Art & Entertainment

Raanjhanaa

Made for an unusually disquieting, ambiguous viewing despite the rough and rustic humour. Rs 100 crore anyone?

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Raanjhanaa
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Starring: Dhanush, Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, Swara Bhaskar, Kumud Mishra
Directed by Anand L. Rai
Rating:

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Once in a while comes a film that engages and holds your interest in the same measure as it perturbs and agitates. Raanjhanaa made for one such unusually disquieting, ambiguous viewing.

Here’s a film that unfurls Benaras in all its photogenic, seductive glory. A town where life is a perennial celebration on the streets, choreographed and captured with as much pomp and splendour as the iconic Ganga maha-aarti of Dev Deepavali. And the captivating colours run beyond the visual frames to inhabit the language of the characters. The rough and rustic humour, the rootedness of the coarse talk, especially between childhood friends Kundan (Dhanush), Murari (Zeeshan) and Bindiya (Swara)—perfectly in sync with each other­—had one totally hooked and charmed. Specially the “vitamin” and “UPSC exams” references that still bring a smile on.

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And then there’s the real issue. That of love. Of one-sided, unrequi­ted love that Kundan nurses for Zoya (Sonam). He’d go to any extreme extent for it—stalk her, blackmail her, serve Rooh Afza and Rasna in her engagement party, even take to violence. She wouldn’t reciprocate, but use him emotionally for her own good. They are both wicked and there’s a tantalising anarchy underlying their passion that holds promise and potential of a very unique love story to emerge. Alas, it remains still-born. Before you can say “love all”, the game gets entirely one-sided and manipulated. Kundan is built up as the quintessential underdog, across a religious, class and love divide (played with an infectious, charming energy by Dhanush). The one for whom we reserve our affection and sympathy despite his unforgivable trespasses. On the other hand, Zoya doesn’t go beyond the haughty, cold, heart-breaker mould. Even the journey to redemption (set in the asininely handled world of JNU-Delhi politics and a cringingly laughable take on the fiery Bhatta Parsaul issue) is reserved for the hero. The heroine will have to remain content shouldering the blame and guilt when she finds her chance to strike back. If only her character had been given more layers, Kundan, perhaps, wouldn’t have come across as just a cute, endearing, idealised version of a painfully persistent, possessive, obsessive, suffocating guy that he essentially is. One whom any woman would be entir­ely justified in snubbing and turning her back on.

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The backbone of any good romance—reciprocated or not—is the dyn­amics of the lovers. Here it gets as warped as ano­t­her recent, though much reviled, film set in anot­her UP town—Ishaq­za­ade. If this shows us ‘rea­lity’, so did that. If love brings out the worst in lovers here, so it did there. Only Raanjhanaa is a more palatable mirror that makes us accept thi­ngs than question them. Rs 100 crore anyone?

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