GULAAB GANG FILM

200 wordsCast: Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Divya Jagdale, Priyanka BoseDirector: Soumik Sen

The Gulabi Gang is an extraordinary women’s movement formed in 2006 by Sampat Pal Devi in the Banda District of

Uttar Pradesh in Northern India. This region is one of the poorest districts in the country and is marked by a deeply

patriarchal culture, rigid caste divisions, female illiteracy, domestic violence, child labour, child marraiges and dowry

demands. The women’s group is popularly known as Gulabi or ‘Pink’ Gang because the members wear bright pink

saris and wield bamboo sticks. Sampat says, “We are not a gang in the usual sense of the term, we are a gang for justice.” Madhuri Dixit’s 'Gulab Gang’ has nothing to do with Sampat Pal’s real-life ‘Gulaabi Gang’. even if both wear pink saris, and fight for women’s rights in a rural North Indian outpost. The difference between the two films ( and ‘Gulaabi Gang’ did the smart thing by releasing just ahead of the Bollywood take) is stark : the first , featuring the plain-faced Sampat, is a hard-hitting documentary ; Madhuri Dixi’s gang, on the other hand, is as make-believe as make-believe can get. ‘Gulaab Gang’ is faking it.

Fearless Rajjo ( Dixit) runs a sort of a `gulabi gurukul’ in a village named Madhopur, where she teaches little girls their alphabets, and grown-up girls how to wield a `lathi’. Her ‘gang’ is made up of women wearing bright pink, and the ones closest to her are a ‘boy-cut’ tomboy type ( Jagdale), a woman abandoned by her husband ( Chatterjee), and a kohl-eyed dusky female( Bose). These ladies accessorize their pink with oxidized silver, and at least one them has a very spiffy manicure, as they go about standing up for the meek and the downtrodden, and going up against villainous husbands, cops and politicians.But from its opening frame you discover that in its supposed feminist garb, ‘Gulaab Gang’ is actually the old-style good vs evil story, styled in the tired way these films have been for the longest time. Its chief baddie is, ta da, a woman. Sumitra Devi ( Chawla) is the sort of politician that men have played for ever : hungry for power, will stop at nothing, not even murder and mayhem. She rules with an iron fist and a sneer, and Chawla makes the most of her part, even if all the lip-chewing and narrowing-of-the-eyes doesn’t amount to much.Dixit doesn’t even rise above her pink sari-and-sickle, though you can see her trying her hardest with all the flying-through-the-air stunts, cleaving bad men’s clavicles, and so on.

How can you take a film seriously when each bout of `lathi’-clashing is interspersed with group dances, with Rajjo-Rani doing the familiar Dixit` latkas’ and `jhatkas’? In a deeply offensive scene, Sumitra Devi makes a fellow crawl between her subordinate’s legs : I don’t know who cringed more– me, the viewer, or the two people who were in that scene, the woman who is ordered to spread her legs, and the man who is forced to crawl in between

HIGHWAY200 words

Alia Bhatt:

Highway was definitely challenging for me both physically and emotionally. I didn’t really prepare for it. It was actually one of the most exciting experiences for me, because there was travelling in Highway, We have shot in isolated areas.

Randeep is a fantastic actor. It is very difficult to express your emotions with a lot of silence. I’ve learnt a lot from Randeep.

In the right direction: Imtiaz Ali's film is all soul. The movie takes one direction and focuses on it, rather than moving to sub-plots. The musical journey: The Oscar winning team of Jai Ho - AR Rahman, Resul Pookutty, Amrit Pritam churn out some soulful music to go along with Imtiaz Ali's road movie.Highway movie review

Cast:Alia Bhatt, Randeep Hooda Music: A R Rahman Director: Imtiaz Ali 

SPOILERS AHEAD

Writer-director Imtiaz Ali has hit a road less taken. The result is a stylish two-hander that is defiantly unconventional, if not entirely satisfying.

Shot on stunning locations spread from Delhi all the way up to the slopes of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, via the plains of Rajasthan and Punjab, the film yields bewitchingly beautiful images. 

But it isn’t just the visual and auditory delights on offer that make Highway a sensitive, understated entertainer. Its two exceptional characters sway to the kind of subtle emotional riffs that usually elude mainstream Hindi cinema.

