Gulaal by Nikhil

Link: Not Available

Verdict: Brilliant.. Exceptional.

Cool!: From DevD, Anurag kashyap moves on to Gulaal, and I’m impressed, even more. For an industry stuck with conventions like happy endings, big stars, plots that ‘makes sense’ (stories that move from a ‘start’ to an ‘end’, the biggest convention of all, everywhere), characters that ‘make sense’ (delineated, justified); to music that needs to be ‘universally pleasant’; it takes guts to make a movie like this. Anurag plunges into the Rajputana world of politics, pride, manipulations, bloodshed and evil, and takes us with him; creating a world that probably many of us cannot associate to, but the depiction in itself is so authentic, that you cannot but start feeling for the characters. The story in a way gives away no clear message, just seems like nothing more than a sequence of events; but again, a number of messages do appear, but only if you try to think in those directions. It is left up to the audience to interpret it, and that’s the beauty of this film as per me. It gets your brain to work, to take sides, to judge, to decide… there is no help from the director in this regard. A lot of afterthought.
The performances are genuine and fairly neutral, not allowing you to judge them instantly. Using newcomers for most of the roles adds to the same dimension as well. I especially liked the character of Rananjay, the rebellious and brave rajput. As always, Kay Kay is again brilliant. Mahi Gill as the eccentric mistress plays a nice little cameo, so does Piyush Pandey as the crazy brother of Kay Kay. They add the necessary element of humour to the serious plot. The music (and the lyrics), not the regular fare, adds to the authenticity of the plot; it’s amongst the most creative attempts that I can ever remember. Kudos to Piyush Pandey for it.

Anurag Kashyap is changing the way stories are told on the screen, and I’m extremely proud of the way he is doing so. Movies like Gulaal might not becomes blockbusters, but just to see such a cinema, that boldly dares to be so non-formulaic and non-explanatory, is very refreshing and intellectually stimulating. I hope it makes enough money for him to carry on with such efforts.

Yawn!: Somewhere so many stories are overlapped in this complicated plot that it feels as if few of them have not been amply justified. The ones of Jesse Randhawa and Piyush Pandey are such examples. But again, its not mandatory to explain everything, the audience could use some imagination as well. I like that :) .

Gulaal by Ashim

Rating: * * * *


Anurag Kashyap is creating trouble for himself. He has to raise the bar he has set for himself after DevD and now GULAAL. Gulaal wants you to wait for Anurag’s next film! It just makes you pray that he should never disappoint you! So, which one is a better film DevD or Gulaal?? I have been asked this question a couple of times. Gulaal has nothing in common with DevD. They are entirely different from each other.

The film doesn’t have big stars. Script, dialogues and the screenplay have pretty strong shoulders to carry the weight of the film with ease. It is a film about characters that are made so full of action that you really don’t require a huge star cast, item numbers and other entertainment constituents. Gulaal is thought-provoking and engages you till the end.

The script can be mystifying for common watcher. Well, it is apparent that Anurag doesn’t have a usual way of looking at things. He creates cinema that is not for wide audience. It is for intelligent (non-masala) movie goers who appreciate non-clichéd/ niche/ abstract thoughts. It is not radical and unconventional as DevD but still not conventional enough for everybody to decipher the message of the film. The script has 3 different tracks - student politics, separate state for Rajputs, passionate love story with a catastrophic end. It’s cerebral, powerful, intense, provocative and an immensely exciting flick.

Are you still sitting on your lazy asses?? Go watch Gulaal! I am going again....


_____ASHIM_____

Delhi6 by Nikhil

Site: http://www.delhi6.co.in/

Verdict: A cacophony, that could have been a melody.

Yawn!: My opinion of the previous film by Rakeysh Mehra, that is Rang De Basanti, was very different from that of most of the people; I had found the mega-blockbuster to be a fairly stupid film, and Ive consistenly received a lot of flak over this opinion of mine. But I'm happy that Delhi6 has finally got me vindicated. A muddled plot trying to bring forth a zillion issues and emotions, with the clearly delineated 'lighter' first half and a 'heavy' second half, and an absolutely unconvincing depiction of things the way they happen in the normal world; Delhi6 was RDB repeated as per me. The director makes an absolute mess of trying to use a 'kala bander' as a metaphor for the evil inside every human being, focusing so much on its literal counterpart, you at times feel why was the movie not named Kala Bander instead of Delhi6! And the way he tries to explain the metaphor repeatedly at the end (at least three times!), you feel like the dumb student in a moral science class wherein the teacher is repeatedly explaining the moral of a story obviously assuming you didn't register anything while the story was being told! Delhi6 is a director's blunder and I hope Rakeysh Mehra learns from it. His supposedly intellectual creation falls flat on its face primarily because of an attempt to delve into way too many things at the same time: religious sensitivity, caste culture, the fight between good vs evil, personal introspection, love for one's motherland, social equations and so on and so forth... not to forget all alongside the depiction of life in the city of Delhi. And he gets it all wrong in an attempt to amalgamate them. Had he focused on just a few of them, we could probably would have had a nice film to watch.

Yahoo!: Certain elements though, are well depicted in the film, especially ones associated with the life in Delhi. Being from north and having spent a good amount of time in delhi, I did enjoy many moments that were just spot on, such as the incident where the ramlila is awkwardly stopped midway because of the arrival of the city MLA or when the traffic on a busy road comes to a chaotic standstill because of a cow delivering a baby. Some of the characters have been admirably depicted as well. I especially loved the one played by Pawan Malhotra, the over-confident, street-smart and worthless kind, that can literally be found in every street in north India. It is such beautiful elements that make you go through this film, though on the whole it is a pity to see them being part of an effort that focuses away on concepts far more poorly conceived and depicted.