Things in Sankat City
Sankat City didn’t impress me that much but there were some small things that were used in the film that definitely caught my attention . Usually these small little ‘things’ tell you a lot about the director and the amount of thought he has put into the characters . I took a mental note of those things and here’s what I noticed :
Title Graphics : Pretty much similar to Johhny Gaddar and had the same concept of showing some scenes from the entire film with “Negative like effects” . Though I loved this concept while watching it in Johnny Gaddar , here they didn’t suit that much and served the only purpose of reminding of Johnny Gaddar’s title graphics .
Cheap Pens in Lingam’s Shirt pocket : I don’t know what they were trying to portray but there was a collection of colourful cheap ball pens in Lingam’s Shirt Pocket (The Assistant) . Sanjay Mishra did a fair bit of job with his acting for this character .
The Air India’s “Maharaja” Mascot statue : This iconic mascot which came into existence way back in 1946 is something that has been used at countless places as a “Welcome Sign” . One place where I’ve observed it a lot is at those Nukkad Barber Shops where it is painted with cheap red oil paint on the glass of the front door . This was an important thing in the film as the Maharaja was literally a maharaja with all the cash in himself .
The Rapidex English Speaking Book : This was there at Kay-Kay’s place in the film and it also reminded me of those ads on DD about the book and also how I along with my friends used to make fun of the English sentences given in the book as kids . There was a whole generation of Rapidex English speakers who said “Please don’t Drink Cigarette” as literal translation of “Cigarette Mat Piyo” 
Fishes : Well these were there in the entire film . Pankaj please explain the thought process behind this . Did they express something ?
An inflated tyre tube at Sharafat’s Shop : We’ve seen such tubes in many such shops and it was quite remarkable to notice such a small thing about such shops and put it on the sets .
A graffiti of 786 and Pakistani flag symbol of new moon and a star : Graffiti in India and that too at a Stolen Cars Shop ??? Now this was something in my opinion that was completely out of place . You don’t see graffiti in India at such places , at least I’ve not seen it .
A Pink coloured censor certificate at Gogi Arts International’s Office : Observe carefully and you might see it on the notice board of Gogi Arts office ; a pink colored Censor Board Adult film certificate put across like an achievement certificate . Nice one !
A Black and White Mugshot of Anupam Kher : I’ve seen such mugshots in the western films but I don’t think so they do such mugshots here in India . One more thing that was a bit out of place . Pankaj even I like these western mugshots and I think they should start taking these in India too in a similar fashion .
A red chola of Devi hanging in the Mercedes : Really hard to notice , but it portrays how people in all the wrong business are always much more into Gods and stuff rather than normal people .
A poster of Jazz Performance in the JHOOM Bar : I am not from Mumbai so I don’t know this , is there a Jazz club in Mumbai ?? If there is then please let me know ; I’d love to visit it . I guess this was more of a fascination of Director with Jazz and Jazz Clubs brought to Mumbai .
MTV VJ Mia : Though she is literally not a ‘thing’ but I certainly have a thing for her . What is with these MTV VJ’s , why they all like to do an Item Number in a bollywood film. She doesn’t even speak English in good accent and she was made to sing Hindi lyrics . I don’t know why they took her off air on MTV ; she was so funny with her bad Hindi and eye candy for sure .
A poster of Kranti outside Lala Lodge : I guess Pankaj likes the film Kranti so he puts a poster of it in the film .
A poster of Kaatil Machli : I don’t know if this is some B-grade film or not ; but once more something that had something to do with fishes . Though the title fits aptly for a hindi dubbed version of Jaws .
Gone in 60 seconds poster : This was there at Kay Kay’s place in the film , on which is hanging a bunch of car keys which he probably uses for stealing the cars .
Match Stick Box covers as posters : Weird as it may sound but I collected these different Match Box covers as a kid and had a huge collection of them which one day I threw away for no good reason There is a scene towards the end where Gogi , Phattu and Pachisia are peeing at a Toilet . And guess what there are posters even there ; these old match stick box covers made into a large sized posters .
These were the small little things that caught my attention in the film which disappointed on a whole especially coming from a man who has written screenplay for one of my and also SRK’s all time favourite film ;Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa .
Tags: Pankaj Advani, Sankat City
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
awesome observation dude… am sure pankaj sir would be more than happy to explain these quirks…. cheerz! and yeah, me have a thing for Miah ;-)
thanx bro .. I hope Pankaj Sir does … btw your avatar pic is nice.
not just jazz by the bay, blue frog etc all play jazz nights atleast once a week even more….
and i have seen graffitii even on stations in mumbai …atleast 3 of them….vashi, bandra and goregaon
dudes…its not a realistic film…and pankaj’s definitely not Ray
Whoever wrote this post, If you think you are so smart,there are other ways to prove it,Please dont write such pathetic posts and waste our time
I don’t get it …. whats so negative about my post … People are getting me wrong over here …. I never meant to demean anybody or anything … why would I want to show that I am smart …who am I compared to an already established film maker … My heartfelt apologies for anybody who gets offended by reading this post !! …. first of all let me clear this : I am not showing my smartness or any such thing .. I love to notice these small little things that catch my attention so I mentioned it in the post … And Pankaj Sir I want to make it clear before u also get me wrong that I am too small a person to say anything against you or ur film ..
