TOI
On a candid note, Shanghai is a story that one has witnessed several times before in cinema. What makes it a decent watch then is Dibakar Banerjee's offbeat take on the subject and impeccable understanding of the milieu.
Adapted from Vasilis Vasilikos's novel 'Z' (which was even made into a French film by the same name in 1969), Shanghai is the story of a socialist professor and activist Ahmedi (Prosenjit Chatterjee) who is opposing an upcoming infrastructure project in Bharat Nagar that is backed by the ruling political party.
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ZeeNews
Dibakar Banerjee and his incisive take on Indian politics hits people below the belt, and hits hard, with the caustically cutting political thriller called ‘Shanghai’. The director has dived whole hog into the dirty game called politics, and has crafted to perfection a staggeringly brilliant offering. The flawless acting of the spectacular cast is another feather in the hat of the filmmaker; and with ‘Shanghai’, Banerjee has catapulted himself to the league of directors who enjoy an enviable status in the territory.
When Dr. Ahemadi (Prosenjit Chatterji) is brutally mowed down by a truck, the aftermath of the incident compels Bharatnagar to metamorphose into a boiling cauldron. While the overarching presence of the IBP (India Bane Pardes/ International Business Park) project provides the downtrodden of Bharatnagar with a glimpse of their much-anticipated Utopia, the ‘dengue, malaria’ that plagues ‘Bharat mata’ is a reality that the director has magically woven into the film.
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NDTV
Here at long last is a Hindi film that dares to defy the conventions of its chosen genre. Shanghai is a no-frills but searing political thriller that is under-wired with intelligence and nerve, both cinematic and ideological.
Set in a small town where politics, big business and the underworld are on the same side in an organized conspiracy to deceive an already dispossessed populace, Shanghai pushes mainstream Hindi cinema into the outer flanks of a zone that has traditionally been beyond the ken of those who make movies simply to make a quick killing.
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Average Rating- 4*
