Movie Reviews: Sankat City

By Taran Adarsh, July 10, 2009 - 10:09 IST

Sometimes, big things come in small sizes...

SANKAT CITY may not boast of stars to lure the audiences, it may not have a colossal canvas [on the contrary, the making is very basic], it may not have a terrific musical score to act as a hook [there are hardly any songs here], but SANKAT CITY succeeds, and succeeds largely, in its endeavour: Make the viewer laugh at the right places.

One walks in with zilch expectations [the promos don't do justice to the product], but when you make an exit from the audi, it's with the feeling that the 2 hours were well spent.

Write your own movie review of Sankat City Comedies, today, can be segregated into two categories -- Brain-dead entertainers and intelligent comedies. Films like JAANE BHI DO YAARO, BHEJA FRY and SANKAT CITY fall in the latter category.

Let's be honest. Not all of us can think whacky or come up with a crazy madcap comedy like SANKAT CITY. It requires a wild and imaginative mind to come up with one and most importantly, execute it with panache. Debutante director Pankaj Advani gets its right on both the counts. Sure, there are glitches in the narrative, but Advani compels you to sit and listen to the story he intends narrating.

Final word? Don't give SANKAT CITY a miss just because the film doesn't star the Khans or Kumars. This 'City' is worth a visit!

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?

It takes time to get a hang of things, but once the characters and their traits are introduced at the very outset, the goings-on become one joyride. The assorted characters and the way they are integrated in the storyline, as also the way they're inter-connected, makes the film stand out.

If the first hour is akin to a roller coaster ride that you enjoy to the optimum, it's the middle of the second half that bothers you. That's because things stagnate and even get monotonous for a few minutes, before the climax strikes again.

SANKAT CITY is more like a relay. One incident leads to another, so on and so forth and it keeps you involved and entertained for most parts. But the most stunning sequence is reserved in the pre-climax when a bulldozer runs over a bagful of currency. A brilliant sequence!

SANKAT CITY is embellished with super performances by each and every member of its cast. Anupam Kher [terrific], Kay Kay Menon [excellent], Rimi Sen [first-class], Dilip Prabhawalkar [splendid], Chunky Pandey [very good], Manoj Pahwa [effective], Yashpal Sharma [first-rate], Hemant Pandey [perfect], Rahul Dev [good], Virendra Saxena [wonderful], Srivallabh Vyas [nice], Sanjay Mishra [decent]… every actor deserves praise. It's as if the roles were tailor-made for them.

On the whole, SANKAT CITY is a small little gem that deserves a watch. Yes, there's a bombardment of new films week after week and chances are that this film may get sidetracked thanks to the invasion of biggies, with the multiplexes sidelining it to embrace the biggies. But here's a request to all cine lovers and also multiplexes, from this writer. Give this one a chance. Let's nurture it well, so that genuine efforts like SANKAT CITY don't go unnoticed.

*** 1/2

https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/review/13667/index.html

Promo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKyl4HLPOWM

Rating: 3.5

Falling in the same genre of crime-comedy capers like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or the more recent Hindi film 99 , Sankat City is a dark comedy with all grey characters in the city of Mumbai. Not really a roller-coaster ride, this one is more of a merry-go-round drive with several characters circularly connected to each other through multiple money rotations. Thankfully it's not slapstick but follows a crazy-yet-credible storyline.

Guru (Kay Kay Menon) is a small-time car-thief who gets a facelift to his stolen automobiles through Ganpat (Dilip Prabhavalkar) before selling them off. On stealing a swanky Mercedes, Guru chances upon a crore of rupees in the vehicle but little does he know that the car belongs to Faujdar (Anupam Kher). Before he could return the riches to Faujdar, Ganpat loses his memory. Only he knows where the currency is concealed.

With only 3 days to return the money, Guru stumbles upon Mona (Rimmi), his ex-partner in crime. Together they plan a new con, win a couple of crores and continue to lose, gain, gamble the moolah through frequent twists and turns in the plot.

There are too many characters, too many plots, too many sub-plots, too many twists which fortunately sums up for too much fun. Multiple characters are introduced in the initial reels and are concurrently correlated with other characters. The writing by Pankaj Advani is wacky, witty, weird and wild. The pacing is too fast to breathe, gasp, feel, absorb, react or relate. Despite that the humour never gets farcical and the screenplay doesn't muddle up into confusion and commotion.

