There is love: On the streets of a colourful Kaasi. For third generation
Tamil pandit family in Kaasi Kundan (Dhanush), love is everything or atleast
his love is. Boisterous, energetic, with a town filled innocence he is both
street smart and caring. When he falls in love he is a teenager just coming to
terms with his age. Zoya (Sonam) is still in school and is carried away by the
adventure of romance and puppy love till academician Dad gets a scent of
happenings and sends her packing to the city where grandma is running a strict
household. Kundan takes to a fun filled life and is not academic. He is the
object of the undying love of Rashmi (fine cameo by Shilpi Marwala) and has a
man Friday in his friend Murari (Mohammed Jesham Ayub). He is eagerly hoping
that his lady love Zoya would return. She does but with baggage. At JNU she has
fallen in love with Akram (Abhay Deol miscast as a student leader) and seeks
the assistance of Kundan to tell her parents. A heart broken Kundan announces
that he would stay on and get them married and would also marry Rashmi the very
day Zoya enters wedlock. On the day of the wedding, the twist in the tale
occurs.
There is politics: Akram nurtures idealistic dreams. Like a typical student
from the Jawarharlal Nehru University in the capital he is the fierce red flag
bearing idealist who hopes that the politico-economic state of the country
requires a huge change and he is carving out a space for himself there. Akram
and Zoya are in love and with Zoya engaged in political street plays they have
a lot in common. Things don’t pan out as planned. Soon we have Kundan coming to
the Delhi campus and first a beneficiary of life there and then a victim of
higher level politics.
What makes the film worth watching is among other things the change of gears
and the backdrop of the narration. The Benares part is colourful, vibrant,
energy filled and openly honest. The Delhi scenario in contrast is schematic,
egocentric, dark and even vile. In the centre of these two worlds is Zoya.
Surprisingly, a role that calls for great balance and subtlety is finely translated
to screen by Sonam in what is truly her best performance till date. Giving her
great company is the energetic Dhanush. It is obvious that the filmmaker chose
him not just for novelty. His casting is perfect. He is effortless as the man
who grows from a school kid to a crafty politician. Abhay Deol is his usual
self but wasted in the context of the film. Even the support cast add a lot of
sincerity to the tale. Mohammed Jesham Ayub as Murari is specially worth
mentioning.
Aanand Rai through Raanjhana seems to weave a tale of two cities (may be a town
and a city) and like Dickens state:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
We had everything before us, we had nothing before us….