, hoping to set up a business in Mumbai, are all part of the canvas of the film.
To reveal any more would be to spoil the fun of this snappy film. The pace is fast, and the dialogues are everyday lingo, but they have a spark to them. Also, full marks for the stellar ensemble performance the directors extract from their actors.
Of special note are performances by Pitobash and Radhika Apte (who also makes an appearance in another of this week’s releases “I Am”), who play Tilak’s friend and wife respectively.
Also, in spite of the fact that the characters seem so unrelated to each other at first, the directors tie up the threads beautifully at the end, intertwining their lives with just the right amount of coincidence, so that it doesn’t jar.
I recommend you watch this film, it is unlikely you will leave the theatre disappointed.