Bollywood formulas like the memory loss syndrome or estranged childhood brothers reuniting after years are employed to spoofy effect over conventional clichs. One doesn't mind the continual coincidences in the narrative as long as it keeps the story kicking ahead. Cinematography by Chirantan Das aptly captures the hasty and troubled mood of the Mumbai city with a grainy effect in several frames. Ranjit Barot's musical score is thankfully restricted only to the background and the screenplay mercifully doesn't branch out to any romantic track. The Rimi-Kay Kay chemistry doesn't incline towards a blatant love liaison, which could have diluted the proceedings.

Debutante director Pankaj Advani emerges as a good storyteller and manages to bind you with his multiple character-driven plot and multi-dimensional narrative. By the end, you realize that every character is integrally interlinked to the story and exploited effectively. The south Indian item number spoof is hilarious.

Kay Kay Menon is absolutely comfortable with comedy and his spontaneity adds to his natural act. Rimmi neither gets too saucy nor too bubbly like usual Bollywood con-women. Smoothly switching her speech from Hindi to an impromptu Bengali, Rimmi is perfectly poised in her act. Also Anupam Kher's negative role is neither characterized as a complete comic caricature or an intense villain. He is a more credible character, somewhere in between the two and restores his hissing accent from Amitabh Bachchan's Hum . Thankfully you are saved from Chunky Pandey's hamming since his character is terminated quite early and the duplicate emerges pretty late. Amongst the other characters, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Yashpal Sharma, Manoj Pahwa and Virendra Saxena are effective.

Do visit Sankat City for some unadulterated entertainment.

https://movies.indiatimes.com/Reviews/Bollywood/Sankat-City-Movie-Review/moviereview/4757387.cms

Sankat City is Mumbai, maximum city filtered and distilled via its minimum people. In one of the sharpest scenes from Pankaj Advani's zippy, kooky comedy, a tattered king of the landfills points to mountains of rubbish heaps — that one is Goregaon, and that is Versova. And then a tractor runs over a money-filled tote, spilling thousand rupee notes into the noxious air — the smell of money mixes with the smell of garbage. That is Mumbai's smell, and spirit, and the director nails it.

It's tempting to compare Advani's first released film (his brilliant debut feature Urf Professor is still sadly languishing unseen; several of the actors in that one are present here) with Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Kundan Shah's towering black comedy that redefined the genre: there's a corrupt builder here too, and all sorts of other dodgy types. Sankat City stands on its own, even if it reminds you of Ek Chalis Ki Last Local and Johnny Gaddar: its characters are people on the margins, all scrambling to survive, and a vein of gleeful amorality runs through it.

Guru (Kay Kay) steals cars. Ganpat (Dilip Prabhavalkar) re-models them. Sharafat (Shri Vallabh Vyas) sells them. Mona (Rimi) is a girl on the make. Sikandar Khan (Chunky) is an actor who says "Inshaallah" (do we know anybody like that?) and looks at himself in the mirror a lot.

The one that binds them all is mobster-cum-money lender Faujdar (Anupam Kher) who fills his atmospheric villain's den with a muscle-bound bodyguard, a boy-lovin' saffron-'dhari' religious guru (Veerendra Saxena), a cowed-down driver (Hemant Pandey), a going-for-broke producer (Manoj Pahwa), a lusty businessman who goes by the name of Gogi Kuckreja (Yashpal) and a contract killer called Suleman Supari (Rahul Dev). This parade of pariahs crisscrosses paths and wits over a few days, and delivers unto us a film that is laugh-out-loud funny.

Only in a couple of patches does the pace flatten. But the rest is rapidfire action. Advani and his cast are clearly having a blast — keep an eye and ear out for Bollywood jokes, nods to the retro badmovie classics of the 80s. Rimi, the Bangla-spewing vixen with a softer side, is a revelation. And Anupam, channeling his Shimla roots, is absolutely first rate. Everyone else is very good too, except a curiously inert Chunky.

The smartest thing about the film is that it manages to get the tone just right — not too low-brow, nor too arty. Sankat City is a caper with brains, a rare combo. Grab it.