Days ahead of her wedding, Veera Tripathi (Alia Bhatt), happy-go-lucky daughter of a politically connected Delhi tycoon, goes for a spin on an impulse in her beau’s swanky sedan. At a deserted gas station off the highway, the city girl is abducted by a gang led by a gruff, rustic criminal, Mahabir Bhati (Randeep Hooda).The petrified lass is shoved into the back of a mini-truck and driven off to a hideout in the city’s outskirts. Realising that a ransom call to her dad would be an invitation to big trouble, Mahabir decides to go into hiding with his quarry. Veera is whisked away first to Ajmer Sharif and from thence to a seedy bolt-hole in the middle of an erosive salt pan in Rajasthan. When the shock subsides the Stockholm syndrome kicks in. The lady in distress develops a bond with the tormentor. Up until this point, Highway, notwithstanding the off-beat captor-captive dynamics, looks like standard fare.But the back stories that emerge as well as the ride ahead contain startling twists.The loquacious Veera has a dark secret buried in her past. The strong-headed Mahabir, on his part, is nursing the effects of a rough childhood. As they begin to chip away at each other’s brittle outer shells, an extraordinary love story, shorn of all hints of carnality and built solely on the need for mutual solace, takes shape.Not all of it is convincing though. For one, the heroine’s shift from the initial pangs of fright to the ultimate sense of freedom in captivity appears arbitrarily rushed.Moreover, the gangster’s messed-up mind is revealed only in sporadic, fuzzy snatches. It is established a bit facilely that crime is the bitter man’s rebellion against wrongs heaped on his mother by an abusive father and an unfeeling society.

Impressive vistas and an eclectic musical score made up of a lullaby, a pop mash-up and Sufi ditties, among much else, provide the backdrop to the girl’s outward and inward voyage of discovery.

Highway bears the unmistakable Imtiaz Ali stamp. The songs are niftily integrated into the narrative; the focus is squarely on the plot; and the female protagonist isn’t a mere object of desire.

The film would have been a bigger triumph had the plot, which hinges on a collision between two diametrically dissimilar individuals and worlds, packed a little more punch. 

As the slim storyline unfolds, it becomes clear that the hostage-taker and the victim, despite coming from different ends of the Delhi NCR social spectrum, have a lot in common.Their scarred psyches draw them closer to each other, but not in the manner associated with standard screen romance. 

It is here that Highway takes a wonderful detour into fresh territory. 

It adopts a novel mode to address issues pertaining to the class and culture divide, the exploitation

of women in feudal communities, and the safety, or lack of it, of the girl child within and without the family.Imtiaz Ali litters the narrative with little touches that speak of human connections in ways that are disarmingly simple but effective.Veera asks her captor: “What do you like more – the sea or the mountain?” “I have never seen the sea,” Mahabir replies. “I love the mountains too,” the girl concludes airily.A little later, Veera is perched on a rock in the middle of a gushing river, the waters swirling all around her. We do not hear her, but see her guffawing and gesticulating uncontrollably, visibly asking herself why she is cracking up. The audience does know the answer: the onset of true joy has opened “the knots” in her mind. That is exactly what Veera would have wanted in the first place when she talked her feckless fiancé into taking her on a drive in the middle of the night. The ever-dependable Randeep Hooda delivers a solid performance. A measure of his confidence in his craft is provided by the restraint that he brings to the characterisation, never seeking to get ahead of the plot.Alia Bhatt is a revelation. She responds to the demands of the role with all the skill at her disposal, nailing both the vulnerability and the tenacity of a harried but spirited ingénue. The burden of the film’s message is: when the home and the world feel like a cage, the wide open road, no matter where it leads, is a surefire path to liberation.Imtiaz Ali articulates this thought with a sense of quiet purpose, and with Zen-like serenity. But that is not to say that Highway is anywhere near perfect. It has many a moment that is endearing and exquisitely etched, but the film is not always engaging enough to be able to offset the occasional inertia that stems from its lack of physical action.But doubtless, Highway is a must watch as much for what it is as for what it isn’t.It is not a typical romantic drama, nor an average love story. It is a road movie with a difference. Highway dishes out a trip that is definitely worth the price of the ticket. 

CINEMA - Each 75 words

After Fashion Priyanka Chopra is all set to work again with Madhur Bhandarkar. This time the director who is known for his realistic films, is set to bring an actress-turned-politician’s life on reel. According to sources, Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra were the contenders for this role but Madhur thinks that PC will do justice to the film. The film is titled Madam Jee and apparently the character is inspired

by Jayalalithaa. Jayalalithaa is a AIADMK leader and current chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai has topped the list of 20 most searched successful Indian women on Google followed by Vidya Balan and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, an official statement said.Former Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi also features among the top ten, revealed a Google search trend result Friday.The list was revealed after a two-month analysis between Jan-Feb 2014.

Actress Yami Gautam has joined a list of celebrities who are endorsing an initiative to donate food towards the welfare of the underprivileged.The stars are campaigning for the initiative "Food for the soul" launched by Food Panda with the NGO Uday Foundation, where people can log on to the portal and make monetary donations that amounts to a food item like foodgrains, pulses, vegetable oil, biscuits and so on."Living in our sheltered and cocooned worlds, it is often easy to forget that we lead a life of privilege. The Food for Soul campaign sensitises us towards the fact that there are many who are not even fortunate enough to get a basic square meal a day.

Director Anees Bazmee is re-writing the script of a sequel to his 2005 hit comedy 'No Entry' to fit in actress friend Bipasha Basu. Currently, Anees is working on 'Welcome Back' but he is rewriting certain portions to the script of 'No Entry Mein Entry'.

"Bipasha's role ended in 'No Entry' but we wanted her in the sequel. So I am re-writing the script for Bipasha. She is a good friend and good actress," Bazmee told .