Review : ‘Main kaun choon…’- Lost (and loving it) in Sankat City
I cannot write reviews – I am constitutionally incapable of writing them. We have a very visceral approach to movies, both me and Kamayani. We like them on a very human level, irrespective of technique and craft, and we are extremely hard to please. Most of the blockbusters and biggies from Bollywood and Hollywood as well as ‘world cinema’ in the recent few years have left us cold and unimpressed.
I think the last hindi film we both instantly and viscerally liked was ‘Oye Lucky…’ – that’s a film I have recommended highly to everyone I know.
Now I can add one more to that list.
One line review of ‘Sankat City’ – WATCH IT PEOPLE!
Drop everything you are doing, gag your friends who want to go watch a YRF or Dharma or whatever movie instead, kidnap your loved one if they are put off by the (lack of) promotion that the film is getting, or because it does not have a Ranbir or Deepika in it – and WATCH IT.
This is probably the funniest, zaniest, craziest film I have seen in a long, long, long time. The story and pacing reminded me of Terry Southern, the way it was set-up and the way the characters are drawn (ref. ‘Blue Movie’, the sickest, funniest novel I’ve ever read, by Mr. Southern who was the writer on some of Kubrick’s movies, most famously ‘Dr. Strangelove’.). It’s an INSANE ride, and you better be on it if you call yourself a cinema-lover.
Some of the characters are SO incredibly well drawn and nuanced, I accosted Mr. Advani during the interval and asked him to put out the script on PFC once the film got released. He has to – we’ll learn so much from it. It has to be a tremendous screenplay to pull off the things it does on screen.
This is probably the only time in a hindi film that I’ve seen so many tracks thrown at the audience and each and every one has a satisfactory conclusion. The easy part is throwing all those balls in the air, every juggler will tell you. Even juggling them and keeping them in the air is not that hard. The hardest part is getting them back without dropping them and killing the act. Mr. Advani excels at that, giving an almost perfect ending to the goings on he unleashes at us.
In one word – HOWLARIOUS. This is the movie you have to watch if you are feeling down. I can assure you Dilip Prabhawalkar’s – oh, sorry, I told Mr. Advani I wouldn’t reveal much and write a review so you all, just go and watch it:)
It’s not your classic caper or your tasteless Priyadarshan shriek-fest. Almost every single hindi film cliché thrown and then turned on its head and so effortlessly and so smartly, I simply had to ask the director (despite my being his junior) ‘where were you all these years?’ ! So you’ll find your classic villians and their henchmen but their characters have such incredibly funny and interesting nuances you can’t help but laugh out loud and admire the skill of the screenplay and the dialogues.
The surprise of the film for me was Kay Kay. He’s spot-on, measured in his comic timing and most importantly – it was so nice to see him in a non-serious role. He should do these more often, he has a great charm going that he does not show in his other roles (though he could go easy on the ‘Maan gaye Mughal-e-azam’s I think ;) )
We saw the preview a couple of days ago, but I always think one should wait for a day or two, see if there is still an impression of the film after that and review or talk about it. We’re already in the ‘weekend trap’ where the audience your film gets in the first 3 days is what counts…the fallout of this is the strange phenomenon where a crappy movie that gets an opening is suddenly called great even by reviewers because they are all going along with the euphoria of the audience and the number of people who are talking about it in that hot zone of Friday to Sunday.
I think we should wait until a Monday to get a review out. And I’m happy to say, I woke up today laughing at a scene, humming what a character sings in it:
‘Main kaun choon…mane khabar nathi…mari mummy kaun chhe, mara daddy kaun chhe…’.
Also, laughing at the scene when he says ‘Two small sardarjis’.
And when a Hyderabadi instantly starts speaking Punjabi.
And when the babaji talks about his ‘bachpan ka pyaar’…
And…
Oh, I’m giving too much out.
Go and watch it.
‘Sankat City’ will put a BIG smile on your face. For days to come 
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Wow…who told you are not good at reviews…a dig here, a dig there all at the right places…
so the ‘big wait’ starts…for the release of this one….
Everyone reading this in PFC recently, who have got the hang of Mr.Advani’s ways and feel its right to evangelize a good film…try and email this article to your friends…
Such small innovative films where marketing budget is very less needs us audience to play ‘virus’…lets infect ‘Sankat City’ bug on the sleeping bollywood audience who will inevitably be persuaded by every other media channel to a big banner movie, as much as possible…maybe this will be the start of a new chapter in audience involvement in making good cinema a success….
great to see the first review (without revealing much), kind of deja vu too reminding of Dev D when the uncut version review was out….
I have a suggestion..can the title be changed so that review word is included..so that google search shows it up as first link…
By the when is Sankat city releasing??
July 10th as per the latest info.
Conflicting dates in different websites… Pankaj in one of the sites..said its on July 3rd and in Bollywood hungama it says 10th…
Somebody confirm?
Nikhil man o man ,3 bows to you.
How come you write so beautifully.
Will catch this movie when it releases.
