Trust Bollywood to celebrate Woman’s Day with a clichéd package – so full of
predictability and linear characters that you could well yawn and crib about
another opportunity gone waste. With stereotypes aplenty, the script (Soumik
Sen) mirrors a nation gone wrong. The script of the film is what the editor of
a daily would be required to deal with on a daily basis. The more said, the
more trivialised. Authenticity aplenty but the echo a social groan from the
pulpit that simplifies social dynamics that has crept into a polity that has
always claimed the reverse of what is now so clearly visible.
Take the entry of Rajoo (Madhuri Dixit) at the Collectorate to make a demand on
behalf of the locals for electricity – this after a prologue of our social
short comings and you know that the film is pretentiously serious about the
issue on hand and is thus very unlikely to offer any viable solution –assuming
it is part of the script writers task. At the entertainment level it looses out
on multiple factors even within the defined parameters of mainstream cinema. It
makes a visible aborted attempt at duplicating the space created and occupied
by Prakash Jha. The film advocates anarchy – justified at one end though
obviously it is unjustifiable in a system governed (?) by the Rule of Law.
The story line is simple. In fact the story is a simple line. Rajjo deprived of
education by step mother (cliché) has a thirst for education. Fast forward she
runs an ashram educating the girl child and empowering women. The place is
obviously the platform for victims of social problems like rape, gender
exploitation. Thus we have the murals of corruption: the brawn filled unruly
local politician, the scheming suave urban politician, the erring son, the
village belle who is a victim of rape, another of domestic violence, the
corrupt policeman (oh! with what consummate ease they are repeatedly portrayed
in our cinema!!) The battle lines are drawn: on the side of good is Rajoo and
on the side of evil is the crafty politician Sumitra Devi (Juhi Chawla – in a
very poorly etched character). Your guess is that surely good would win over
evil – that is why cinema is more enduring than life!!
Here violence is not just everybody’s language, it is a creed. Every form of
violence gets its screen space: economic, bureaucratic, political social – all
salutations to violence perceived as the universal language of communication.
While sickles and sticks are at their busiest we have the pulpit justification
on various grounds: violence being the midwife of a social order waiting to be
born!!
What is irksome is that there is over simplification of the solution and a
dulling of the evil by exaggeration. When a script gets pretentious like this,
it does the cause singular harm. May be it is a call to suggest that when all
the Khans, Kapoors and Kumars are flexing their muscle and toned bodies through
the smoke of guns bombs , filth and dust, when they can be Gunday without an
apology why not the gals. Why should boys have all the fun!! The result is a
non-starter of a conflict between Madhuri and Juhi. In their prime they could
have been a great clash. Even now. Sadly it goes awry. Why we have Juhi even
state: ek hi zameen mein rehte hain par milna nahi hua. Unfortunately
when they meet it is an anti-climax.
Madhuri Dixit is surely more prim and propah than in her Dak Dak karene
laga days. But Time, and oh! those lines it leaves on the face!
Cinematographer Alphonse Roy who pictures the fictional Madhurpur so well
somewhere falters with the diva. Her acting however is top class and she gives
the film its great chance and moments. In the emotive moments she shows that
age has not tampered with her class. Juhi Chawla on the other hand looks
gorgeous and with a style that many contemporary stars would do well to
replicate but try as she does, she is no face of a scheming crafty politician.
She looks too goody goody to translate evil – the mannerisms, the effort,
notwithstanding.
The film is but yet another opportunity to whip up the politician. It is
getting too repetitive, predictable and insensitive.
P.s: Perhaps Gulab Gang could have been a far better exercise if it was a
conflict between Shabana and Tabu rather than Madhuri (Lajja notwithstanding)
and Juhi Chawla (incurable cutie pie).