Shubhra Gupta

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090711/1251/ten-movie-review-sankat-city.html

Sankat City: Go enjoy the ride

Rating: 3.5 out of 5*

Guru (Kay Kay Menon) is a car thief whose partner in crime is a garage owner Ganpat (Dilip Prabhawalkar). Fouzdar (Kher), an underworld don sends his driver to deliver Rs. 1 crore cash to deliver it to filmmaker Gogi (Manoj Pahwa). But Guru ends up stealing this car and is over the moon on finding the cash bag inside. But before Guru could savor the money, he is caught by Fouzdar. When Fouzdar sends his henchman Lovely (Jehangir Khan) along with Guru to get back his money hidden in garage, Lovely unintentionally ends up hurting Ganpat's head. Since Ganpat before that had hidden the money at a different place it gets crazier since Ganpat now has lost his memory with the assault on his head. Now Guru is given three days by Fouzdar to get back his money or else face death. Guru then chances upon his old partner in crime Mona (Rimi) and both join hands. What helluva crazy ride it all leads as Guru goes on to get Rs. 1 crore forms the rest of the plot.

The film's biggest assets are the zany humour and also the acting by each and every actor. Pankaj Advani's narrative style is terrific and keeps you engaged throughout. It is good debut by the filmmaker. While the first half breezes quickly, the second gets a little slow but however the film picks up well during the climax. Amongst the most hilarious scenes are Anupam Kher's sequences with a nervous wreck builder played by Yashpal Sharma, Kay Kay and Ganpat's friendly banter, Kay Kay and Rimi's theft at Yashpal Sharma's flat and Kay Kay's taxi ride with a Sardar taxi driver who is hunting for his lost brother. Ranjit Barot's background music is impressive.

Kay Kay is simply superb while Rimi gives her best performance till date. Her constant Bengali banter is cute. Anupam Kher is top class. Chunky Pandey in a double role is hilariously good. Manoj Pahwa, Yashpal Sharma, Sanjay Mishra, Hemant Pandey, Virendra Saxena and Sunita Rajwar lend able support. Rahul Dev in a short role of a hit man impresses.

Sankat City is a must watch for all those complaining to see something different yet full of fun.

-Sampurn Media

http://buzz7.com/entertainment/sankat-city-movie-review.html

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The plot of this comedy revolves around the character of Guru (KK Menon), who is a small time thief, and Faujdaar(Anupam Kher), who is a gangster and a loan shark. All the other characters come and go in accordance with the need of these two main protagonists.

Guru steals a Mercedes car, without knowing the fact that it belonged to Faujdaar, and gives it to his friend and garage owner Ganpat (Dilip Prabhawalkar) to do its makeover, so that he could sell it to some other customer. This had always been the case and they ran their small time illegal business in this way only.

However, this time Guru and Ganpat were in for a surprise as they discover Rs one crore in the car under covers. They could not believe their eyes and began daydreaming about the money and what it could buy for them.

However, when Guru went to Suleman Supari (Rahul Dev) to sell the car, he recognizes it and tells Guru about the real owner. He also informs Faujdaar about the theft. Now, Guru, fearing for his life, tells the truth and wants to return money to the gangster. Faujdaar sends his henchman with Guru to fetch the money.

But unfortunately, Ganpat meets with an accident and loses his memory. As only Ganpat knows where the money was in the garage, Guru feels the heat from Faujdaar, who gives him only three days to return money or lose life.

A dejected Guru meets Mona (Rimi Sen), who was once his accomplice in a crime, but had disappeared with the booty without giving him any share. She wants him to join her in robbing a small time builder Pachisia (Yashpal Sharma).

What happens afterwards to Guru, if he will be able to return money and save his life forms rest of the story.

Kay Kay Menon, who plays the lead role of a car thief Guru in the film, is superb in essaying the character. It seems that it has become almost a habit with him to give excellent performances, whether it is in front of Big B in 'Sarkar' or in the presence of veteran Anupam Kher, as is the case with this flick. His bumbling character of a thief, who shivers at the threat of a gangster, adds comic value to the whole venture.

Similarly, Anupam Kher, who essays the part of Gangster Faujdaar in the flick, comes out with flying colors. Every gesticulation of his proves him to be on the top of the heap. His range of facial expressions shows mastery of the craft.

Rimi Sen, who is Mona, the accomplice and street smart con woman, plays her character to perfection. Her dress sense fully complements her acting, which is definitely top notch.

