Indian cinema is definitely going through a sea change over the past few years. 'Gulal' is one of those movies which can get bollywood that long due credit to its directors and second league actors. In order to enjoy and appreciate a movie like Gulal one has to believe that movies can be made without those heavily paid 'Gods' of our industry, without banners of 'Johars' and 'Chopras', without metropolis of USA and even without love songs in the landscapes of European cities.
Gulal portrays the reality of Indian education system with right amount of fiction to cater commercial needs of a movie or a moviemaker. It starts with a boy named 'Dilip' who has come to Raipur University to study Law. Although a 'Rajput' by caste, he doesn't inherit a single characteristic of Rajputs - no daru, no smoking and no muscle power. But one can't predict what is there in store. The very first acquaintance in the city with whom he is sharing the room is a real Rajput, at least by above mentioned characteristics.
Director 'Anurag Kashyap' is not afraid of losing the mass appeal of Gulal because of thick abusive language and finally succeeded in doing justice to the theme and characters of Gulal. The guy Dilip devoted to his studies doesn't like the company of his roommate 'Rananjay Singh' at least for first few minutes and goes to the University campus for a hostel room. There he comes across ragging by one of the dominant group in University campus. He was locked in a dark room without a cloth on his body. And for fun loving audience there was already a smart-intellectual looking girl kept as hostage and she too without cloths. After getting released, Dilip told the story to his roommate although without any intention of taking revenge of it. But Rananjay, a self proclaimed real Rajput forced him for taking revenge without assessing his arms and ammunition. Dilip and Rananjay left the room to regain the lost pride of Rajput's but in very next scene they find themselves in the same naked situation and this time without any girl to accompany.
The blockbuster dialog of 70's 'mere pass maa hain’ has been used but in a different tone. There is a visible difference between 'Maa' of 70's and 'Maa' of 21st century. The older version of 'Maa' is a sacred word used by the hero devoted to his duty of curbing evils from society. But the latest version of 'Maa' refers to mother of traditional university weapons like 'hockey sticks' and 'rods' etc. Here 'Maa' is a pistol, which is protecting her children even by getting a bad name for herself...sign of kalyug.
The Rajput pride that has been hurt twice is looking for solace and the movie is looking for a hero who can balance the plot between the bad and the worse. KK Menon, one of the best actors of Indian film industry playing the role of 'Duki Banna' and as always he is effortless in his acting and dialog delivery. Duki Banna contaminated by the thoughts of 'Rajputana Rajasthan' is desperately waiting for someone who can represents Rajputs in University elections under his supremacy. So he helps Rananjay and Dilip taking revenge and offered Rananjay the candidacy of General Secretary in University election. Rananjay accepted the offer although hesitantly. Drama starts to unfold with Rananjay being a son of Rajput Raja of that province and avalanche of drama unfolds when the opposition candidate 'Kiran' come to the screen as illegal child of the same 'Raja'. Story moves forward, Rananjay is kidnapped and killed by the opposition before the election. Duki Banna projected Dilip as a successor candidate of Rananjay and finally won the election by manipulating the election commission of University.
Dilip a new general secretary and also a puppet controlled by Duki Banna. Kiran the opposition candidate congratulated Dilip on his victory and put forward her credentials of being a sincere girl with tons of new refreshing ideas for betterment of University life. But she is a beauty with a brain and even a bigger brain of her brother to back her motives of taking up the General Secretary post even after being defeated in election.
The story after that can be better enjoyed on silver screen only, moreover, I don't have the courage to pen it down. Not even a single character can be pointed out because of lame or dull performance. Still if one will be asked to chose the better one among the bests, it should be the guy who played the role of big brother of Duki Banna attired in band master's dress and blazing the screen with his deep meaning couplets. He is a mentally retarded as per medical terms but the only thought provoking character for audiences. His dialog delivery is of the finest class and can be easily noticed even in the small roles scattered in patches in between lead roles.
