Hellaro

Well, I don't know from where should I start?

This movie is just mind-blowing in each and every department whether it is Music, Direction, Acting, Cinematography, Set Design, Costumes, Choreography, etc.

When I moved out of the theater after watching this movie, I felt like I time-traveled. Hellaro is so much engaging that you literally feel that you're in a small village of Kutch-Gujarat in the year of 1975.

Hellaro is a perfect choice for winning the National Award for Best feature film.

This movie has everything which as an Audience I need.

Deep meaning Dialogues and Music works like icing on a cake.

I request you to watch this movie with your family even if you aren't Gujarati.

A must watch movie!

Movie is awesome. This is my first Gujarati movie. If don't know Gujarati watch with subtitle.

Just finished Hellaro (Gujarati) which left me teary eyed. I'll start with the liberty taken in script by presuming that almost men on earth are bad human beings with only few good ones and that's the reason that this world hasn't collapsed yet. You'll end up liking it more if you're Garba lover (like me) and loves Gujarati folk songs. Film is set in 1975 during emergency era showing the lives of women in a remote village of Kutch (desert of Gujarat) where they are treated like objects not even permitted to do Garba. That's a different thing altogether that in today's Gujarat even if you think about stopping any girl from doing Garba there are high chances that you'll be found murdered 😃😃. How a drummer meets them once while in their daily routine job of fetching water from far away pond and how their dull and torturous life takes a twisting turn is depicted so wonderfully giving you several lump in the throat moments. Shraddha Dangar as Manjhri and Jayesh More as Mulji (drummer) are standout performer. But all credit goes to Abhishek Shah who has written Story, Screenplay and also is producer and director. It's simple and brilliant story of heart wrenching plight of rural women. No wonder it received National Award for Best Feature Film and have deservedly IMDB rating of 8.8 (though votes are less). I also believe Hellaro should've been chosen India's Oscar entry over Gully Boy. Any movie which brings tears down to your cheeks and genuine smile on your face shouldn't be missed. Don't miss it !! My Rating: 4.5/5P.S.: If anyone can't relate about what's the big deal about Garba, just visit Gujarat once during Navratri and you'll see how crazy are Gujaratis especially girls for Garba.

One of the finest movies of the year. It's in-depth research of 70's society of regional India is breathtakingly mesmerising. Characters are well developed, cinematography is top-notch, acting is commendable, music is groovy, direction is good. Writing was always going to be tricky as it is a period drama, and it has thus few plot holes. But acting, dialogues are saviours to direction and Hellaro is an enjoyable film. Very few dull moments (that too if you find those cheesy), else it's an excellent film.

P. S. If you expect Satyajit Ray or Bimal Roy type direction, might get misunderstood. This is a film to embrace change when the world and society is changing. With no sense of economical background shown and all that of social areas have been discussed, film required no serious raw scenes. Its quite natural out there where any modern Indian village people would do what's required.

I had given my opinion after watching this movie on the same day on Facebook. Below is the same.

Let me come directly to the point. I just came back home watching HELLARO movie which won the Best Feature film in 66th National Film Awards. However, on a contrary India's official entry for Oscar is GULLY BOY. I am not denying the fact that GULLY BOY is equally amazing movie in cinematic and story wise, but I don't think it was Oscar worthy. Although these days there is a big question mark on credibility of Oscar, but that is a separate topic of discussion.

Being a cinema lover, I felt that India just missed an opportunity of bringing Oscar home by not sending HELLARO to Oscars. I generally don't write reviews or any posts as I am not an expert here or don't possess the skills to do the same. But not seeing review from known critics/reviewer of a National award-winning film does make be feel sad as they are busy reviewing movies like Houseful 4, despite knowing that it is not cinema, maybe they get paid more there even just to write about it. By the way they also review English movies. A passionate film critique job doesn't just stop at just reviewing the popular films or the language in which they are comfortable in, Cinema is beyond languages & popularity, I am not asking them to review each regional movie, but they can at least review film which has won a major national award.

As far as my opinion goes, HELLARO was incredible in all the aspects. The film has amazing production value in terms of performances by all the actors which are very real, right pacing/editing, special mention for cinematography for capturing colorful canvas and showing just enough light for the night scenes, being a garba based movie, music played a key role which touched the right chord with the viewer and does justice to the story, some dialogs really packed a punch and the amazing scene designs by use of slow motion in right sense which will definitely give you goosebumps. To put this in a nutshell, this film has set the benchmark in Gujarati film industry. Well I can keep writing about Climax, but I think you should watch it to experience it. This film may not even last a week in Mumbai, but it may, if you go to watch this film after reading this note.

P.S: When I searched on YouTube for this film review, I got few reviews by some YouTube users with 4K-6K views on their video. However, these days there is trend of few YouTuber who just react on the videos and their reaction to HELLARO has more than 50K views and they are not even Indian YouTuber :D