Dilip Prabhawalkar, who plays the character of forgetful Ganpat, the mechanic and the garage owner as also the partner in crime with Kay Kay Menon, successfully induces laughter in his sequences. Others like Chunky Pandey, Rahul Dev, Manoj Pahwa, Yashpal Sharma, etc, have also lived up to the expectations and provided good support to the main cast of the film.

The direction of debutant Pankaj Advani is up to the mark. The director should be appreciated for his effort in stitching such a narrative together in a film and forcing the audiences to sit throughout without boredom. His most important achievement is that he was able to extract best performance from each of his cast members, as if they were tailor made for the role.

Though the film takes the audience to a roller coaster ride in the first half, it falters in the second half. However, the narrative gains momentum once again before pre -climax, where a bulldozer is shown to be ramming in to the car load of currencies. Music is just passable and nothing great about that. Other production values are average.

On the whole, 'Sankat City' is an entertaining comedy made for the discerning classes, who had earlier loved 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaron' and Vinay Pathak's flick 'Bheja Fry'. The film has more scope at the multiplexes of big cities than at smaller centers and single screen theaters, where the types of Akshay Kumar's no- brainer like 'Singh Is Kinng' rule the roost.

Source: Stardust

https://www.gobollywood.com/2009/07/sankat-city-movie-review.html

If you are one of those who know how to enjoy dark comedies, then 'Sankat City; is surely the movie for you. Rather than the slapstick comedy scenes, it has the humor subtly interwoven in the story itself. One of the main strengths of the movies is its storyline that, though it seems to be quite crazy, is still credible. The movie has too many characters, numerous plots, even more sub-plots and lots of twists. However, none of them take away the fun of watching it, rather many-a-times, they add to the overall entertainment.

In the initial stages, too many characters are introduced in the movie. However, as the plot progresses, each one of them finds a meaningful relation with the overall plot. While the script is wild, wacky and weirdly convincing, the screenplay is just perfect. You never ever find the movie lacking in pace and even the use of clichs (memory loss and reunion of brothers estranged since childhood) manages to give a spoofy effect. The track between Kay Kay and Rimi has been spared from the typical 'love story' conversion.

The direction is simply superb, while the cinematography correctly captures the spirit of Mumbai. As for the performances, Kay Kay is just brilliant, while Anupam Kher shows his excellence as an actor once again. Rimi Sen played the part of the con-woman perfectly, avoiding the super-hot or bubbly girl routine. Dilip Prabhawalkar, with his memory loss stunt, surely adds to the overall humor. As for all the other supporting actors, none of them gave us a reason to complain. All in all, this movie will give you no 'sankat' and is surely worth a dekko.

After the hard-hitting 'New York' and the utterly romantic 'Kambakht Ishq', are you ready for a dose of humor? If yes, then hold on to your seats, lest you end up rolling down in laughter, and be ready for 'Sankat City'. Directed by Pankaj Advani, the movie has been produced by 'Seven Entertainment'. The music for the film has been provided by Ranjit Barot, while the lyricist duo comprises of Panchhi Jalonvi and Mehboob. The release date for this comedy flick has been fixed as 10th July 2009.

The star cast of 'Sankat City' includes Anupam Kher, Kay Kay Menon, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Rimii Sen, Chunkey Pandey, Rahul Dev and Yashpal Sharma, along with Manoj Pahwa, Hemant Pandey, Sanjay Mishra, Virendra Saxena, Sri Vallabh Vyas, Kurush Deboo, Gurpal Singh, Jahangir Khan and Sunita Rajwar. Its story revolves around two guys - Guru (KK Menon) and Ganpat (Dilip Prabhawalkar), who are partners in crime. The former is a smalltime car thief, while the latter runs a decrepit garage.

The cars that are stolen by Guru get a makeover from Ganpat and the two manage to sell them at a reasonable profit. One fine day, Guru manages to lay his hands on a Mercedes, unattended and parked outside a brothel. He steals the car and takes it to Ganpat's garage. While working on it, they discover that it contains one crore rupees, in cash. Exhilarated at this sudden turn of events, in their favor, they start dreaming in the day itself. What they do not know yet is that the car belongs to a fierce gangster called Faujdaar (Anupam Kher).