There are two characters that are not up to the mark in justifying their significance: 'Bansuri wala' (can be easily forgotten after the movie) and the teacher 'Anupama' who was ragged with 'Dilip'. Although she was in virtual love with ‘Dilip’, I couldn’t visualize the difference had these two characters wouldn’t be there but it could be the problem with me.
Gulal portrays the reality of Indian education system with right amount of fiction to cater commercial needs of a movie or a moviemaker. It starts with a boy named 'Dilip' who has come to Raipur University to study Law. Although a 'Rajput' by caste, he doesn't inherit a single characteristic of Rajputs - no daru, no smoking and no muscle power. But one can't predict what is there in store. The very first acquaintance in the city with whom he is sharing the room is a real Rajput, at least by above mentioned characteristics.
Director 'Anurag Kashyap' is not afraid of losing the mass appeal of Gulal because of thick abusive language and finally succeeded in doing justice to the theme and characters of Gulal. The guy Dilip devoted to his studies doesn't like the company of his roommate 'Rananjay Singh' at least for first few minutes and goes to the University campus for a hostel room. There he comes across ragging by one of the dominant group in University campus. He was locked in a dark room without a cloth on his body. And for fun loving audience there was already a smart-intellectual looking girl kept as hostage and she too without cloths. After getting released, Dilip told the story to his roommate although without any intention of taking revenge of it. But Rananjay, a self proclaimed real Rajput forced him for taking revenge without assessing his arms and ammunition. Dilip and Rananjay left the room to regain the lost pride of Rajput's but in very next scene they find themselves in the same naked situation and this time without any girl to accompany.
The blockbuster dialog of 70's 'mere pass maa hain’ has been used but in a different tone. There is a visible difference between 'Maa' of 70's and 'Maa' of 21st century. The older version of 'Maa' is a sacred word used by the hero devoted to his duty of curbing evils from society. But the latest version of 'Maa' refers to mother of traditional university weapons like 'hockey sticks' and 'rods' etc. Here 'Maa' is a pistol, which is protecting her children even by getting a bad name for herself...sign of kalyug.
The Rajput pride that has been hurt twice is looking for solace and the movie is looking for a hero who can balance the plot between the bad and the worse. KK Menon, one of the best actors of Indian film industry playing the role of 'Duki Banna' and as always he is effortless in his acting and dialog delivery. Duki Banna contaminated by the thoughts of 'Rajputana Rajasthan' is desperately waiting for someone who can represents Rajputs in University elections under his supremacy. So he helps Rananjay and Dilip taking revenge and offered Rananjay the candidacy of General Secretary in University election. Rananjay accepted the offer although hesitantly. Drama starts to unfold with Rananjay being a son of Rajput Raja of that province and avalanche of drama unfolds when the opposition candidate 'Kiran' come to the screen as illegal child of the same 'Raja'. Story moves forward, Rananjay is kidnapped and killed by the opposition before the election. Duki Banna projected Dilip as a successor candidate of Rananjay and finally won the election by manipulating the election commission of University.
Dilip a new general secretary and also a puppet controlled by Duki Banna. Kiran the opposition candidate congratulated Dilip on his victory and put forward her credentials of being a sincere girl with tons of new refreshing ideas for betterment of University life. But she is a beauty with a brain and even a bigger brain of her brother to back her motives of taking up the General Secretary post even after being defeated in election.
The story after that can be better enjoyed on silver screen only, moreover, I don't have the courage to pen it down. Not even a single character can be pointed out because of lame or dull performance. Still if one will be asked to chose the better one among the bests, it should be the guy who played the role of big brother of Duki Banna attired in band master's dress and blazing the screen with his deep meaning couplets. He is a mentally retarded as per medical terms but the only thought provoking character for audiences. His dialog delivery is of the finest class and can be easily noticed even in the small roles scattered in patches in between lead roles.
There are two characters that are not up to the mark in justifying their significance: 'Bansuri wala' (can be easily forgotten after the movie) and the teacher 'Anupama' who was ragged with 'Dilip'. Although she was in virtual love with ‘Dilip’, I couldn’t visualize the difference had these two characters wouldn’t be there but it could be the problem with me.
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