Gulaal : A movie par excellence
iView Author: Shweta Bhatnagar (Mumbai,India)
Email: shweppes [At] gmail.com
‘ A movie par excellence ‘
There are times… well actually all times… that you wished you had that most envious job of movie reviewing (after those dreaded travel show hosts of course!) … and then once in a while come movies that make you really want to kill for that job…
Gulaal was one such movie for me…
An amazing script, amazing complexity and all tied together so masterfully at the end that a 1055 pm show – with half an hour of technical error – making a 3 hr movie go way in the wee hours of the night… was so worth it!
The casting, the character building, the sets, the costumes… everything was just perfect…
The key, however, to the movie really is its references…
Anurag Kashyap is clearly one who’s trying to marry art, theatre and movies… the whole movie looks like an Andy Warhol painting coming to life. And the backdrop of a Ram Lila in rehearsal just keeps the parallel to war alive through the movie. The faces behind faces further highlights the complexity of not just the characters but the plot along with it.
Adequate references of rebellion from very different characters – be it Che for Randsa or Lennon for Banna – he has brilliantly captured the many shades of rebellion itself.
One does wonder though whether simple people from small towns would actually have houses or ideals like that… but like I said before, the beauty of the movie is that its actually working on two tracks… one with the characters and the storyline, and another with the sets, the backdrop and the references… the director is far from trying to be authentic here… but in each shot he’s trying to say a lot more than just words. The blacklighting to keep the 60s non conformism alive, the relegated yet persistent Lennon in the backdrop, who ironically is the one who survives, the very slight shades of Che in the character of Randsa (in the questioning of politics, and the method of execution)… all of these add such unique layers to the story, that soon one starts hunting for these references alone…
What is also unique to the film is the theatrical emphasis on the turning points of the story… the monologues by banna (Lennon again) & his dancing escort (another brilliant stroke must say!) which nakedly portray what all’s unsaid in those crucial scenes in the movie gave it the gravity only a live act has been able to command so far.
And the lyrics… Ranaaji… is some what an attempt of our times’ ‘We didn’t start the fire’ in a manner you wouldn’t even know what hit you!
When I read a line somewhere quoting Anurag Kashyap saying Gulaal’s his best piece of work so far… well I never thought that would be possible after Dev D… but I’d just like him to know that in already dynamically creative era of bollywood… you’ve managed to raise the bar even higher…
In one word… brilliant!
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, che, Dev D, Gulaal, Lennon
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
really every praise to this movie is less.few doubts–
1-Can anyone tell me about a colored artist refrenced as ardhnari by kk associated with prithvi bana?
2-given example of najibullah hanging,connection with this movie is not understood by me.
3-why nihilism is associated with anuja in a particular scene?
People please add what parallels have you found in the movie which are unsaid like what yayaver has asked above…so that the less educated’s can decipher and pass the info to other such less educateds
Gulaal is my favorite Anurag Kashyap movie. I agree with him if he has said that it is his best work till date.
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The movie shows up a director who’s now completely on top of his craft.
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I hope he doesn’t completely give up writing for his movies now that he is an established director.
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Waiting eagerly for Paanch…
Anurag! My mom who is 55 was just blown over by Gulaal… My brother who is 18 is planning to watch it again tomorrow… Need I say anything more??
Hats Off to you and I am proud to have someone like you as a part of Indian cinema!
Shweta, Yayayver and Cherish, here goes:
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** spoiler alert***
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First, the ardh nari character is definitely played by the guy who plays the hotel owner in Jab we met, who says “ekdum kadak maal hai” or something like that in JWM. I think he represents the hypocrisy and the double standards everyone is playing. He represents a juxtaposition of power ( half hanuman) and deceit ( half courtesan)that had eventually led to the nemesis of Dileep. Power of Dukey, Ransa, Karan and the deceit of love faced by almost all women, Kiran deceives Dileep & Dukey, Mahi and Dukey’s wife both are deceived by Dukey.
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Najbullah was the fourth and last President of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He was hanged in public in Taliban in the year 1996. This could be the same episode hinted in the movie
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Anuja returns from the horrid torture and ironically wipes the word nihilism; she has experienced complete breakdown of morals and the establishment that protects our society. After every point, even with the phone call, she is bombarded with nihilistic ideals. She cant take it anymore and even the word nihilism written on a board incites her anger and she wipes it.
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The flute playing old man reminded me of the random guy in the street playing flute at various points of the film in Trois coueleurs bleu.
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For a split second, a shot captures a puppet show. This defines the movie; every character is either using another character or is getting used.
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Ransa’s character which is similar to Che, takes a bike ride with Dileep (couple of times in the film), this is parallel to Che taking a bike ride with Alberto Grando, touring South America on an old motorcycle ( The Motorcycle Diaries) Quite subliminally crafted in Gulaal to induce the same reaction of Che’s revolution.
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The film could also be seen as an antithesis to Mahabaratha. Karna in Mythology is the illegitimate child of Kunti and the King. Karna loses in Mahbaratha and is the epitome of sacrifice and morality. Karan in Gulaal on the other hand, is the illegitimate son of his-highness, takes revenge, plots a deadly conspiracy to attain power and emerges victorious.
