Revolver Rani : Caught between caricature and realism Revolver Rani missed the target
A story must have a start, a middle conflict/twist and an end. It’s the bare minimum requirement for telling an interesting tale. But more often than not, creators miss it. Another aspect of a good story is its characterisation. Good characterisation adds to the overall value of the product. But characterisation alone can not produce a good story.
Sai Kabir’s Story and Screenplay has same problem. It has fascinating characters but lacks in narrative strength. It just does not have a a proper flow. It has a lot going on but you wonder: WHY?
The story is about Alka Singh (Kangana Ranaut) who is a revolver trotting goon and politician in Chambal. Story starts without giving us any reason to root for her. Her political rivals Uday Bhan Singh (Zakir Hussain) and his brothers Pankaj Saraswat (Monu) and Kumud Mishra (Sonu) are thirsty for her blood. Though Uday Bhan Singh wins the election against Alka Singh by many wrong doings, Alka is very popular in public due to her no holds bar personality. She gate crashes Uday’s rally shoots vehemently at them. Uday gets her in the jail but this event is used to rise her popularity by Alka’s Mama Balli (Piyush Mishra) by portraying her as “Aung san suu kyi” of Chambal. Alka never does anything against Balli as he has brought her up since childhood after she shoots her Parent’s Killer and shaped her business as mafia and career as a politician. Alka make allegations of 200 cr of bribery on Uday. Due to her rising popularity, Uday orders her release on insistence by Home Minister (Sanjay Singh).
While all these political activities of Alka are in progress to get control over her land, she controls the life of her boy toy Rohan Mehra (Vir Das) who actually got into her life for her money so that she can produce films for him. Rohan is cheating with Alka as he is involved with another girl Nisha (Deana Uppal) to whom he promises to be making a heroine. Rohan gets caught by Alka and is thrown in house arrest by her. Later when she comes out of jail, she tries to win him back by showing her plans for him.
In the meanwhile, Balli gets Uday to resign due by doing a sting operation regarding the 200 cr bribe issue. While in celebration of this event, Alka who is infamous for being “Banjh” i.e. unable to bear a child, gets the news that she is pregnant. Is she able to bring her child into the world? Does Rohan accepts his responsibility as father and her husband? Is Alka able to win control over the land?
The screenplay goes haywire in narrative style. It lags at many places and appears to be moving at snail’s pace. Still, witty dialogues and quirky characters keep us involved in the proceedings. Kabeer seems to be very impressed by Anurag Kashyap style of film making and his epic work “Gangs of Wasseypur”. It’s evident from the treatment of this film that Kabeer is under heavy influence of Anurag. However, he lacks in the story telling prowess of his idol.
The biggest problem is the director’s confusion about the treatment of the film. His touch of sarcasm and caricature to the characters make the lose the gravity. Hence the suspension of disbelief is harmed at many places especially in Alka’s character. If it she was treated as seriously as other action heroes, it could have been more effective.
Kabeer should’ve also been brutal at the editing table with his editor Aarti Bajaj to reduce the fat from the body of the product. But he goes in self indulgent way harming the effectivity of the film.
However, he extracts great performances by a great cast selected by casting Director Rohit Nag who did a fabulous job on casting. Every actors even in small roles like Mishka (news reader Payal Parihar), Deana Uppal (Nisha), Sanjay Singh (home minister), Nikunj Malik (Zaheera Shaikh), Preeti Sood (Gutki), Syed Zeeshan Quadri (Michael Jackson loving Pilot) and Saroj (Haseena Bano), Rahul Gandhi (as Jai), Abhijeet Shetty (as Veeru), Rahul Mittra (as Dr. Bhalla) has ample scope to get noticed. Credit goes to the Writer-Director for that. One can not miss the funny scenes by Uday Bhan Singh (Zakir Hussain), Kumud Kumar Mishra (as Sonu) and Pankaj Saraswat (as Monu). You will carry those characters with you.
As far the lead actors, Kangana impresses again with her balanced portrayal of powerful but quirky don and vulnerable lover/mother who yearns for a norma life. While she looks glamorous in her italian fashion lingerie and tub bath scenes, she appears like Death Goddess in the climax fight. However, the role is hampered by bad writing and confusion in Director’s mind about the treatment. Kangana cannot be blamed for that.
Vir Das who gets a solo lead role, mostly has to react which he does perfectly. He shows the charming as well as selfish sides of Rohan effortlessly. Piyush Pande impresses as Balli but again this role seems similar to his role in Gangs of Wasseypur.
Music (by Sanjeev Srivastava) is again on the lines of GOW but not that great. Surender Sodhi’s background could be better. Action by Kaushal-Moses is good. Production design by Mayur Sharma is apt. I also loved the title sequence.
To sum it all, one definitely enjoys this movie in bits and parts but comes out unsatisfied and dull from the theatre. So the effort is good but not great.
Rating : 2.5 stars
(0.5 extra is given for the quirky characters otherwise it’s a 2 star movie)
Recommendation : If you crave for something different and love unusual characters (or if you are a Kagana fan), you can watch the movie but will have to bear with the dull portions of it. Movie is rated U/A and I would say avoid watching it with kids and parents. Others who want perfect product, can skip it.
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