Sankat City: Love in Underwar
I watched Sankat City at the premier show on 8th July. The brief account of my experience, accompanied by few poor quality celebrity pictures can be read here.
What I did not mention there, is that I was sitting beside Aamir Bashir (the other cop with Jimmy Shergil in A Wednesday) and Anurag Kashyap few seats away on the same row. Anupam Kher stood on the aisle and started clapping when the movie started.
I wanted my family to see it, so I wanted to have a second viewing. I was disappointed to find out the movie was not running at Fame or Cinemax near our place. Only PVR (Oberoi Mall, Goregaon) had a single show at 10:30 pm at night and the newly built Braodway (Borivali) had 11:30 Pm had at Movietime Multiplex. At The Hub, Goregaon, seats were only available at the first and second row from the screen! I was happy that the house is full, but my happiness was short-lived when I learnt that the screen # 7 has only 6 rows! Out of 42 odd seats only 2 were empty when the show started. The film was screened on a digital print through UFO movies, the quality of which was poorer than PVR.
Sankat City is a black comedy based on idiosyncratic charters of the crime underbelly of a thronging megapolis, directed by Pankaj Advani. Quoting the Director’s own words “Sankat City is a wild roller coaster romp through the underbelly of a teeming metropolis, featuring an assortment of zany characters ………….desperate men and women shadowboxing with the vagaries of chance and fate, whose madcap antics result in their lives getting inextricably entwined with each other, leading to madness and mayhem.” [ Source Link]
As I consider myself smarter than other reviewers, I will not waste typing characters to explain the plot. Please refer the Bubble Diagram below to get an idea of the same (note: I am an Architect and an Architect always believes in visual communication than anything else, the more complicated it is, the better). A note of caution to the sharp and observant readers- the diagram reveals plot spoilers. Decipher at your own risk.
The Forced Farce of Clichés
As you must gave figured now, the characters bump into each other, crosses each others path and confronts each other with a twist in the tale at every scene. The movie moves fast with all incidences supported by logic and continuity. Kinda Guy Ritchie/ Tarantino stuff with a complete desi flavour. This is a movie built on movie clichés. People leave their car keys on the car, brothers don the same locket till they meet each other, bags with cash get exchanged, the rich are conned in a jiffy, people lose and gain their yaardasht with accidents and death is a loud and hilarious celebration – all for the sake of ‘entertainment’.
But Sankat City is not just a film-farce piggy back ride formulae . It showcases the inhabitant’s subtle and surreal dreams and despairs represented magnificently through chewing gums, bubble gums, fishes and garbage. Love for fishes are so powerful that Guru dreams of a mermaid, sitting on a mountain of garbage he pokes the moon bubblegum and darkness sets in. A downtrodden driver gives supari for his boss, to reclaim his love for a dhandewali. Sankat City captures the subterranean flow of love and life amidst filth and dirt, underneath the jazzy surface of a metro. It’s zany yet logical, it’s black but sensual.
Mind you, Sankat City is like rough and unpolished Shahbad stone comedy than a fake Italian marble (Cash, Golmaal Returns, Kambaqt Ishq and the likes). So it’s not brittle and slick but hard, bold and multipurpose.
The film is shot in 16 mm instead of 35 mm which creates a grainy picture quality adding grittiness to the already rough visual journey. I have learnt, the entire movie was shot in 60 days in various locations from shady nightclubs, dingy bars, hospital, dilapidated garage, one room kholi and garbage dumpyard. The sets are absolutely convincingly real- especially the garage. The typical Mumbai essence is retained through precise detailing- the fare of Best bus to the amount of fine to be paid to retreive towed away vehicles.
