Shor in the City

Plot

The film revolves around five central characters in the city of Mumbai. Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor) is a small-time publisher of unlicensed books who along with his friends Mandook (Pitobash Tripathy) and Ramesh (Nikhil Dwivedi) kidnaps a famous author and forces him to give the manuscript of his latest book to them so that they will be the first ones to publish it. Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is a NRI who returns to India to start his own small business and meets Shalmili (Preeti Desai). Sawan (Sundeep Kishan) is a young cricketer hoping to break into the under-22 Mumbai cricket team. The story focuses on their trials and tribulations as they battle life in the city of Mumbai during the chaotic period of the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi.

The film tries to deal with concepts of chance, the constant struggle between hope and despair and self-actualization. The opening of the movie starts with the song "Karma is a bitch" which fits in with the central theme of the story where the characters of the film keep trying to come to terms with their own actions. Abhay has a dark past which is not revealed in the film but it can be speculated that he came to India to stay away from it. Tilak initially holds himself responsible for the injury of the child due to bomb explosion that happens in the movie which brings him closer to his wife and viewing life from a different perspective. The goons who traumatized Abhay eventually end up being shot by their own bullets on the day of Ganesha Visarjan. Tilak gets a new life and finds his treasure at home. Sawan gives up the money he finds at the bank robbery and instead focuses on improving his game for cricket selections and gets support from Sejal(Sawan's partner)too. Ramesh is seen applying for jobs and Mandook protesting at a rally. Towards the end of the movie all characters move on different paths.

Cast

Production

Shor in the City was made on a small budget of 30 million and a further 27.5 million on P&A, with total investment coming to around 60 million. Trade analysts estimated that around 50% of this will be recovered from non-theatrical revenue but as always it is the theatrical revenue that decides a film's fate at the box office. Balaji Motion Pictures, head of distribution and acquisition Girish Johar says "We gave Shor in the City a tight release of around 500 screens across the country and the film found appreciation. It grossed around 38.5 million in just 4 days and adding the revenue from non-theatrical rights, the whole investment on the film has been more than recovered."

Critical response

The film was well received by critics. Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India awarded it four stars out of five and stated "With a zany screenplay (Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK), excellent cinematography by Tushar Kanti Ray and peppy music by Sachin-Jigar, Shor in the City is another breaking-norm film from Ekta Kapoor". Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it three and a half stars and wrote "Shor in the City belongs to one of those rare categories of movies with sensibilities that would not only entice the festival crowd and the cinema literate, but also lure the ardent moviegoer." Aniruddha Guha of the Daily News and Analysis gave it three stars and said "Shor in the City is the kind of reassuring film you yearn to watch amid, well, what 'Bollywood' has to offer every week. Also, it articulates something you have only probably thought before – 'Karma IS a bitch.'" Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN awarded three and a half stars saying "A delicious mix of quirky humor, gruesome violence, and surprising sensitivity, Shor in the City works on the strength of its smart script and consistent performances from its ensemble cast." Rediff awarded the film four stars and said "Raj-Krishna's Shor in the City robotically registers itself in Indian cinema's history." Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave the movie four stars and wrote "Shor in the City is a terrific film. It’s surprising and disturbing and has a vein of rich, dark humor coursing through it." Shubhra Gupta of the Indian Express gave it a three star rating and commented "What makes Shor in the City an instant clutter-breaker is its darkly comic treatment. It makes you smile because its humour comes from within. It’s not grafted. And it’s got heart : we feel for the characters." Tushar Joshi of MiD DAY gave it a four star rating and wrote "Loaded with humor, sarcasm and wit. That truly is the beauty of the makers who succeed in arresting you with their tales. The spectacular climax is easily one of the best written in recent times." Karan Anshuman of Mumbai Mirror gave it a four star rating, saying "Three stories, eleven days, myriad layers, believable characters, fine performances, spirited direction, taut script, momentary explosions of originality."

Boxoffice

Shor in the City nett. grossed ₹43.9 million (US$680,000) in India. Shor in the City also opened poorly at around 10–15% in 475 cinemas(500 screens) in India. It was estimated that the film has advantage of low costs which should be recovered but theatrical business may not be much.

Awards

Shor in the City was officially selected for the Pusan International Film Festival and the Dubai International Film Festival in 2010. The film won the Best Director Award for Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK at MIAAC in New York.

Soundtrack

The songs are composed by Sachin-Jigar and Harpeet. Two songs from Harpreet were taken from his Sufi compilation called Teri Justujoo released by Sony in 2008. Lyrics are penned by Sameer and Priya Panchal. Shor in the City Soundtrack Tops The Charts in few days. The song Karma Is a Bitch is influenced from Ida Maria's Bad Karma.