Had already decided long long ago to watch this.And Nikhil your post only confirms my faith in the movie.Badiya hai.badiya!!!
awesome review. if all goes well, am watchin it wid ‘pfc bbay gang’ & am so excited after reading this post that i m already feeling that the ‘travel travails’ worth the buck n effort. waah waah! humming main kaun choon! ROFL!
amazingly nuanced “review”. i want to know abt the thread of dilip prabhawalkar…
whn r guys in bby watching it? i want to b there wid PFC-gang. magik, any ideas? need any help in organising? it will b worth the effort.
its 10th of july. confirmed.
more sankat door karo
O palan haare!!
Mujhe Sankat City ka Ticket do
O palan haare!!!
Is it releasing in US?…I hope it is like 99…they released in few screens…
just as sethu said…i had decided already; only waiting for the release…
thanx for raising the curiosity level
Brilliant:) Movie and review both:) Oh and dont miss the driver…unconditional love and all:P
Is it written by Pankaj Advani himself or what????
For me, it was Swamiji all the way… and of course Anupam Kher, after a long time I felt that Anupam “was” enjoying a role he was portraying on screen.
KK and Nikhil both have recommended strongly. ABhi to kuch jugaar karke dekhenge movie. Maybe friday evening after work (and telling biwi I have lots of work in office)
Where was this screening and when ? Wish I could watch such movies with the Director himself ( appranetly he sounds to be a cool dude though his posts).
Liked the juggling simile.
Mr. V. – Kamayani boli brilliant review! Glad you liked the film. Driver bole to Fillip Fattu. I think Hemant Pandey has played him really well.
@UH – tum kahaan ho?
Terrific madcap and occassionally surreal. Loved it. Will watch it again with audience and buy Moserbaer dvd too. Every actor fab and fun…though yes.. if i had to pick a favourite….it would be….
You tell me first.
Hi Oz, have you seen Badthi ka naam Daadi? Am sure you have. Looking for a dvd. Remember as kid, forcing my imandar dad to take me for it. Poor chap must have wondered about the boy:)
@Sriram, yes I have
The Main kaun choon reminded me of Kishore Kumar from that movie 
… to all – Anyone have a DVD of Badti ka Naam Daadi or know where one can get it, please let us know. 
@Magik #8 – what’s ‘pfc bbay gang’? Bhai kaun? Hafta kisko deneka?
.
@ Pankaj- Mumbai Saar, Mumbai. Aap jahan main bhi wahan. I hope you remember your promise about Urf professor too.
.
Am looking for Badti ka Naam Daadi too. ( Just an idea- why can’t PFC get hold of a Moser Baer guy in here to blog ?
Found a VCD for Rs 94/- for BKND online. Not sure about the availability though.
Badti Ka naam Dadhi was a great fun.
-Atleast 5 characters played by Kishore Kumar and above all film inside the film was certainly a great idea.
- KK and IS Johar were proven kings of comedy but Amit Kumar’s cynical cowboy was a surprise element and biggest surprise was Kishore Kumar’s decision to cast KN Singh in the role of Khadak Singh and KN Singh, known for his villainous roles which he used to play in his typical manner, lived his comical shaded character in such a way as if he had always been doing comedy in the past. And who could have imagined that KN Singh would get Kishore Kumar’s voice to sing a song on screen. There must be some interesting stories behind the selection of KN Singh in this comedy role.
-All songs looked so good on screen and gelled properly with the subject.
-Rolly Polly young Bappi Lahri singing Ye jawani din chaar was also another surprise.
-Hoon kaun choo mane khabar na thee, mhare daddy kaun…., was a fantastic slogan type song and ISJ and his stooges sang it well.
-and that fight between two gangs of women.
-Kishore Kumar and gang wearing scottish skirts and playing instruments in forest.
So many good things were there in the film.
Film definitely suggests about good directorial skills of Kishore Kumar.
After DOOR GAGAN KI CHHANV MEIN, BKND was another favourable witness in the honor of multi talented personality of Kishore Kumar.
well i hv vcd of kishore kumar’s great underground classic “badhti ka naam dadhi”
ofcourse an all time fav….. spend lot of time enjoying the particular song in discussion “hoon kaun che…mane khabar nathi”
which is used in sankat city. we use to sing it in our theatre workshop.
well i hv vcd of kishore kumar’s great underground classic “badhti ka naam dadhi”
ofcourse an all time fav….. spend lot of time enjoying the particular song in discussion “hoon kaun che…mane khabar nathi”
which is used in sankat city. we use to sing it in our theater workshop.
Oh Badhti ka Naam Daadhi!!!! “Pulisa, Pulisa!!!” (Police, Police scream by a Hippie firangan ;) )
Unfortunately when I imitate this scream in front of friends, no one but my father can understand it.
Will wait for Sankat City!! May this be our own Pulp Fiction!!
@Oz – I think MoserBaer has that DVD or VCD at worst.
Badhti ka naam daadhi is a gr8 film.
hope ‘hoon kaun chhon’ in sankat city has done justice to it..
Tejas is right. I bought a Satya Moserbaer CD for my collection. Could see only half the movie. CD got stuck. Threw it away. Pirated CDs will run the whole course!
@Nikhil – wondering if you saw the film again with the junta at a mumbai theatre.