Humour and Performance
The humour of the movie varies from slapstick to tounge-in-cheek and at places simply side spilltingly hilarious, all you need to pick up the gems from the numerous antics of the characters, at the right moment. Manoj Pahwa and Yashpal Sharma enacts an excellent partnership to deliver some brilliantly funny moment. I especially loved the hospital sequence where Gogi describes the condition of the ‘body’ of Sikandar Khan over phone, in front of his family members. Real dark humour. Kay Kay appears in a complete different avatar from what we have seen him doing. At places his shots/ dialouges are stretched a bit long. Coupled with ostentatious Rimi the duo delivers some fine moments. Rimi uses pure Bengali expletives from humble goru to the grade of shuorer bachcha and other phrases which is a bonus for viewers who understands the language. Unfortunately those can’t be translated without sacrificing the fun. But the show stealing performance is from Anupam Kher, who is a treat to watch in every scene he appears on screen. Watch out for the dance number with a southie dynamite- can only be done by Anupam Kher. Chunkey Pande was louder than required (in all sense till his end) as Sikander and was grotesquely comic as Sheshaiyya. Like he used the term- kirkiri of a performance, whatever it means. All other supporting actors are notable for their respective roles, but Jehangir Khan needs a special mention as Lovely the heavy handed sidekick. A brilliant character portrayal with perfect jat lingo and looks.
God is in the Details
There are humongous detailing on the film which adds to the humour quotient. Some of my observations
• A poster of Gone in 60 seconds at Guru’s home.
• The printed Bermudas of Faujdaar.
• The printed shirts of Fillip Fattu.
• The Jimmy Hendrix get-up of Guru.
• Use of bubble gum to convey feelings.
• Deliberate usage of beaten to death cliché’s.
• Ganpat’s memory loss antics and the ‘Main kaun chhe mujhe khabar ba thi’ lullaby.
• The pose of Guruji in the huge frame in Faujdaar’s office
• Gogi’s female secretary’s body language (reminded me of a girl seen in a B film long ago)
• King of the garbage land (reminded me the ganglord of car junkyard in Barb Wire)
The film does stumble and jump at places at the story telling/ editing front, and it’s difficult to keep track of the fast happenings at certain places, but the characters and the humour make it up so Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron.The bgm is jarringly loud except for that sarararara part for the softer scenes with Rimi. The jazz number in the bar and the choreography is trendy (in similar treatment of No Smoking and Twilight Players of Dev D). The fast camera pans over mumbai skyline were a bit painful to eyes in the UFO print version.
The film has a U/A rating and clean to take children along. The couple of sexual innuendos are subtle and there’s no skin show, except for the Swamiji’s bath scene with Fillip.
Enjoy this underbelly dance with Sankat City. Go watch it with family.
Tags: 16mm film, Anupam Kher, bubble diagram, dark, Dark comedy, Dilip Prabhawalkar, farce, Kay Kay Menon, Manoj Pahwa, Pankaj Advani, Rimi Sen, Sankat City, Satire, underground, Yashpal Sharma
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
Your diagram is killer! I cant believe you drew it without the script in hand and of course with just a first time go at the film. Awesome! This is Passion For Cinema in the truest sense!
Actually I drew it after the second viewing. Thanks 8)
Great Bubble Diagram.. wow..
A direct compliment from AK.
:angel: I feel hallowed……
After seeing this film, I realized how difficult it must have been for you to draw this bubble diagram.Uh : You’re so bang on with the homages and the stone analogy you brought out is near perfect. Gogi’s visiting card was awesome :-)
I know why some people had extreme reactions on this movie; those “it was not that great” kinds. I was immediately reminded of Tarantino’s Grindhouse. People had similar reactions. Pankaj has done exactly that to this film. It’s such an incredible piece of post-modern work. I don’t know of any Indian film that has gone down to offer such homage to Indigenous pastiche. Right from the name, poster, background score(80s western pop to 80s dishum dishum films) , each character, the twists and even the sudden voice-visual mismatches and jump cuts that I guess were deliberate ( Homage to some 80s Hindi films) The people returned with smiles on their faces. Its intelligent craziness in the film that is so unique. I don’t know if the joker character in the bar was homage to Ledger or La Strada. By the way, check out the posters on the walls of Gogi’s office. Awesome homage to the exploitation genre! In Masand’s lingo, I give this movie a thumbs up or better so in Adarsh bhai’s; over all this movie is hilarious and will do earth shattering business. Uh-oh I started giving homage now to these critics. Look what you’ve done Pankaj :-)
I am yet to see Grindhouse/ Deathproof but I can understand your viewpoint. I did notice the posters @ Gigi’s office ‘ Gunmaster Gagan’ ROFL stuff ! I also loved the Sikandar Khan’s sepia tinted shooting scene. The final passionate ‘bhalobasi’ dialouge from Kay Kay was brilliantly expressed.
