Mon Avis : Movie Review :Gulaal - Kashyap's surreal rusticity!

Hopes were high, and the delivery meets the expectations! Overdose of Mumbai for time immemorial and recent splurge of Delhi in OLLO and ill-fated Delhi 6, we have Gulaal for a change.This one comes directly from the heartland of Rajasthan - though much of the imagery is due to its intense cinematography of sets rather than Rajasthan's scenery.

Kashyap sets  a bar and then raises it with another stunner - His Dev D may not have been a classic but certainly it was a style of its own. Gulaal comes fairly close to it. If Dev D was a modern reincarnation of a classic character from literature, Gulaal has  a rustic backdrop of a  tell-tale of lust, greed, power, betrayal, love and revenge! And boy - Aint this gritty?

Kashyap's stature takes a new height with this superb movie filled with innumerable metaphors from red vermilion powder symbolising the masks to alcoholic beverages named after Democracy and Constitution etc. From taking a dig at US's illegitimate supremacy through false sense of democracy to a taste of writhing student politics. This flick has it all and has it in a fantastically maneuvered screenplay. 

Keeping the story elements at bay, let me just delineate the cast - Raj Singh Chaudhry plays a meek law student who comes to Rajasthan to study law but is with serious of coincidences gets mired into student politics, love, jealousy, puppeteering and revenge. Abhimanyu Singh has a rather short but powerful stint as Ranvijay Singh - an early influence of Raj's character who is strong but rash and has a rather ill-fated destiny. Model Jesse Randhawa pulls off role of a gritty young teacher who is sexually abused early in the movie and strikes up a chord with Raj's character. Kay Kay Menon plays a central character of a rebel who wants to take control of Rajasthan from the govt. and is building a financial framework for the same. One of my recent favorites, Mahe Gill plays his moll , not doing much than wearing a low -cut blouse and singing to some brash lyrics of Piyush Mishra. Piyush himself plays an eccentric character who stands a symbolic reference to one too many things in what is a very important character to the narration of this story. Then there are two characters - Aditya Srivastava and Ayesha Mohan who has carry the darker side of the game on their shoulders and play a pivotal role in the unfolding of the story.

Ups :

• Ensemble Cast : All have done remarkable well. Kay Kay shines like a gem and infuses the fearsome appearance as no one else can. I have always been his fan and this gives me another reason to stay in the club. He is one of the most prolific actors of our times. His entire role is sketched with grim tenor and you never see him smile but once, for that rarity that dissolves moments after it appears.  Raj is a find and plays his character with remarkable compatibility - his scenes have been well written and his transformation from a meek geek to a revenge-spewing lover on a killing spree, is phenomenally sketched. Watch the ease and warmth in his dialogue delivery and you will become a fan. Ayesha - negative in character connotation and almost arbitrary character development graph - her presence lends an incredible weight to the storyline - Her character plays the cause to many a effects in the movie - Her innocent looks carrying vile intentions with an underlying lust for power and scheming mindset are the cynosure of this entire storyline . Abhimanyu Singh has a short but influential role that charts the course of Raj's character. Aditya Srivastava plays a conniving , shrewd brother of the two illegitimate children (him and his sister - Ayesha's character). Look for the grit in his execution - due entirely to the well sketched role. Piyush Mishra - is funny and highly lyrical with his intrinsic words sung through a mad character who references to many aspects of this movie - You will fall in love with his lyrical imagery as well as the songs that he has written for the movie .
  
• Music and lyrics - Its beauty lies in the ears of the listener - Soulful, majestic, sarcastic, rogue and metaphorical - In short , one of its kind and genre - Well used by Kashyap to lend dramatic quotient to his story telling. Injected at right moments in the right dose , tells you how Kashyap has mastered the art and also reinstate your faith into Bollywood style of blending music with story. No more are songs all about debauch dancing and running around trees. Listen to Ranaji and Aarambh amongst others.
  
• Screenplay - Kashyap belongs to that school of art which neither ignores nor insults viewers' intelligence and sensitivity - rather he prods viewers to think and think hard on all the imagery and well-meaning metaphors strewn across the movie. Tight screenplay that keeps you to the edge of your seat and doesn't allow you too much of leash. Too good for a story which is not a mystery genre
  
• Dialogues - Though raunchy and sometimes downright scurrilous , they are a strong element of this drama and hence invite an A certificate from the censor board. I personally was not offended with the kind of dialogues used, because I know ragging scene in and out and Kashyap has done a restrained job to convey the sense. Trust me .
  
• Cinematography - Though this movie does not take us on tourism spree of Rajasthan, yet the kind of symbolism needed to justify the references have been created magically by Rajeev Ravi - Vermilion powder and red lit sets are wonderfully captured to their rightful effects by Ravi. It gives the movie a life that is so essential to discriminate between theatre and motion picture. The red tinge stays with you long after the curtain falls and you cannot help by carry this image home.
  

Downs:

• Mahe Gill and Jesse Randhawa - Post end-credits the two people who turn out to be the weak link. Quite frankly, I did not understand the sketch of these two characters. Gill had terribly short role restricted to hapless pouting and mimicking her similitude to Tabu . While Randhawa's part in the second half was almost a blind presence with no real purpose. If she ever represented anything symbolic to the main tale, it was never clear enough. Similarly, a weird presence of ardhanareshwar  is again not understood.
  
• Second half loses the sheen on many characters including that of Ayesha - She is dealt with casually and her significance to the entire plot is reduced to a bunch of haphazardly delivered dialogues. Plus the pace too slows down and the length of the movie that drags to 2:20 minutes begins to have a toll on itself.
  

Overall, a must watch.

Indian cinema is changing, and you do not want to miss witnessing this transformation. One cannot but wait desperately for PAANCH

PS - A background on the casting of Raj and also of Kashyap's distress with Censor board. Read here 

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