It is at a male beauty pageant that we meet Mohan (Ashish Bisht), a greenhorn with big dreams of making it to the top, and one of the principle characters of Shab. He stands in front of a mirror practising his speech as he tucks his chin in to accentuate the jaw line, giving him the look of a dandy.
When asked what his best quality is, he quips – “my smile”. Well it is! The most endearing and innocent smile, which sadly he gets robbed of as he tries to wrap his mind around the dizzying fakeness around him.
Mohan is soon rechristened Afzar, meaning the gifted one. Sonal Modi (Raveena Tandon), a bored wife of a high profile businessman takes a fancy to him and promises him some lucrative modelling offers for being her boy toy. Wide eyed Mohan slowly settles into the rhythm of his new life, albeit with question marks .
How far would one go to fulfil ones dreams ? That's the question almost all characters in the film must answer for themselves, be it for love or for a living. Neil (Areesz Gaanji) grapples with his attachment for his boyfriend who abandons him to get married; Raina (Arpita Chatterjee) who leads a dual life to provide for herself and her younger sister; and Sonal, who must keep up the facade of a happy marriage.
There is a story in here and Onir's characteristic style of unobtrusively recording the lives of his characters, even renders it with a lyrical quality.
But the narrative moves on in a lumbering manner. The back and forth between the characters is brusque and patchy, and even with a run time of 108 minutes, it seems like forever before it makes its point.
The fragility of relationships, however, and the silences that punctuate it, get beautifully portrayed by the performances. Raveena Tandon is solid and so is Areesz Gaanji, who is a pleasure to watch as the well-meaning cafe owner, Neil. Ashish Bisht is effective enough as a small town boy with big dreams . Arpita Chatterjee does what she can with a badly fleshed-out character and terrible wigs. And while Sanjay Suri, who is one of the producers, has a cameo appearance, his brother Raj Suri is a promising addition as designer Rohan.
Most of the scenes in the movie take place at night or in dimly lit rooms and cafes , doffing their hat to the title Shab, which means night. It's an interesting premise about what we are and how we want the world to view us . But the light at the end of this dark tunnel takes a while to reach us and isn't as satisfying as we would want it to be.
I give it 2.5 Quints out of 5.
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