The last couple of years have seen Bollywood coming up with many female oriented movies which might not have exactly set the box office on fire, but made sure that the producers still had their smiles. The latest to join that list is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Gangubai Kathiawadi" that had Alia Bhat playing the titular character. Apart from the fact it is Bhansali's movie which obviously doesn't require additional publicity, Kangana Ranaut unintentionally made sure that it grabbed headlines as she dismissed it with disdain for reasons best known to her. Anyway she was made to eat humble pie & the box office numbers has been impressive until now.
Set in the 1960s, Gangubai Kathiawadi (Alia Bhatt) was a powerful brothel madame in Kamathipura who fought for the rights of sex workers in the region. It was not something that she had even imagined after all she was born into an affluent family & aspired to become an actress. But fate had other plans as she was forced into prostitution when her lover sold her off to a brothel. Things took a turn when Rahim Lala (Ajay Devgn), a feared don became her sworn brother which facilitated her to assume a position of power that she used to good effect for the welfare of the people in the locality.
It's been quite a while since we had a movie from Bhansali with his last directorial venture being "Padmaavat" in 2018, which is quite understandable considering the scale at which he mounts each of his projects. Based on S Hussain Zaidi's book 'Mafia Queens of Mumbai', it is inspired from the life of Gangubai Harjivandas with the screenplay penned by Bhansali & Utkarshini Vashishtha. From a technical point of view, it is praise worthy on all departments be it Sudeep Chatterjee's visuals, Sanchit & Ankit Balhara's score, art & choreography. There was an intentional attempt to not look into the tough lives these ladies led & hence it poses many questions as to how Gangubai handled all the challenges that she would have faced. In effect, it was a superficial take on the lives of the sex workers which seems reasonable from a film makers point of view, but I believe it would have been much more impactful if a more gritty approach was adopted. Another thing that I felt they could have done better was Raziabai's character which though introduced in an impactful manner was subsequently relegated to the background.
On the performance, Alia was absolutely brilliant & I would be really surprised if she doesnt sweep all the awards. The only portion where she seemed rather artificial was in the initial segment after which she imbibed the character with ease be it in her body language, expressions that conveyed the myriad of emotions & dialogue delivery. There were few others who were spot on as well such as Vijay Raaz (as Raziabai, really wish this character had more screen space), Indira Tiwari (as Kamli), Shantanu Maheshwari (as Afsaan), Ajay Devgn (in an extended cameo) & Jim Sarbh as the journalist.
Verdict: It is no surprise that the movie has done so well & it will be just a matter of time before it would have earned the tag of being a 'hit/superhit'. In terms of the screenplay, as mentioned earlier I felt a bit more deeper look into the lives of these people was required. Anyway Alia was absolutely brilliant & that is more than ample reason to watch this flick!!!
Rating: 3/5
Regards...Ben
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