Saturday, March 14, 2009

Laali mere laal ki, jin dekhey tith laal. Laali dekhan mai gayi, mai bhi go gayi laal.

Dileep Singh (Raj Singh Chaudhary) , a meek seedha, bhajan singing, god fearing fellow turns up to study law in Rajpur. Awaiting a spot in the hostel, he rooms in with RanSa (Abhimanyu Singh). RanSa is not appropriate company for Dileep, being a degenerate who likes to womenize, drink, and smoke weed. Hence Dileep tries to meet the warden of the hostel for a quicker entry, but to his horror finds himself mauled, stripped and thrown into a room with another naked girl, a young teacher who has just joined, Anuja (Jesse Randhawa). He is mortified and finds a good friend and benefactor in RanSa, who helps him get over his trauma. In turns, RanSa is sucked into student politics by his benefactor, Dukkey Bana (Kay Kay Menon). RanSa is a scion of the royal family and his adversory in college elections is his bastard half-sister Kiran (Ayesha Mohan). Every one seems connected to each other by blood or history.

There are old maharajas who carry a chip on their shoulders for having lost their legacy, there are bastard children seething to claim their name, there are leaders with illusions of bringing back the glorious past. The seemingly innocous elections are bloody and ruthless, with both parties going hammer and tongs at each other to win. Even the student Annual Function is a means to minting money, and a display of power by roping in rich sponsors. Dileep is repelled and intrigued by all these goings on, but finds himself sucked into the whirlpool aginst his will.

In the end, there is a thin line seperating the good from evil, and the most ruthless person wins.

This film is full of violence and anger, and though the catchline is Love.. Power.. Revolution. The Love should read as sex. So far, movies in politics have shown a woman as either the moll of the leader or his shadowy wife, it is for the first time that we see a woman using sex as a means of getting what she wants. To makes things easier for her, Kiran (Ayesha Mohan) has the sophisticated ingenue look of a girl one takes home to one's mother. It is a shock to realise how ruthless the sweet looking girl can be.

Kay Kay Menon, Deepak Dobriyal, Abhimanyu Singh, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Mahie Gill, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa, Piyush Mishra, Aditya Shrivastava, Mahie Gill all put in marvellous performances. The music is apt and the lyrics are awesome. Both by Piyush Mishra. Even the dances, choreographed by Maansi, are really good. Mahie Gill has a small role here, she is a mistress of the local leader Dukkey Bana, who dances at night and runs a beauty parlour in the daytime. Abhimanyu Singh has a personality to die for.

So far I have seen only two films by Anurag Kashyap. Gulal and DevD. Here is a director, I feel, who is able to harness the best talent in business to make a consummate film. His casting is first rate, he is able to bring the perfect ambience to the movie, the music is always very easy on the ear, with a special mention for the lyrics. This movie may not be the best ever, but it is a very honest and a praiseworthy effort.

Of course - as they say in Punjabi - you need a jigra to see his films. A kind of a toughness, no namby-pambiness. It says the world is harsh place, and though life destroys you, you love it nonetheless.

30 comments:

  1. Hey thats a dandee review ... well i am not sure if its my kind of a movie .... but I sure enough enjoyed reading the review.

    By the way .... the page looks super .. though dont like pink much but you pulled it off just fine with black .. and the make and feel is very professional ..

    Great goin Avzz ...

    JMan

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  2. Jman.. good. there are loads of funky templates out there dying to be used. This is the one that spoke to me :)

    Not your kinda movie? political n stuff?

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  3. wowza, blog looks ubercool!!! movie sounds like total mess-your-mind types ... unsure if i'd like it or not.

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  4. Thankee CP.

    Well I dont like watching too many gangsta kind of movies eiter. But I like the way Anurag Kashyap brings all the elements of filmmaking so together !

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  5. Like CP I love the new look...super cool!

    Not sure about the movie either....Am swamped anyway!

    Cheers

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  6. Ava, I came here following your comments on my blog. So you said it aptly, there ws no love, all sex. IT ws a crisp and neat review. Glad u liked the movie too. :) I too wrote an appreciative review, check it out when you have time.

    I was surprised to see your blog called pinkbee and then pink bg.

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  7. As always you have written a beautiful review. I will catch the movie.

    Hey! While you drop in so frequently on my Blog, why not also navigate to my other blogs mentioned on the right. One of them is http://www.at-the-redlight.blogspot.com where I post alongwith friends and have just posted something on O Sexy Mama debate. I also post recipes (Ya, I Do) on http://www.cookingforloveandsex.blogspot.com

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  8. Super cool template. This is now real Pink Bee.

    Well, Gulaal for me is one of the finest film I have seen this year. 2009 is turning out to be awesome.

    This movie will be critically acclaimed, no doubt but its too late for an average moviegoer to praise it. I wish it had come it 2002/3 then Omkara would not have been what it is. Our censor played spoilsport with it then.

