‘Sankat City’: Preview

Directed by Pankaj Advani, Sankat City, to be released on June 26, brings into focus the underbelly of a teeming metropolis. The movie features an assortment of characters— a car thief, a con woman, gangster, film producer, builder, mechanic, prostitute, hit man, cabbie, actor, his duplicate etc. Desperate men and women shadowboxing with the vagaries of chance and fate, whose madcap antics result in their lives getting inextricably entwined with each other.

Money, murder, revenge, greed, fear, deceit and romance form the ingredients of this comic thriller.

Guru (KK Menon) is a smalltime car thief. Ganpat, who owns a dilapidated garage, is his partner-in-crime. Guru steals cars and Ganpat (Dilip Prabhawalkar) gives them a make-over in order to sell them for tidy profits.

One night, while returning to his kholi, Guru chances upon a swank Mercedes parked outside a brothel, unattended. He steals the car and takes it to Ganpat.  While working on the car they discover a sum of Rs. 1 crore in the boot. The duo gets delirious with joy at the unexpected turn of events and starts spinning dreams. Little do they know what lies in store— for the car and the money belong to the vicious gangster and loan shark Faujdaar (Anupam Kher).

Guru’s plans ricochet when he tries to sell the stolen Mercedes to Suleman Supari (Rahul Dev), a hitman, who recognizes the car and notifies his friend Faujdaar. Fearing for his life, Guru squeals that the moolah is in Ganpat’s garage. Faujdaar sends his henchman with Guru to retrieve the cash.

Unknown to them, the paranoid Ganpat has hidden the money in what he thinks is a safe place in his garage, because he’s afraid that thieves might rob him off the cash. By the time henchman Lovely and Guru reach the spot, Ganpat has met with an accident, which results in a temporary loss of memory.

Guru can’t find the money anywhere and he has no clue where the amnesic Ganpat has hidden it. A vengeful Faujdaar decides to bump off Guru, who pleads for his life and begs for a chance. The sadistic Faujdaar gives him a grace period of 3 days to cough up the dough.

With no hope in sight, a dejected Guru almost resigns himself to death, when he bumps into Mona, a con woman who had teamed up with him in a smalltime con job a few years back. The heist had been a success, but Mona had vamoosed with all the money, leaving Guru in a lurch. But she’s now in the process of putting a sting on a builder, Pachisia (Yashpal Sharma), for which she requires a partner. Since Guru needs the money soon, he hesitantly teams up with Mona (Rimi Sen).

Mona and Guru successfully con a large sum of money off the builder only to lose it again to a strange quirk of fate. The story then weaves itself to a climax, going through a series of funny events, comic situations and nerve wracking moments.

There are also thrills and spills with other characters including Chunkey Pandey in a  double role as Sikandar Khan the actor and his body double, Manoj Pahwa as the director and Sanjay Mishra as his assistant, Hemant Tiwari as Philip Fattoo, Virendra Singh as Faujdar’s guru among others, each bringing in his own dose of laughter.

Will Guru be able to return the money to Faujdaar, who is a great stickler for time? Will Mona get the better of Guru yet again? Will the poor Ganpat regain his lost memory? Will the sankat be over for all the people involved? Well, one finds that out as the story unfolds itself - layer by layer.

Cast and Credits

Moserbaer Entertainment Ltd. Presentation

A Seven Entertainment Ltd. Production

Written and Directed by Pankaj Advani

Cast: KK Menon, Rimi, Anupam Kher, Chunkey, Manoj Pahwa, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Yashpal Sharma, Hemant Pandey and others

Costume Designer - jerry d’souza

Choreography - Bhupendra Sayan & Adil Shaikh

Action - Mehmood Akbar Bakshi

Lyrics-  Panchhi Jalonvi  & Mehboob

Sound designer- Arun Nambiar

Editor - Hemanti Sarkar

Music & background score- Ranjit Barot

Cinematographer- Chirantan Das

Executive producer- Maqbool Khan

Associate producer – Rupali Mehra and Vikash Arya