The entire story of ‘Shor’ happens over a span of just 11 days. Yet the film seems somewhat stretched, sporadically slow and remains silent on storytelling for its major runtime, until it makes substantial noise in its penultimate moments.
NRI Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy) has just shifted base in Mumbai but is traumatised by frequent extortion threats. Sawan (Sundeep Kishan), an aspiring cricketer, is in desperate need of big money to bribe the selection committee. Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor) is into the bootlegging business and yet honest enough to make genuine ‘copies’ of bestsellers.
His friends, small-time crooks Ramesh (Nikhil Dwivedi) and Mandook (Pitobash), stumble upon a bag of arms which, directly or indirectly, changes each of their lives irreversibly. The major problem with the film is that it takes a little too long to come to the point. The establishment of the character-conflicts is prolonged, till late in the second half. By then you are well-acquainted with their problems so the buildup just seems unnecessary, making the narrative monotonous to an extent.
Sendhil Ramamurthy’s plot seems straight out of a 90s potboiler and never goes beyond being a regular revenge drama. Sundeep Kishan’s track gets repetitive. The ethical improvement of Tusshar Kapoor driven by his half-baked romance with wife (Radhika Apte) goes completely tangent to the central plot. Lessons on Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist by his wife change his perception in life. And come to think of it, he never knew she was literate.
Having said that, the film has a smart and subtle sense of humour and scenes are never over-amplified through sound or edit effects. The bomb explosion scene, in the first half, has its hilarious and thrilling moments.
Despite having three individual tracks, the storytelling is neither episodic nor hyperlinked and remains unconnected till the climax. In fact, the climactic bank robbery is able to connect only two tracks while Sendhil’s story remains detached with the entire event. But at the larger picture, the film is not merely about how the characters are correlated through an event but how the city of Mumbai (which is a central character per se) changes the lives of each irrevocably.
By the end, the ways of the city compel the right guy to take the wrong path, the wrong guys to take the right, while the incorrigible continue to remain irreparable. The beauty of the film essentially lies in its smartly handled climax. Abhay seeks vengeance, Tilak gains redemption, Sawan gets fortunate, Ramesh’s life shifts tracks and the baddies get a taste of their own medicine. Like the city, the film has its ups and downs. But ‘Shor’ undoubtedly is a sound cinema. Worth a watch!
Shor in the City