The nada vs elastic in underwear reminded me of the ‘nada knot’ scene from Om Darbadar.
Thanks for the revisit and the detailed comment. Hoping a post from Pankaj soon.
Cheers!
haathi toh main nahi!
yeh post padne ke baad main.
udtah hu main sahi!!
kamaal ka post and absolutely zanny bubble diagram.
Story boarding ko goli maaro – abhi story bubbling shuru karo yaaron!!
congrats on a great post.
Thanks Jaiganesh !
Bubbles to show relationship is a fundamental tool in complex creations. I just noticed i have missed the Savera Hotel bubble….so it has room for improvement !
Cheers!
Awesome bubble diagram man… cool review!!! And the new look of PFC is also awesome!!!
I am loving the new look too. Do watch the movie
great man, the diagram was good.
have to watch this movie, umfortunately, as you mentioned the show timings are at unearthly hours, that is mission impossible to catch this movie, especailly when you have a bod boss like who belives that i should stay in office till ten in night.
The showtimings and limited release is everyone’s complaint. I have learnt that the movie is not showing anywhere at Navi Mumbai at all !
@ uh- jhakass diagram my friend.Saw the movie yesterday & even I noticed most of things observed by you.It was a film which was truly entertaining and in good humour.Hope the shows get increased and more primetime shows are available to enable more people to go for it.
Yeah, the greatest Sankat in the City now is show timings
@UdtaHaathi – Nice writeup Dude….it was nice catching up with you on the premier. Hope you remember me (oh come on, we exchanged the V-cards)
The diagram is awesoooome…it seems very confusing, but if you have seen the movie, it will be a quick reminder in one shot.
Cheers !!
Ashu Bhai MAPRM wale
Iski maa ka! Looks like everyone except me at PFC went to the premiere!
Its’ not easy to forget scented warriors ;-)
Though I wonder what MAPRM stands for…….
The idea is, those who has seen the movie once, the diagram would help them recall the plot, thanks for vouching that. Those who haven’t, should be curious to se it ;-)
Amazing diagram !!
Love the analogy.. Sankat city is rough stone not polished Italian marble.
Few to add in ur details list :
1. Rapidex English speaking course book at KK’s house
2. Moviw posters at Gogi’s place has hillarious caption lie “baal baal bach gayi” :P
2. The king of Garbage also remind of the the mad guy in Cinema Paradiso.. when the theater in the town was broke.. he screams.. “This Square is mine”
Just one point I am little disagree with… that chunkey pandey wasn’t good.. agreed he was loud.. but i guess thats what he meant for..
Thanks for adding the little gems!
Did you recall the dynamite song ” DJ Dj…..” ?
I found sheshaiyya to be better than Sikander. In this movie is tough to guess what’s deliberate and what’s not
waiting to watch the movie..the theater closest to baltimore has suddently started playing only big star cast movies..like Kabakhqt and New york..
Only few weeks ago I was wondering how they made money out having 20 people come on the release date.. too bad they caught on to the thought too..
Anyway, once I watch this movie I will come and verify your diagram
You are welcome
I will wait for you find the flaws !
@Uh – sirji, bubble diagram mein yeh Monty kaun hai?
Jokes apart, badhiya diagram hai, solid kaam kiya hai, though I must confess maine abtak theek se dekha naheen hai. Dimaag abhi bhi itna cluttered hai ki the moment I try to figure out the diagram, my head starts spinning. Thanks boss for taking out the time to make it. Review reads well too. Enjoyed reading your premiere blog as well.
Look whos talking !
I forgot the name of the guy who taught Ganpat the ‘ Main kaun chhoo…’ song with a bedpan, so used ‘Monty’, I was thinking someone would correct me.
Dimaag abhi bhi itna cluttered hai ki the moment I try to figure out the diagram, my head starts spinning.
See? A bubble diagram never fails to impress
Thanks for the compliments.
Looking forward for more from you
Uh, that was Johnny.
aah…thanks Ashu !
readers- Please read Johny in place of Monty in the diagram.