    U shud see Anurag's other movies (No Smoking and Black Friday) and u know if you remove his animation films then all his movies are 'A' rated. :) And thats what few nonsensical ppl presume and make a decision about him. Utter nonsense. The guy is a genius, far ahead.

    I also wonder, how you can write such a review without saying much, concealing things so beautifully and yet creating an interest in the reader. I toh bare it all. I cant say it any other way. :( , Saturday night Me and frenz have long talks on Gulaal and I was so enthu to write on it.. words were jumbling in mind but now I am feeling so lazy to write.

    Awesome one. And 'Abhimanyu' in tag.. why not Raj...*wink wink*.

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  9. What a title to start with. Lovely.

    Do you feel Dileep was stupid to consider the goings between him and Kiran as 'Love'?

    Coming to think of it as a movie which started rolling in 2002, the case were all new comers and what a performance they all gave. Dobriyal got fame from Omkara, who knew he was already at it with Gulaal. Jesse, Mahie, Raj, Abhimanyu, Deepak and Ayesha as newcomers.. cant get better. Aditya I guess was already known. Watch for him in Black Friday. He is another under-rated.

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  10. And I forgot to mention the real star according to me, more than Anurag I guess (for this flick). Piyush Mishra. He is terrific. His compositions and lyrics are marvelous and performance is what you see once in a while. Kudos to Piyush.

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  11. Sigh!!!

    I want to see this one but my husband isn't ready...lemme convince WIAN ;-)

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  12. Angella - No problemo - glad you liked my template, I really slaved over it.

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  13. Prabash. I have read your redlight blog, I think its great. Will chk out the others too.

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  14. Poonam, I am going straight to your blog. Me too think we are kinda likeminded.

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  15. Smita.. yeh to dekh hi daalo. Wian ko le jao, kisi frn ko le jao par dekho zaroor ! :)

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  16. Vee -- byebye Farhan, hi Abhimanyu. Sigh.

    A frn who read my blog said I didnt write enough about the lyrics.

    The lyrics are absolutely so fresh and fun and so different and good. I was blown away.

    Waise I feel DevD was better. Isme I felt the story faltered a bit towards the fag. But a very good last scene though. I was put off by the Rajputana thingie. But overall, the movie had such a good impact that I was willing to let that go.

    I agree absolutely with Shubra Gupta's review in Indian Express.

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  17. Do you feel Dileep was stupid to consider the goings between him and Kiran as 'Love'? says Vee

    Even Poonam called Dileep a bit of loser for not being able to recognise the love of Anuja and running after Kiran. I felt that too. I guess in the end a pretty face seduces a man just too much. Such suckers they are.

    But then, a simple straightforward person like Dileep perhaps could not 'see' any evil in a loving girl like Kiran (as she seems to him)

    I like the complex relationships between people in this movie more than the 'story'

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  18. Vee, I loved the character of RanSa and the way Abhimanyu played him, with a kind of a worldweariness. That is one personality to die for.

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  19. lovely new look..anurag's themes are slightly surreal and have a dark overtone.. another movie of his is No smoking .. i tore my hair out trying to figure out the movie .. !!

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  20. Yes, that's what.. a sucker for such faces but not a fool. He indeed thought it was true love. Poonam is not agreeing and in fact called him a nincompoop. I guess I will come with mine soon now.

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  21. Would like to invite you as a contributor to the REDLIGHT Blog.

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  22. Totally irrelevant comment coming your way. Love the way you have styled your blog!

    And thanks for blogrolling me!

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  23. Thanks WSW - I love reading good blogs, favorite pasttime. :)

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  24. Surprised to know you have not seen Black Friday. You should see his No Smoking too.

    Gulaal is the darkest political -drama movie made in Hindi so far. Had it released before Omkara , history would have been different.

    Cheers!
    ~uh~

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  25. I forgot to mention, this is the Second review I read, written by a lady. The first one was by Padmaja Thakore who did not have much good thing to say about it.

    She must be a weirdo. You are not.
    har har har

    Cheers!
    ~uh~

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  26. udan, hehe at har har.. been missing that kind of stuff.

    I desp wanted to see Black Friday.. but you know how it is sometimes..

    No smoking ditto.. I guess I will have to depend on dvds now.

    I guess women are queasy about blood gore and sex. I am not so queasy now.

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  27. iwas gushing over thefilmafter seeing it and even got mad at my husband for not "getting" the film and saying that dileep was a loser and that kay kay was heroic. I hate it when something so layered and meaningful is taken at such a superficial level.
    glad to see so much discussion on the film. liked uh's detailed revu too.

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  28. Y - Which is why I usually like to see a movie on my own. I like to come away with an impression that is entirely my own.

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  29. u've got to watch black friday too.. its kashyap's best movie yet..

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  30. Yes Perx.. I really wish to.

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