Movie Review – Shab by Suhel Johar

 

Shab Is An Exercise In Futility

Onir's Shab explores as well as gives some substantial and interesting observations about various relationships. However, the film only scratches the surface not delving deep into the lives of its characters thus, leaving the audience longing for more.

An ambitious model from a small town Dhanaulti, Mohan (Ashish Bisht) comes to Delhi to participate in a talent hunt contest. He meets Sonal Modi (Raveena Tandon), a fashion patron and socialite wife of a famous industrialist Vivek Modi (Sanjay Suri) who at first rejects Mohan on the ramp however later uses him sexually by offering him cash and a promise to introduce him to her fashion designers friends. She makes Mohan her boy-toy and changes his name to Azhar and introduces him to people as her personal trainer. Meanwhile Mohan or Azhar by chance meets Raina (Arpita Chatterjee) and loses his heart to her. Raina has her own issues to deal with from her mysterious past. Raina works as a waitress in a café owned by Neil (Areesz Ganddi) and falls for her French neighbor named Benoit (Simon Frenay), who teaches French. Neel is gay and suffers heartbreak after his boyfriend gets married to a woman. A former professor at a University in France, Benoit is gay too, and in the past, his student-cum-boyfriend has committed suicide. Raina introduces Benoit to Neel. The plot thickens! Lol. The plot actually gets wafer-thin!

Unlike his past movies as I Am, My Brother Nikhil and Bas Ek Pal, director Onir fails to impress with Shab. Known for making complex and intense stories on same-sex connections, Shab likewise has such characters, yet this time they all are candidly disengaged. The script of the film takes up a lower priority and makes the film barely watchable. The scenes in the film are, lame and predictable.

The film falters on two major points. Firstly, the narrative is not very strong and there are several times when you are bound to get confused. Just as too many cooks spoil the broth, too many complications make this film boring. Secondly, the film creates a suspense, several mysteries and makes the viewer impatient to find the answers. However  as the film nears its climax it goes nowhere, with most characters splitting up with each other rather than coming closer which would be the desired ending.

The only plus-point of the film is that it is non-judgmental, which is expected from Onir. But despite its 108-minute of run time it is listless, too tiresome and tortuous with all the unanswered questions and fence-sitting at the end, a complete waste of time.

In a recent write-up, Onir called himself a mainstream director who does not know why he is differently typecast. Now, that’s about the limit of wishful thinking!

Direction by Onir is uninspiring. Merle Kröger and Onir as the writers of the film are unable to work out a cohesive script. The lopsided script raises questions that are left unanswered. Cinematography by Sachin Krishn is impressive. Editing by Irene Dhar Malik and Onir is not up to the mark. Music by Mithoon is decent. Two songs O Saathi rendered by Arijit Singh and Awaari rendered by the composer himself are the pick of the lot. Background score by Shashwat Srivastava is effective. 

Performance wise, debutante Ashish Bisht fails to impress you with his act. Arpita Chatterjee does justice to her complex role. Raveena is good in this exhausting film however in odds and ends. Areesz, Simon Frenay, Raj Suri and Rohan Sud provide good support. Sanjay Suri in his cameo as Mr Modi is bad.

On the whole, if you can sit through boring films then Shab is just the kind of film you should watch.