Political ambition at the cost of human aspiration. Forced acceptance in the wake of critical denial. Changing face of good to evil. Revolution, anyone?
Gulal is a stroke that makes you straighten up in your seats for want of more. (If at all there is anything missing in the movie is this want of more. But let me come to that later. To begin with, I am thrilled.)
I am truly thrilled. Gulal is a high voltage political drama cutting through number of pawns in the big game. It is gritty, raw in its commentary on political inferno and absolutely brilliant in its writing. Piyush Mishra does a wonderful job as co-dialogue writer, song writer and musician. Take the lyrics and soundtrack out from Gulal and it would lose half of its impact.
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The movie starts with Dilip Kumar Singh (Raj Singh Chaudhary), a law student coming to a college in Rajpur. Dilip puts up with Rananjay Singh (Abhimanyu Singh), who actually belongs to royal family of Rajasthan, but hates his father and lives on his own terms. Then there is Dukey Bana (Kay Kay Menon), trying to build an independent Rajput Empire with the help of erstwhile Maharajas who are unhappy with the government and particularly, with democracy. Dukey Bana is influential in college elections and uses it as a platform for his political aspirations. His illegitimate brother, Karan (Aditya Srivastava) has his own grudges against his father who has not given him his name. Karan also carries a hidden political agenda. Dukey Bana makes Rananjay fight the general secretary election. The proceedings take an ugly turn and Rananjay is murdered. Dukey Bana forces Dilip to contest. Dilip wins and enters Kiran (Ayesha Mohan), Karan’s sister, who eventually takes control of Dilip and towards the climax, eliminating everybody, helps her brother achieve his goal.
So, there are men who have an agenda, there is a man who had an agenda, there is a young man who does not know what agenda is and there is a femme fatale. Political aspirations are on the burner, with links rooted in the past and eyes set on reviving the past.
As I said, the entire experience is thrilling with speedy developments, knock out dialogues, music and terrific performances. There is an ensemble cast and everyone is just perfect. Kay Kay Menon again delivers a towering performance. Raj Singh Chaudhary plays the meek Dilip convincingly. Abhimanyu Singh is impressive. Deepak Dobariyal (plays Bhati, Dukey Bana’s right hand) is excellent. Piyush Mishra, (plays Prithvi, Dukey Bana’s England returned eccentric elder brother, whose ideas and dreams are shattered and he now enjoys being a poet who slaps the system with his amazing political satires) needs a special mention. After a long time (after Dil Se and Maqbool), he is in action and he is just unbeatable. One more special mention is to be given to Bhanvar Singh, the cook (Mukesh Bhatt) for his short but memorable act. There are two more characters – Anuja (Jesse Randhawa), who is a professor and is a victim of physical abuse. Madhuri (Mahie Gill) is Dukey Bana’s mistress. Out of these two, Anuja’s track gets completely lost as the drama unfolds. Madhuri, played well by Mahie Gill, does not have to do much except for a couple of song sequences.
Anurag Kashyap again applies his craft over the medium and delivers an engaging drama. Having soaked in its violent splashes, once you sit back and think, you essentially would realise that it was a really a ‘drama’. In fact, a high voltage drama that makes you surrender to its spell, but later you discover that a few parts of the circuit were actually loose. You would have some obvious questions about sudden rise of Kiran, her influence over the men (without an influential figure!), Dilip’s sudden make over and his ability to defy Dukey Bana, portrayal of college as so powerful a platform for politics that you wonder if there is any governing body in the college or the students are actually supposed to be ‘Bhaais’ in the making as a part of their curriculum.
Gulal goes little astray in the second half. Progressions seem so sudden that you are actually not fully convinced with them. Just that cinematic presentation is so damn good that you tend to ignore them.
So, want of more exists. But as an explosive drama, Gulal works well. Do watch it. Watch it for Piyush Mishra and his words. Watch it for the performances. Watch it for its sleek composition. Gulal does not make any political statement neither it can be considered as a riveting, out and out political movie, because the focus is more on dramatic rendition than on the ideological debate. However, it is fiery enough to make your emotions sizzle. Go, get your dose!
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