Review - Sankat City: has funky citizens & strange ways

Sankat City - a metropolitan that's a metaphor for human nature. Each of us has a lot of evil in us but at the core there's goodness. And incidentally it’s the metro and its environment that is known to make us the people we are. And yet the film starts of well and some time after midpoint loses the way, becomes repetitive, and boring. It also becomes a tad too loud. Also spoofing old Hindi films is done too often in the recent past that it doesn't impress.

Some of the directorial decisions are impressive though. They took a huge risk by choosing the grainy texture that gives the feel of a film from the 70s-80s and it worked big time. It makes the film stand out from the glitzy, crisp images we are used to. It fascinated me through to the end of the film.

A montage of interesting, weird characters is weaved together. It is fun to see the way through the labyrinth. Because weird becomes bizarre - yes it's possible. And in a very fun sort-of a way. Unfortunately, stretch it a little too long and you have lost me - which happens here in the last 30-45 minutes.

But there are a few good performers to keep it sailing through. The casting of the lead actors was near perfect. Choose Kay Kay Menon for any role and he works, so no doubts there. Rimi Sen is Hindi films' best lady-crook. She has mastered the smirk, the know-it-all look, and the "Damn! Why do I get confused? I'm a bad girl, why do I have these good-good feelings?" expression. Another impressive performance was that of Dilip Prabhawalkar. Though exaggerated he did come across as the poor old man who needed to be taken care of. I'm a fence-sitter as far as Anupam Kher is concerned. I always look forward to his films but just can't handle it when he goes in the slapsticky mode. And here a huge chunk of his role was slapstick. The rest of the cast were too exaggerated and spoof-Bollywood types for me to enjoy them.

That's the thing with Bollywood-parodies these days. With the intention of reminding us of yesteryears or Bolly's follies, they do exactly the same things that annoy in the actual films. And here's the circle that I'm tiring of. A typical comedy Hindi film is slapstick or a chain of implausible events. A spoof of that will have to be the same - only more exaggerated. So, imagine exaggeration being exaggerated. Doesn’t make me laugh, doesn't make me clap.

Yes, the concept is dark, comic and wacky. Full points to that. I wish it was subtle and retained interest till the end too.