Sankat City is great fun, to put it simply. But it is intelligent fun, the kind that speaks much without actually getting loud, though quite a few things are done over the top, perhaps deliberately, to poke fun at things that are intricate part of the Hindi potboiler narrative. The comedy is kind of zany and irreverent, even Kundan Shahesque in parts - nothing surprising in that, given the fact that Advani apprenticed with Shah.
It is actually tough to write about this kind of film without giving away the plotline. Let’s just say that it is about a small time car thief whose home prominently displays a Gone in 60 Seconds poster, his accomplice the old mechanic, a caricature of a mafia don, a con woman, a filmmaker saddled with a flop star who is over the top and is acting in “Gun Master Gagan”, the flop star’s duplicate, and sundry other characters. Characters who live in the underbelly of Mumbai, all in the game of chasing money.
And they do chase money, without knowing that all of them are unwittingly chasing the same money. And therein lies the madcap ride. And yes, there is a meteor too, which does not bring catastrophe to Mumbai like it did in Armageddon, but does play a crucial role in taking forward the storyline!
The film’s characters are set in a milieu somewhat like those in Johnny Gaddar (that is even if one discounts the common presence of Rimi Sen in both the films), but their characteristics are more like those in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. You will quite clearly identify the spoofs played on a few known film industry people and also a tribute to Hindi/Indian cinema’s great lost-in-Kumbh-Mela-reunited-20-years-later formula - paid in the most hilarious manner.
Advani has written and executed a film that in its fast-paced narrative talks about a section of people who are there, but invisible to us. Somewhat like Ek Chalis Ki Last Local did, though in a completely different style. The casting has been brilliant, with Kay Kay Menon for a change trying his hand at something that does not require him to ‘intense-fy’ the screen all the time. Anupam Kher relives his Chalbaaz/Hum kind of buffoon-villainy. Yashpal Sharma too gets to make an attempt at comedy, but somewhat unconvincingly though his role, like almost everyone else’s is quite completely written. Mumbai here looks tantalisingly different than many other films - you never get to see the landmarks that are almost-always there in films set in the city, and that’s quite refreshing. And yes, in an ultimate coincidence, a religious preacher is indicated to have gay tendencies, when in reality, another has petitioned the Supreme Court against decriminalising of homosexuality by the Delhi High Court.
Sankat City is confident filmmaking by Advani, without any apparent compromises made to his original vision. The background music (Ranjit Barot) suits the film’s mood to a T, and Chirantan Das’ camera makes the down and out locations become part of the narrative. Hemanti Sarkar particularly deserves kudos for the crisp pacing of the film. And not to forget the very 1970s visual designing, the kind we saw in Johnny Gaddar, starting from the opening credit sequence onwards. You won’t regret a visit to the theatres to watch this film that provides entertainment that does not degrade to buffoonery as we have seen in quite a few Hindi films in recent times.
