Rob Marshall’s new film of the classic musical ‘Chicago’ is deservedly set to pick up a large swag of Oscars at this year’s awards.

Marshall has made a razor sharp, feisty film faithful to its two wild women, murderesses Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger), who pursue fame at any cost in the wild and crazy Chicago of the 1920’s. Roxie manages to survive a murder charge by having the chicest barrister in town, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), appear for her in her trial.

Everything pumps in this ‘Chicago’. The cast deliver the songs with gusto. The opportunism and decadence of 20’s Chicago is there in every frame. Zellweger’s scene when, after being let off the hook in her trial, she exits the court expecting the paparazzi, only to be inconsolable, when she finds that some other broad has just committed a murder and stolen her front page story, encapsulates it all.

The finest quality in Marshall’s ‘Chicago’ is the way its themes are so well brought out. The scenes where Gere’s courtroom antics are symbolically interspersed with him violently tap dancing across a dance floor are stunning.