Monsoon Shootout

About the film

Monsoon Shootout is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir action thriller film written and directed by Amit Kumar and produced by Guneet Monga, Trevor Ingma, Martijn de Grunt, and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, and Vivek Rangachari, starring Vijay Varma, Geetanjali Thapa, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Tannishtha Chatterjee in the lead roles. The film received positive reviews at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in the Official Midnight Screenings section. Belonging to the school of Parallel cinema, Monsoon Shootout was released worldwide four years later on 15 December 2017 to positive reviews.

Plot

As the raging monsoon lashes Mumbai, the commercial and mafia capital of India, the police struggle to keep up with the gangsters who are ever more emboldened. Aditya “Adi”, a principled rookie cop as his first assignment on the force, joins an elite, anti-extortion unit of the Mumbai police led by Khan, a cop in the ‘Dirty Harry’ mold. On his first evening on the job, Adi had planned to meet his ex-lover Anu and to get back with her, but he misses the date when Khan has set up an ambush for a dreaded gangster.

However, the ambush goes wrong, and Adi chases Shiva, a seemingly armed and dangerous criminal, into a dead-end alley. Unsure if Shiva is, indeed, the wanted gangster, Adi has a moment of reckoning; whether to shoot or not to shoot. Whatever his decision is, every decision will take him on a journey that pits him against a system which demands a compromise of his morals. As he lives through the dramatic consequences of each decision, he realizes that every choice has its price.

Production and development

Director Amit Kumar stated that after he saw Robert Enrico's Oscar-winning short film An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, he became interested and fascinated by the idea of human decision-making, and how quickly can one make a very difficult decision when one's life is at stake. This idea came to fruition in the form of Monsoon Shootout.

Kumar had previously assisted film director Asif Kapadia on his BAFTA-winning feature The Warrior where he met Trevor Ingman. Ingman decided to help seek finances for Kumar's film starting in 2008, but was unable to do so because of the closure of the UK Film Council which was initially supposed to cover half the production costs. Kumar set sights to find an Indian production partner, and in 2010, he ran into Guneet Monga who had produced Michael Winterbottom's Trishna. When Kumar stated his lack of an Indian producer, Monga immediately jumped at the opportunity to fund the film. However, the producers decided that although they loved Kumar's script and idea, they felt he needed to cast a star in the lead role. Kumar worked with Nawazuddin Siddiqui in his student short film The Bypass and decided to cast him in the lead role.

Reception

The Times of India's Lasyapriya Sundaram rated the film 3/5, praising the cinematography of Rajeev Ravi and Vijay Varma's debut performance in a lead role. She opines that "while the idea hooks the viewer, what fails the film is its execution", also critiquing that "since the actors reprise their roles thrice over, they often don't have enough screen time to flesh out their characters adequately".

Saibal Chatterjee writing in NDTV headlines the review saying, "Nawazuddin Siddiqui's Noir Thriller Is Absorbing, Even Startling". He describes the film as "Shot through with stylistic flourishes and narrative sleights that frequently add up to arresting images and moments, first-time director Amit Kumar's niftily crafted Monsoon Shootout is absorbing, even startling. The propulsive, crisply edited noir thriller set in Mumbai's dark, dank and dangerous underbelly is consistently intriguing on account of its structure. Add to this the film's all-around technical finesse and the near-flawless performances from the principal actors and you have a crime drama that has the feel of a veritable tour de force." He praises the score by Gingger Shankar, defining it as pulsating with the energy that adds a throbbing soundscape to the film. Rating it as 3/5, he recommends the film to viewers saying "Don't prevaricate or duck for cover. Walk right into the path of this slickly staged shootout. You won't regret the decision."

Shalini Langer writing in The Indian Express, finds the film somewhat lacking in consistency but overall praises the director, actors and especially the cinematographer Rajeev Ravi for capturing the unglamorous side of Mumbai in all its ambiguity.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released by Saregama Music.

Key details