Gulaal

A political thriller set against background of college in the Indian city of Jaipur in the state of Rajasthan as an intriguing and an interesting factor itself. What makes it more interesting is the plot itself and more so when an innocent student goes there to study and gets involved with a woman who seems to be innocent but is, in reality, is a bitter pill.

Co – written and directed by Anurag Kashyap and written by Raja Choudhary, this thriller genre movie, stars Kay Kay Menon, Raja Chaudhary, Jesse Randhwa, Deepak Dobriyal, Ayesha Mohan, Mahie Gill, Piyush Mishra and Abhimanyu Singh.

This is the second thriller that has been released this year and again it starred Kay Kay Menon and once again, he has stolen "the show." Ayesha Mohan is also on the same route as Kay Kay Menon but not as much. The story does have some twists and turns which are worth watching and its those that make this movie more interesting, though the language can be considered a bit on the rough side at times but Anurag Kashyap has done a superb job on this.

This is a movie that is well worth watching.

I think Gulaal is till date is the best movie directed by AK. The movie goes far beyond Maqbool and Omkara, not undermining them, those two were also milestones for contemporary Hindi cinema, but Gulaal was something extraordinary. Each and every character played perfectly, along with the metaphors, it was a perfect sync.

This is a wholesome product of an excellent script with the most honest and sincere performances. The beauty of AK is that the movie is not what it seems.. like just like in "No Smoking"... where its not about smoking but about personal freedom and the surreality surrounding it. Even in Gulaal, one might find the story very political, about the revolution, college elections but NO, its just the backdrop. The main story is how the main protagonist, Dilip's character develops upon that backdrop. How he gets molded by the different personalities that comes in his life, starting from Ransa, Anuja, Duki Bana, Kiran and then his own remorse. If you closely look, each and every character's role stayed the same, Ransa, Anuja, Duki Bana, Kiran, Karan and Bhaati... they all revolved around the development of Dilip which is something amazing.

The movie is also about reviving personal identity which was aptly shown by the clever politics of Karan and Kiran. And the movie doesn't stop here, the complex female characters add more color to it. Its such a movie where not even a single moment was wasted or was not required. Starting from Dilip being ragged to Dilip being dead, its those characters, the metaphors, the camera-work, music, everything synced so beautifully, it left me spellbound. Its 3AM here, and I just finished watching it and I just couldn't help myself writing about it. Well done AK as your movies always add a new dimension to the Hindi "noir" movie movement.

This is another film I went to see just for Mr. Anurag Kashyap. He has done it again. A film with no Glamour but pure story, pure politics, pure hard core film. The revolves around Mr. Dilip Singh. He comes to study but is being dragged into politics by the surroundings. This film once again shows us the effects of Ragging in universities. It has shown the real life incident of Ragging. When I watched the movie I never felt like watching a movie. But it was like someones story being telecast live. The music is very nice. The character of the Bana the singer and his pet friend half men and half women is very touching. The actors have done their part very nicely. It never seems like anyone is acting. But like they just doing what they are supposed to do.

Gulaal is a extremely well scripted and characterized piece of cinema. Each and every character is carved brilliantly and the characters are so real and so different from usual flicks. It is a story of a simple and innocent graduate and how his life gets affected by politics and the way it has been shown is simply amazing.

I love the way Anurag Kashyap tells the entire story and the music blends effortlessly except the Songs picturised on Mahi Gill. The background score is awesome.

Cinematography is amazing and the color red is captured beautifully throughout the movie.

Piyush Mishra who has penned the lyrics has done a wonderful job both as a lyricist and music director. Wait that's not all he has also played the role of Prithvi Bana and has done a brilliant job. His dialogues are so bloody good and gets metamorphic at times. All his dialogues are thought provoking and the way he sings in the movie is so different and unusual and impressive as well.

Kay Kay Menon has as usual done a wonderful job as a person who is passionate about his history and his background. He speaks flawlessly and lives up to the expectations.

Raj Singh Chaudhary has done a good job as a simple and innocent student who gets into the trap of college politics. But somewhere we can that amateurishness in his performance.

Ayesha Mohan acted well and may god save men form such women[:D]

But the best performance comes from Abhimanyu Shekhar singh as Ranvijay. His dialogues were mind blowing and he enacted the role of a rajput to perfection.

Deepak Dobriyal as Bhatti has again lived up to the expectations and his acting looks so real.

Jesse Randhawa has done well with whatever she had to do.

Mahi Gill was a let down and I expected better performance from her. I found her irritating at times may be because the kind of character she played will definitely irritate me in real life.

Final Verdict – A must watch for people who love hard hitting cinema. Its is a bloody awesome movie.

Gulaal is a compelling narrative set around the members of erstwhile royal community who want to claim back their Rajputana province and royalty regime from the democratic government.

Gulaal excels in all departments of film making as it did in Anurag's previous, DevD. All the actors have done a fabulous job with Kay Kay Menon delivering one of his best performances especially in his stimulating speeches. Abhimanyu Singh is very impressive in his short but strong characterization.

Rajeev Ravi's cinematography is superb with the colors and tone of the film looking . Piyush Mishra does a good job with his acting and delivers a different and decent music score. The film gets a bit slow in the second half but catches up again on you.

Overall, another great movie from Anurag Kashyup.