After giving it a makeover, Guru tries to sell the stolen Mercedes to Suleman Supari (Rahul Dev). A hitman, Suleman instantly identifies it as Faujdaar's stolen Mercedes and informs him about the same. After knowing the truth about the owner of the car, Guru gets scared for his life and reveals that the money has been hidden in Ganpat's garage. As Lovely, Faujdaar's henchman, and Guru reach the garage, to get the money, they get to know that Ganpat has been involved in an accident and is suffering from a temporary loss of memory.

Ganpat is the one who hid the money and with his memory being lost, Guru fails to find it. Faujdaar, resentful of Guru, decides to knock him out. However, the latter pleads for his life and manages to get a grace period of 3 days, from the former, to get the money. Just when he is about to lose all hopes, Guru comes across Mona (Rimi Sen). She is a con woman, who ditched Guru after teaming with him in a smalltime con job, a few years back, and ran away with all the money that came from the successful heist.

Mona is trying to befool a builder, Pachisia (Yashpal Sharma), for loads of money and is in desperate need of a partner. Guru, also in desperate need - of money, agrees to team up with her. Finally, they manage to get the money. However, in a strange quirk of fate, they end up losing it. As the story moves ahead and the twosome try to recover the money, numerous hilarious situations follow. What will happen now? Will Guru be able to get the money and save himself from Faujdaar? What will happen to Ganpat and his memory? Will Mona deceive Guru yet again? Will the 'sankat' (problems) of the three get over in this 'city'?

Rating: 3.5

https://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/sankat-city-5217.html

This sankat is worth risking.

Rating: 3 on 5

Sankat City is a roller-coaster ride all the way. The minute you think the pace is going slack, something hilarious happens that makes you change your mind. This sankat is worth risking.

The plot is quite convoluted to write but easy to understand when you watch it. There is a film producer (Manoj Pahwa), a down and out actor and his duplicate (Chunky Pandey), a bombshell crook Mona (Rimi), a car crook (Kay Kay) and his whacko uncle (Dilip Prabhavlkar) , a gangster (Anupam Kher), his driver (Hemant Pandey), a Guru ala Baba Ramdev (Veerendra Saxena) and a few crore rupess involved.

Sankat City is an independent flick that explores the underbelly of Mumbai, the nexus between Bollywood and the underworld, the importance of luck by chance, right timing and how one stray event that you think cannot affect you, alters your life. It's about how everything is inter-connected.

The characters are colourful and well-etched. Kay Kay is fascinated by fish and treats them like his children. Anupam Kher's gangster character has a funny dialect. Baba Ramdev keeps his love for men and meat in the closet (How ironical given the real Baba Ramdev's recent stance on homosexuality). Kay Kay's uncle can only sleep under a jittery jeep in his rundown garage. The Ganpatrao character is a tribute to Paresh Rawal's Baburao act in Hera Pheri. The whole jing-bang of mad people seem to have been hired for his film.


Kay Kay shines in his role of quick thinking car thief who is quite a softie. Is there any character that he cannot play brilliantly?
Rimi fits the role of your-clever-and-manipulative-girl-next-door-with-a-heart. It's similar to what she did in Johnny Gaddaar, where she was the only heroine but her acting is better in this film.She has a role.

Anupam Kher is intimidating enough. Manoj Pahwa, Sanjay Mishra, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Chunky Pandey, Yashpal Sharma and Veerendra Saxena enact their parts well in this bumbling comedy. If Khosla Ka Ghosla made sense, this is way up with that.

The film is a clever, situational comedy, not mindless slapstick trash. Sankat City doesn't have fancy production values yet the production design of a jazzy bar, a run down garage, a down-and-out producer's office is authentic enough. They have even shot at a garbage dump. It takes you to the shady side of the city that you normally wouldn't visit.


Pankaj Advani's debut film is entertaining. The guy wrote Kabhie Haan Kabhie Naa and he surely has a knack for dialogue-based comedy. It would be interesting to see what he comes up with next. This comic caper is total timepass and a rainy afternoon well spent.

Go for it, and try not to take a 'shortcut' to Sankat City.

http://www.indya.com/news/newsDetails.aspx?xfile=2009/July/News_20090710_50

Sankat City opened to a poor 10-15%, the reports are okay but remains to be seen if the film can actually pick up at the box office over the weekend.

http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=1012&nCat=box_office_report