@Abhay , Kashan and Sara : Sorry is all what I can say , I think you all got me wrong … I think I should have Raved a little more about these things that I noticed in the film to make you realize that I actually liked most of them ..but I thought that the mere fact, that I noticed these things , proves my point that I liked them …
Thanx abhay 4 lettin me know that Jazz Clubs are there in Mumbai so I guess I am wrong there …
I’ve also read it twice thrice and now I also realised why people are getting me wrong over here …let me explain my lines a bit more explicitly :
The place where I’ve written that these things show how much thought the director has put into the character ..I meant that in a positive way not in a mockish way … It was so Great of Pankaj to put these small little things …
GUYS PLEASE TAKE THE ENTIRE POST IN A POSITIVE WAY…MY WRITITNG IS A BIT FLAWED I GUESS ..BUT ONE THING IS CLEAR THAT IF I WOULD HAVE HATED THESE THINGS I WOULDN’T HAVE WASTED MY TIME WRITING ABOUT THEM … I LOVED MOST OF THEM… NOT ALL BUT MOST OF THEM
I think the fishes were there to show Kay Kay’s love for them which eventually plays an important role at the end when he is forced to eat fish. In fact, there’s even a scene earlier where, I think, Rimi makes some comments about eating fishes and Kay Kay just stares at her without responding.
The use of the Rapidex English book was nice.When you hear Kay Kay talk in english you can relate back and know where he is coming from
@saurabh
dont get me wrong either buddy…sorry if i sounded rude. seriously speaking, i dint like the film. i didnt particularly like the references either apart from the rapidex one (kk cud hav played that better). what i meant was that there doesnt need to be a jazz club in mumbai for it to be shown in sankat city. cinema shows us the director’s POV. u can debate whether that POV is portrayed correctly, logically lacking or just a great perspective…but at the end of it all, the director can come back and say, fcuk u, its my film.
saurabh ! grow up, whats the meaning of writing a post when you have to write more than the actual post to clarify it, we understand exactly what you wanted to write…
@Sudip: I guess u r right …I was expecting that Pankaj Sir might respond to my post but I guess he didn’t read it or maybe didn’t like it …
@Kashan: Thanx 4 replying .. Yep you are quite right that at the end of the day its Director’s POV .. and even I agree that KK could have done much better , much much better …we’ve seen him acting even better but still it was nice to see him do a lighter role for a change ..
@ saurabh
kk was the best in honeymoon travels. he can create magic on screen but i dont know why he doesnt do it often…more importantly, why dont directors realize his potential and use him fairly instead of stereotyping.
Hey i liked your post and your observations. You don’t have to sound apologetic for whatever you have written. It’s OK if guys don’t get along with your point of view.
@Kashan: Yep Honeymoon Pvt. was his best comic performance but I think he was great in both Black Friday and Sarkar …. Though Sarkar Raj was a bad movie in any case but I really missed Kay Kay in it .. He was also good in one of his early films “Chhal” …I still remember the title track of that film
@manish: thanks buddy .. I just felt bad that people mis-understood my post ;thats why I apologized …anyways , cheers!
havent seen chhal. must do so soon.
Good observations.I have pointed few of them in my review too. Most movie lovers would identify the obvious Gone in 60 Seconds poster etc. What is your thought about Kaykay’s make-up
Just to clarify collecting matchboxes/ cover is not weird – its called Phillumeny ( please do a google to know more), I also did it as a kid
I think most serious Directors are detail oriented and meticulous.
I meant Kay Kays garb as Jimmy Hendrix with red glasses ?
You can visit Blue Frog- it’s one of the world’s top 10 destination for contemporary indie Music scene.
Also one correction for a detail observer like you- The JHOOOM spelling has three Os and not two !
@Kashan: watch it its a really nice movie … the other guy in it is also goodapart from Kay Kay ..
@~uh~ : You’ve written a nice in-depth review .. I know collecting matchboxes is not weird but the way I collected them was definitely weird
The sad part though I didn’t keep it safe … Even I found that Jimmy Hendrix look of Kay Kay a bit weird and when I first saw it in the film the first thought that came to my mind about the look was “Where did this come from???” ..didn’t mention it in the post because it was for a really short time and also was a bit weird and unnecessary …. I love the way a film-maker can really go into the depths of the character with these fine little details … SLB is great with these details … I’ll definitely try to visit Blue Frog the next time I am in “Sankat City” ;) btw loved ur observation on Jhooom ….the word reminds me of the mental torture called Jhoom Barabar Jhoom 
I am sorry to say but i was sadly disappointed by SC. I mean after the hype and all I really expected it to be an exciting dark/intelligent comedy. Something bollywood is not really known for.
But this SC turned about to be the same, run of the mill, slapstick comedy. Watching it feels like taking a drink from the same putrid mix of desi comedy.