Shor In The City is a compelling, delirious promo of Mumbai’s tapori world. Its concern is not with the usual — the quick-shooter or the slick holdup artist. Shor is in love with the endearing, idiot goonda whose gun may be pointed at another, but whose bullet will somehow turn and return to bite his own sorry arse.

There is the grotesque killing variety, of course, but the film is really about the slow coaches who didn’t make it to the big gangs — the Zoozoo taporis who don’t mean ill but are too stupid to avoid disaster.
Four Lions, did you say? Well, hmmm, ya, sure, inspired.
Shor’s story is made up of three swatches of life from the gallis of Mumbai, one more unique and interesting than the others.
Countdown to Ganesh Chaturthi has begun. Mumbai is going batty with noise and crowds, and in this madness, three men — Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor), Ramesh (Nikhil Dwivedi) and Mandook (Pitobash Tripathy) — kidnap one Chintan Gandhi. They are after the manuscript of his upcoming novel. Tilak, you see, has a thriving business that runs on a printing press, chotus at traffic signals, a keen eye for bestsellers and principles — his pirated copies don’t have missing pages.
In a brief scene we are also introduced to Tilak’s achingly adorable new wife, Sapna (Radhika Apte). Both are shy and haven’t made out yet.
Swatch number two is young Sawan (Sundeep Kishan), desperate to make it to the Mumbai junior cricket team, and his girlfriend Savi (Girija Oak). Savi’s parents insist that she meet prospective grooms, but Savi would rather go to Marine Drive and have Sawan chew her lips.
Swatch three is velvet — plush and a bit corny. Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy), an NRI hunk, has come to India to start a business. He has barely unpacked when local goons with menacing smiles (Zakir Hussain and Suresh Dubey) demand protection money — to protect Abhay from themselves. Else they will do bodily harm, to Abhay and to his slender girlfriend (Preeti Desai).
These three swatches are attached to one Tikku Bhaiyya (Amit Mistry) who runs a dharna gang — boys on bikes and in yellow T-shirts. He also organises other stuff, like finding a client for the guns and bomb that Ramesh and Mandook find in the bag they stole from a train.
All three stories progress fast, with goofy always in tow. Abhay, who has lost a staff member to the goons, pays extortion money. But a mysterious gash on his back tells us that the matter won’t rest here; Sawan figures that to get into the team and keep Savi from marrying someone else he has to pay a selector `10 lakhs. He discusses robbing his colony bank with Tikku; Tikku can’t find a client for the guns, so he decides to put them to good use by robbing the bank, without Savi. Ramesh and Mandook are willing, but Tikal has discovered the joys of married life and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. He tags along reluctantly, only for moral support.
It’s Ganesh Chaturthi and all hair-brained plans begin to unravel in the din of chanting crowds, with Ganeshji’s blessings. The film ends on a bizarre, very Balaji Productions note.

THERE IS freshness and kinetic energy in the direction of the Andhra duo, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK. Their Mumbai is humid, loud and slightly dippy. Shor's story is fantastic but since the directors tickle us all the way through, we go along rather happily. Their eye for the real-but-ridiculous, and their ploy to let the oddest but routine concerns and reactions butt in at the most inappropriate times makes their debut film credible and hysterical.
Shor’s narrative is neatly choreographed and is both quick and smart. Several scenes are little skits, constructed with love and performed by wriggly-wiggly characters with distracting quirks. Little Mandook, for example, has a lewd eye and is insanely attached to a machine gun. Shor’s weak spot is Abhay's story, though the goondas chasing him lend it some vigor. The film's main strength lies in its crisp dialogue and the assembly of crackling characters played by very talented actors. Music is pleasant, the song Saibo is especially nice.
Tusshar Kapoor is decent but tame. Radhika Apte is very sultry, very good and here to stay. Sendhil Ramamurthy is purple velvet and is drool-worthy when wrapped in a towel. Amit Mistry and Suresh Dubey are very good, but the star of the show is Pitobash Tripathy. His Mandook is a dingy guy whose vacant expressions followed by violent outbursts are fabulous. A fun watch till the next lot of Zoozoos come along.