Anurag Kashyap-the name is enough! Gulaal may have gone unnoticed if Kashyap had not made it. Gulaal was keenly awaited by the film buffs ever since its promo was unveiled during Dev D. And sure enough, the film works big time! Along with an excellent story, the film boosts of powerful performances and amazing execution which makes Gulaal Anurag Kashyap’s finest work after Black Friday.
The story of the movie: Dileep (Raj Singh Chaudhary) comes to the city of Rajpur to study law. By the time he finds accommodation in university hostel, he shares his room with Rananjay Singh aka Ransa (Abhimanyu Singh), a mysterious man, living a life which contrasts with his father’s, who is a local raja. Trouble starts when Dileep goes to the university regarding accommodation and gets ragged by the seniors whose leader was Jadhwal (Pankaj Jha). At that time, he comes across Anuja (Jessy Randhawa), a new teacher, who’s similarly ragged. On the other hand, there’s Dukey Bana (Kay Kay Menon), who’s raising an army of Radical Rajputs. His dream is: a state of Rajputana, free from the Union of India. Bana persuades Ransa to contest the university elections for the post of General Secretary, against the law student, Kiran (Ayesha Mohan), sister of Karan (Aditya Shrivastav). Bana carves a perfect plan for Ransa’s victory. However, just some days before the voting, Ransa is kidnapped. Who kidnapped him? Is it Jadhwal, who wanted to seek revenge after Ransa had attacked him for ragging Dileep? Or is it someone else? And who’ll win the elections? To find out, watch Gulaal!
Gulaal is a trademark Anurag Kashyap film-dark, intense, no-nonsense and tragic. The plus point of the film is that it moves at a rapid pace-even though it has many stories running parallel and lots of characters in the narrative. Right from the first scene till the very last one, Gulaal keeps the viewer hooked on the seat. Gulaal is easily one of the most dynamic films in recent times.
There are a number of memorable scenes. The first scene of the film itself (Kay Kay’s dynamic speech) sets the mood. Dileep’s ragging, attack on Jadhwal, Ransa kidnapped and Dileep’s sudden transformation were the key scenes of the first half. However, the film does go little off-track in the second half. However, the film picks up amazingly in the climax. The culmination was very Shakespearean, i.e. very tragic and similar to the classic Shakespeare stories. It may look too depressing, but it was the perfect ending for such film.
Besides Kay Kay Menon, Deepak Dobriyal and Jessy Randhawa, the entire main cast was unheard. But all of them succeed in giving a fabulous performance. The best performer in the film was Abhimanyu Singh, who perfectly played his part. With his fabulous performance, he leaves a mark even though he wasn’t there in the second half. Raj Singh Chaudhary was the main lead and does a marvelous job. He was in his best form in the climax. Kay Kay Menon as usual rocks! He was completely in the skin of his character and came up with a brilliant performance like everytime!
Deepak Dobriyal who has earlier worked in films like Omkara and Maqbool, was excellent. Piyush Mishra was the funniest in the film! Watch out for his hilarious act in the end, where he claims himself as the President of India! He was just fabulous! Aditya Shrivastav was great, but one wished he had more scope.
The film has three females. Ayesha Mohan was terrific. It’s great to see Kashyap coming up with new talented faces. Jessy Randhawa performed well, but again, she didn’t have much to do in the film. Mahie Gill (Paro of Dev D) was wonderful in the small role.
Piyush Mishra’s music and lyrics both were unique! Songs were one of its kinds and the song ‘Aarambh’ leaves a long-lasting impact. Dialogues were sharp. Rajeev Ravi’s cinematography was perfect. Wasiq Khan’s art direction was wonderful!
Anurag Kashyap, Raja Chaudhary and Aparna Chaturvedi’s story and screenplay was effective, especially the screenplay. Anurag Kashyap’s direction was brilliant! He had already showed his worth with Black Friday. Gulaal was planned before Black Friday and the film faced many hurdles before it can finally release. Kashyap says that he made this film when he was depressed and angry with everything around him. Then I feel, he should be depressed throughout his life, so that we can get more Gulaal and Black Friday-kind films (no offence!)!!
Some of the best scenes of the film:
The first scene
Dileep ragged and meets Anuja
Dileep and Ransa plans to bash up Jadhwal and his gang but their plans misfire!!
Dukey Bana convincing Ransa to stand for elections
Ransa kidnapped
Party after Dileep’s victory
Dileep confronting Bana for using up the funds
The last 20 mins
On the whole, Gulaal is a powerful drama that works big time. The film may flop commercially but will surely be liked and applauded by all those who see it. Go for it!
P.S.: ANURAG KASHYAP IS ALSO THERE IN THE FILM, IN A SPECIAL APPEARANCE! HE HAS BEEN DOING THIS IN ALL HIS FILMS-HE WAS THERE IN ‘BLINK-AND-YOU-MISS-IT’ ROLE IN BLACK FRIDAY AND DEV D. SEEMS LIKE KASHYAP IS HIGHLY INSPIRED BY SUBHASH GHAI!
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