What’s Good: Rangoon scores high on the visual quotient. Also, Kangana Ranaut’s Julia powers through the film like a true hero.
What’s Bad: Vishal Bharadwaj’s crow pleasing antics clubbed with his ambitions to make the film a la Shakespearean tragedy, make it a complete mess.
Loo Break: Definitely, two to three! This is a long film.
Watch or Not? : Rangoon is no masterpiece. It fails to rise above Vishal’s imagination of cinema. Lengthy and forced, it is a confused war-love-freedom struggle drama.
Rangoon Review: Script Analysis
Vishal Bharadwaj’s Rangoon, has been one of the most talked about projects. We are well familiar with Bharadwaj’s tastes for making an impact cinema but with this one, he misses the bulls eye.
There is a love triangle, world was 2, Indian freedom struggle and above all a poetic symbolism dealing with all the above that makes it chaotic. He tries hard to present a Shakespearan tragedy like Maqbool and Haider but none of it fits here with the oddly written characters.
At start General Hardings cracking Urdu Shayri in his British accent may have seemed funny but when it repeats for the entire film, it is highly irritating.
Julia’s character is strangely similar in her real as well as reel life. She’s a fighter on screen and nothing less when it comes saving her love. Russi on the other hand is a confused businessman who is in love with his keep, gets easily manipulated by his family and is a servant of the Brits. His character comes across as the weakest.
The romantic angle between Julia and Nawab seems extremely forced under their trying circumstances and comes across more like a lustful encounter than love.
Rangoon Review: The Last Word
Rangoon has grandeur but is a lost cause thanks to its multiple threads. Kangana and Shahid, leave a mark with their characters but do not help the film rise above its inconsistencies. A 2/5 for this.