With Kangana Ranaut on board, you
can be sure the film will revolve around her. The script and directorial skills
notwithstanding the end product relies upon the central factor and thus the
evaluation will depend on the said singular factor: Kangana Ranaut. The promos
make clear that this lady is the feisty, gutsy, daring person who is not just
prepared to take on life but gives it the energy and attitude that could
surprise even shock the rest. It is not in doubt that Hanslal Mehta has a
script tailor made not just for Kangana but the contemporary Kangana – the
defiant, challenging iconoclastic who loves to take on the powerful and the
popular. Her non inhibitive image fits the role perfectly or perhaps the role
itself was fashioned around the stated image.
She is not the ‘Doli Sajake Rakhna’ Simran. She is, in fact, not Simran. She is
Praful. She is a 30 year old divorcee. Notice therefore (a la Shabana, Tabu)
she is the heterodox. Not the toy eternal young gal waiting for the lover boy
to sweep her off her feet. She is not the one to leave behind the single glass
footwear in hurry and hope.
Oh yeah – she’s reading Milan Kundera and not Mills and Boon. The background is
shouting: Break open the cage: fly on fly on. Suffocated by nagging middle
class parents who are judgemental about her failures and non arrival, she is
far from apologetic. Sick of home, she heads to Sin City Vegas. Beginners luck
at the casino leaves early. Rejection suddenly is staring at her. She oozes
cynicism, questions romanticism and takes every possible potshot at every
possible notion. She snubs the guys like one K Jo!! Aware that she hurts but
she couldn’t care less!! She falls in debt and becomes the lipstick bandit
attacking banks to pay up the tough money lender. The jacket explosive demand
works wonders. Also is the suitor Sameer (Sohum Shah) dating and waiting.
It is not the law but the baddies who catch up with her. Huge debts, money in
crime lost, deserted by her parents – there is just the last straw on the
camel’s back and she sets out – to look one last time. Even Hanslal gets
tangled in his meandering tale of a woman scoffed.
The woman scoffed is so perfect – She is Kangana Ranaut. She goes through the
entire gamut – daring, crazy, fizz filled, hurt, helpless, strong, weak,
ecstatic, marooned. A complete performance. Count this as the genuine arrival
of the angry young woman and without apology.
This film is unpretentiously about Kangana Ranaut. The Meena – Shabana – Nutan club
has a well justified entrant. Kangana Ranaut. The only way Kangana can loose
out is by getting run out!!
Like one character in awe asks her: “Koi apne aap mein itna sampoorn kaise ho
sakta!!”
How can one be so complete in one self!! Kangana Ranaut can.
L. Ravichander.