@Yayver
1.IMO, although, ‘Ardhnaari’ has been refrenced by Diggu bana, but more to be believed by Prithvi.And, I believe, it was intentionally refrenced as ‘Ardhnaari’ instead of ‘Ardhnaarishwer’ as philosophized.That character represents the duality of the czar regime and questions Diggu bana for his mad mindlessness acts.The character goes well with the theme of the movie – ‘Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye toh kya hain’. If you have understood Prithvi’s character, who expressed all his feelings in songs satirically; then I would say ‘Ardhnaari’ was expressing too the same kind of feelings but in different language.Simply put, both artist tried to expressed same kind of feelings but in different language, in different form.
2.I Don’t know the history of Nazibullah, so can’t comprehend it well.
3. Nihilism – chaos, negetive utopia, unreal world. I believe, that again goes well with what director trying to say.
Why Anuja- Ironically, she was the one after Prithvi and his friend who was pissed off with the soceity and it’s dogmas.
@Shweta-
You had gone for a 10:55 pm show,did you feel anything while watching end casting and getting down on the stairs?
That may be just a coincidence or may be how it hit me – You listened all the somgs of the movie before you went to see it, and rememeber all of them, movie ends.
“abe ‘raat ke musaafir’ toh aaya hi nahi”
then it starts with end casting
‘Oh raat ke musaafit chalna zara sambhal ke potli mein tere kahin aag naa ho’
Sounds like Prithvi is talking to me, and movie accomplishes it’s reason there.
Q – Kiran weeps in the end, why?
@Negi
A scene before she confesses that she has manipulated everyone. The last act makes her realize even she was being manipulated all this while by her brother. Her vice finally gives in to guilt.
Neeraj, I thought about it but didn’t she knew by start that everybody is up for his/her own.When Dileep asks her-
“tumhara istemaal kar rahe hain sab, tumhara bhai bhi”
and she replies
“mein bhi toh sabka istemaal kar rahi hoon”
I guess, she actually did know this.
i did not see anyone mentioning the john lennon locket hanging from prithvi bana’s neck, indicating the borderless countries and peace etc
najibullah sequence was to mark the end of skewed democracy and uprising of autocracy. this was wat dukey bana and karan were aiming to do, eventually.
in fact, even the anti-america song ‘ranaji’ was more about anti-autonomous decisions taken by a country which becomes so powerful tat it starts over-ruling everything and everyone around.
Interesting review.. saw the film yest and loved it..
Neeraj….thanks a lot…this was master stroke…”The film could also be seen as an antithesis to Mahabaratha. Karna in Mythology is the illegitimate child of Kunti and the King. Karna loses in Mahbaratha and is the epitome of sacrifice and morality. Karan in Gulaal on the other hand, is the illegitimate son of his-highness, takes revenge, plots a deadly conspiracy to attain power and emerges victorious.”
It could have never come to my mind…others atleast I guessed a bit….
Thanks for clearing certain doubts… I hope more people will come with more insights…
What a movie… What a culmination of the story! Hats off to Anurag! Thanks to AK Indian cinema is finally crossing its adolesence and growing to adulthood!
Waiting for Paanch!
Great movie.. watched on friday night and keep on thinking about it. Loved that scene where prithvi bana asked bhati..” main kaun hun.. prithvi bana… phir to tu sabhi gulal walon ko janta hoga.. hh.. aae phir gulal lagane ka fayeda hi kya hua..” Prithvi bana wants to say that u all have painted your faces with gulal for common identity but even then your personal idenity that is prithvi, bhati or dukey is still there…great
only one que?
why anuja who is so cunning so educated talk english,sing english and afraid of pregnancy…
why she did not took pills
why she ask him to take precaution
modern woman why depends for contraception on men
man wo karega ki condom ka integam karega
great movie
thanks all for clearing all my doubts
but i am still not convinced about : why kiran weeps in the end as she already knew that she is using others and she was also getting used ?
every character rocked and left behind a lot of questions which we all are deciphering now
Thanks AK for a great movie
Khusi ke aansu..
The scene just before dukey banaa shoots prithvi, prithvi starts reciting a poem which starts like this :
do nyay agar to adha do
par isme bhi yadi badha ho
to dedo kewal paach gram
rakho apni dharti tamam
hum vahi khushi se khayenge
parijan pe asi na uthayenge (asi = hathiyaar)
This poem is based on a situation where Lord Krishna goes to kauravas as a peace messenger from pandavas. The situation in which this poem was recited was once again very apt and moreover reminded me of my school days when one of my teacher taught us.
@all,Thanks for giving me the answer of the question. It helps in observing a movie by objective rather than subjective criticism.
@gaurav,please tell me the original hindi poem’s name and writer mentioned by you as dialouge between krishna and duryodhan.
@Yayaver
This link will help you…
http://www.geeta-kavita.com/hindi_sahitya.asp?id=152
nice one here…
I think Najibullah remark is casually made…they just had to name someone…But after sometime we do get to see a public hanging in the film…
wow!! thank you so much for writing in guys.. this discussion and your comments have shown me so very many layers to the movie… the ardhnari and the character’s importance… and thanks for sharing that poem gaurav… thats what i was referring to when i mentioned the theatrical emphasis… i was looking for that poem online…
Great Movie. Thanks to all the people writing the comments here. I loved the movie as such but reading all the explanations for the characters and scenes, I feel that this movie is much deeper than I could fathom first. Really awe-inspiring detailing. Great effort considering that most people dont even understand all these clues in the movie