Shanghai is a deeply political film: Dibakar Banerjee

From Khosla ka Ghosla to Shanghai, Dibakar Banerjee is just four films old, yet bit by bit each of these films have contributed to his formidable reputation as one of the most distinct and relevant film makers of our times.

Shanghai, his latest film has got unanimously good reviews and it has even recovered its money but it hasn’t got people propelling it to greater heights. Dibakar Banerjee talks to CNBC-TV18’s Anuradha SenGupta about the destiny of his film and to talk about his growth as a film maker. SenGupta: Dibakar its good to have you on the show and this is one of the rare films where you have unanimous critical acclaim, isn’t it? Banerjee: And I am still alive. SenGupta: Ninety-five percent of critics have liked the film. Now the question is does critical acclaim translate into commercial success, to people walk-in in droves to see the film? Banerjee: Depends on who reads and which periodicals or which magazines are those critics speaking in and what's your target audience. Fortunately, and I almost criminally feel guilty saying this, my target audiences’, not really a secret, it’s mainly the urban audience. The urban critics and in this case very strangely the English speaking what we call the posh media critics and vernacular critics who have universally lapped the film up and that being the core target audience for films like mine, it really helped.
It really helped because on Friday, the film kind of opened slow as you would expect for a film like this. The moment the reviews appeared and the stars appeared or however you call it, Saturday collections went up by 35-40% and Sunday 35-40% further. SenGupta: Do you think you are getting good word of mouth on the film? Banerjee: I think so. SenGupta: You think you are getting good word of mouth but there I am not so sure because I have met some people or many people who felt, ok predictable story, we knew it, not a really a thriller, disorienting. Different reactions from different people, different demographics, so word of mouth has it been good for you, you think? Banerjee: Exactly the same as ‘LSD’ and ‘Oye Lucky’, exactly the same. SemGupta: So you’re used to it? Banerjee: For ‘LSD’ when people went in, I remember having almost the same conversation that people went in expecting an ‘Oye Lucky’ and they came out – those who went in expecting something else, or something that they had seen came out slightly disoriented and those who went in probably without any expectations came out quite rewarded.
Same thing with ‘Oye Lucky’. Now ‘Oye Lucky’ and ‘Khosla’ are clubbed together but when ‘Oye Lucky’ was released it was a big shock to the ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’ camp because they didn’t expect a film like ‘Oye Lucky’ would come, so I am used to this as well. I don’t know maybe it depends on the mouths that are speaking to me but the mouths that are speaking to me are saying that I probably have taken the next step. SenGupta: A lot of people are calling this a political film. I saw it just before doing this show and I don’t think it’s a political film because while the setting is a political story you aren’t taking a stand really. What does Dibakar feel about SEZs or about the kind of development where the government believes a certain kind of progress but it may not be what everybody understands? Banerjee: I disagree with you there. SenGupta: It’s a political film? Banerjee: It’s a very political film. The reason why I made this film was that most political films are about politicians in a family drama and the story itself and what the politicians do has got nothing to do with the politics, it’s got to do with how to survive, how to do this, how to do that.
I think Shanghai is about political beliefs. I think it has got some extremely committed people who really believe that what they believe is a mode of life. The chief minister believes in a certain brand of development. Farooq Sheikh’s character deeply believes in the chief minister. The last two lines are not about Farooq Sheikh or Kaul’s character acting smart as he does throughout the film. That is where you really see where his heart lies. He says - why are you doing this chief minster. SenGupta: She has a vision. Banerjee: She has a vision, she could be the Prime Minister tomorrow and we could be like China, why are you doing this. I think it’s a deeply political film and I don’t think that a film which has politics in it needs me to have a stance.