SANKAT CITY
Sassy, raw & witty, an undeniably funny roller coster ride
by Vishal Verma

A Moser Baer Entertainment Ltd.
Presentation of A Seven Star Entertainment Ltd. Production

Producer : Anubhav Sinha
Director : Pankaj Advani (debut)
Story/Writers : Anubhav Sinha & Pankaj Advani
Genre : action – comedy
Target audience : General

Starring

Kay Kay Menon...... Guru
Anupam Kher...... Faujdar
Rimi Sen...... Mona
Chunky Pandey...... Sikandar Khan (Dual role)
Dilip Prabhawalkar...... Ganpat
Rahul Dev...... Suleman Supari
Yashpal Sharma...... Pachisia
Hemant Pandey...... Filip fattu
Virendra Saxena...... Godman
Srivallabh Vyas...... Sharafat
Manoj Pahwa...... Gogi Kukreja
Sanjay Mishra...... Lingam
Sunita Rajwar...... Gulbadan
Gurpal Singh...... Harnam Singh
Kurush Deboo...... Bawa Jee
Jehangir Khan...... Lovely

Technical Analysis

Vankata, Ganpata any good cinema bhakhta will love this Sankata. Madness meets sassy humor in the slumbelly of Aamchi Mumbai for a crazy, raw, mad & sassy ‘Sankat City’ with KK, Anupam, Rimi & surprise surprise Chunky Pandey & others landing full support to this territory that was either misread or earlier helmers where clumsy to explore.

Pankaj Advani the writer who wrote the cute, funny & comical rom com Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa starring SRK & helmed by one of his mentors, the prolific Kundan Shah now shouts lights camera & action wearing the helmers cap woven straight from the likes of Aziz Mirza, Kundan Shah with an extra thread of Desai & John carpenter stitched in.

With KK & Rimi toplining in this caper which has a strong assortment of zany characters a car thief, a con woman, god man, film producer, gangster, a flop actor, his duplicate, a prostitute, a chauffeur etc. brilliant characterization plus the compliments from the actors who do true justice to the role backed by witty, raw humour makes ‘Sankat City’ a brash, jokey actioner a cut above the routine bollywood comedies.

Cleverly done in writing & narration, ‘Sankat City’ rawness with a ruse serves as the basis of much of the humor, which sometimes a bit lowbrow (gets away without causing any danger, where last week’s highly publicized rom com failed miserably) cause the idea was to entirely stuff and based it as comedy of confusion which works in its own cynical way.

Don,t look for an extra polish & foreign locales & technical wizardly but appreciate this new line of approach by the newbie who follows the rare tradition of ‘Ek Chalis Ki Last Local’ by Sanjay M. Khanduri which is not dark or black in the content but matches the feel. Throughout, the flick takes the audience to a roller coster ride punctuated by smart one-liners, con, confusion, madness, chases all staged with knowing panache by Pankaj Advani. Impudent humor are all present in abundance, just as anything like the God Man, Rajasthani Don & the crazy Mechanic with recognizable emotions & wit.

Other performance are also colourful like saxena as the God Man is howlarious, the veteran mechanic Dilip Prabhawalkar as Ganpat the crazy mechanic is superb. Yashpal Sharma as Pachisia & Hemant Pandey as Filip fattu also provide comical support.

Production values are good.
‘Sankat City’ gets 3 out of 5.
One for the idea & the execution
One for the madness
& one for performance & writing
The movie losses on technical wixardly & reach.

The Story

Guru (Kay Kay Menon) is a small-time car thief. Ganpat (Dilip Prabhawalkar), who owns a dilapidated garage, is his partner-in-crime. Guru robs cars and Ganpat gives them a make-over in order to sell them for tidy profits.

One night, Guru chances upon a swank Mercedes parked outside a brothel, unattended. He steals the car and takes it to Ganpat. While working on the car, they discover a sum of Rs. 1 crore in it. They are delirious with joy at the unexpected turn of events. Little do they know what's in store, for the car and the money belong to a gangster/loan shark called Faujdaar (Anupam Kher). What happens next?

Promotion

Inside & outside publicity has been interesting & is able to do the trick.
Media Awareness has been fair. Such movies benefit more from positive word of mouth & hopefully ‘Sankat City’ will be the one.

Business Analysis

With this week market colliding with multiple releases, and a muscular, high-concept natured ‘Transformers’ from Hollywood threatening for an action packed share. Audience for this clever caper will be less initially but given the raw, witty roller coaster fun, favourable reviews in press & positive word of mouth, this modest budget caper will definitely not shy away from the hearts of those who has seen & will defiantly attract more legs especially to the metros & provide a strong bargain point to Moser Baer for its satellite sales.

Other Credits

Executive Producer / Co-Producer: Vikash Arya, Maqbool Khan & Rupali Mehra.
Cassettes and CD's on Venus Records & Tapes. Lyricist:Panchhi Jalonvi & Mehboob. Music Director: Ranjit Barot. Background Music: Ranjit Barot. Cinematography: Chirantan Das. Choreography: Bhupendra. Action: Mehmood & Akbar Bakshi. Editor: Hemanti Sarkar. Sound: Arun Nambiar. Costume: Jerry Dsouza. Media Awareness: Anusha Naraad. Reviewed at Famous Studios on July 09, 2009. Running Time: 1 Hr. 55 minutes.

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