Gulaab Gang

The combo of 2 of the Bollywood Top Divas is out in cinemas with a high frequency slogan "Women Empowerment". The film is full of undulating situations, emotions, action and drama. The acting skills of Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla are well suited to the overall plot. The supporting actors and actresses are well balanced. The talent of Juhi Chawla has been proved finally and she has been on the stronger side of her personality signature. Madhuri Dixit was too inspirational but the action sequence filmed on her gave a bit clumsy and super hero touch that looked a bit out of reality. The film should have been advertised and promoted more.The respect and dedication extended towards Madhuri in the film is sketchy and should have been elaborated a little. The storyline developed well in the first half but it looses its tempo and effect considerably in the second half. The situations and cinematography should have been more convincing. The dialogs were effective, fresh and innovative but were out of synchronization with the situation during 2nd half. The music remained out of soul, touch and melody. An item song at an appropriate situation could have paid rich dividends towards the commercial aspect. Overall the film did a good job and can make the audience stick to their seats. Bollywood is rapidly advancing towards women excellence in films and female actors are merely a show piece now. The film is dedicated to women empowerment and nothing could have been a better gift for women on this "Women Day" than "Gulaab Gang". An intense, vocal, bold and a must watch drama packed with impressive acting skills and dialogs.

The early 90's of Bollywood was ruled by gorgeous and talented Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla,Karisma Kapoor who set the screen on fire with their charisma and versatility in acting. Gulab Gang will blow your mind with powerhouse performance by Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla.

Gulab Gang talks about the right of education , freedom , speech of women in the village of UP. Rajjo ( played by Madhuri) leads the gang and fights for crime against women. Her path is vehemently blocked by shrewd and crooked politician ( played by Juhi Chawla). They face-off each other in the battle of guts and glory.

As a first time director, Soumik Sen does a decent job of bringing two veterans and extracting extraordinary performance from them. The movie is exceptional in the first half with few moments like introduction scenes of Madhuri and Juhi , confrontation between them and shutting down then entire office of local office are definitely applauding. However, the second half is messed up completely with so many potholes in the script and not so convincing climax as if the director was in hurry to complete the film. Cinematography is outstanding. Art direction is decent. Background score is good. Music is a big letdown. In fact, it was not required at all. Madhuri Dixit outshines as Rajjo. She will remind you of Janki from Lajja where she played similar strong-headed character. She excels in dialogues and is brilliant in the action scenes. You will probably remember Juhi Chawla as chirpy and bubbly next-door-girl characters she played in various film but you will be taken in for surprise as she plays the negative role with aplomb. She emotes expressively through her eyes with devilish charm.

Overall, decent flick where Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla shines in this political drama. Good 3/5

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Soumik Sen's 'Gulaab Gang' released amidst some controversy especially the lawsuit it faced from real Gulabi Gang leader Sampat Pal. After seeing this mess of a film I completely understand why. Of course, when the lead actress Madhuri Dixit describes it as her 'Dabangg' (another overrated awful movie) one pretty much knows what to expect: that this wouldn't be a film that intends to depict the Gulabi Gang and tell their story but just another meaningless good versus evil 'masala' flick masquerading as something that depicts and supports women's rights. Even the producers shamelessly throw in the disclaimer that the movie is entirely fiction. Okay.

There are several songs (ranging from mediocre to awful) and dances. Yes, Madhuri does dance and I doubt she'd ever do a film where she isn't required to dance. After all, she's a much better dancer than actress and here she fails to have an effect. Sen's 'Gulaab Gang' (should have been titled Madhuri's Gang) are all good looking thin women with nice makeup. Occasionally, they swing their hips to music, stand erect looking indifferent or jump around with domestic weapons. Madhuri also gets to do some Kill Bill-Matrix style action sequences (which are mostly shot in slow motion because Bollywood thinks that's cool).

Moreover, the references to Madhuri Dixit the star (and her steamy numbers from 80s movies) are painfully evident. This film was supposed to be about the real Gulabi Gang and not Madhuri the hero. But enough on that. Even otherwise, it's all done so over-the-top. A shootout final? Really? Is this 'Sholay'? The sequences of Rajjo's childhood are laughably bad. Alphonse Roy's cinematography is decent but Sen's script and direction are messy. The film lacks a consistent narrative. The tongue in cheek dialogue appears forced at times.

The only interesting thing about the movie are the Sumitra's sequences especially those with Rajjo. In fact, the Sumitra character is way more interesting than the formulaic (super?)hero. It makes the viewer wonder about her background, what made her into this ruthless power-craving monster. She's clearly a sociopath who's managed to get away with so much all those years.

And of course, Juhi Chawla is transcendent as she steals every scene and is the only reason why the film is even watchable (despite limited screen time). Of the supporting cast Tannishtha Chatterjee and Priyanka Bose stand out. Divya Jagdale is quite loud. Overall, 'Gulaab Gang' is silly. It, very noticeably, tries to milk on Madhuri's former stardom and the growing recognition of the real Gulabi Gang, with it's supposed 'feminist message'. No.

After watching the movie on the first day of its release, I was eager to read the reviews. But i was shocked to learn that critics have rated this film as average to poor. If you watch a film wearing magnifying glasses you will surely find errors in every film. But this film, which is made with such conviction surely deserved better reviews. The highlight of the film is its star cast. Juhi Chawla is excellent as the evil politician. She brings so much life into the diabolic character that you get goosebumps whenever you see her on screen. Juhi is totally believable as as a malignant and immoral lady. Madhuri too has acted well, but something was lacking in her characterization , due to which this does not make one of her memorable performances. Rest of the cast is also good. The actresses who played madhuri's associates have delivered a great act. Despite having no male lead actors, the film is thoroughly entertaining. It is thrilling to watch the confrontation between Madhuri & Juhi. I wish the critics had set aside their double standards and watched the movie from audience's perspective. This film is far better than multi million grossing films which i feel are making fool out of the audiences.

More than half the film went in just introducing Rajjo's Gulaab Gang and their ferocity. Overall it looked like a series of loosely-connected events (and random songs in between) and not much focus or time was given on the main conflict between Rajjo and politician Sumitra Devi. Closer to the end you could tell that the film was just trying to rush through some dramatic scenes.

Rajjo and Sumitra Devi were interesting characters. The acting by Madhuri Dixit and JuhI Chawla was good but not exceptional. Many of the supporting characters (Gulaab Gang members) also had very powerful roles.

Based on how the film was developed, it would have made more sense to make the film 1 hour longer to develop the conflict, or to keep it the same length but cut out the irrelevant scenes and use that time to develop the conflict. It would be even better as a short high-budget TV series.