No, this is not a movie review. And I dunno how to review a movie either. I normally blog about anything that impresses me, or better put, disturbs me.
And this time its Gulaal.
Anurag Kashyap seems to be a right successor of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. But while the later's movies were politically-correct-thought-provoking-middle-of-the-road-genre, AK's movies take a darker turn.
This is natural succession, and Gulaal after devD confirms this.
Throughout the movie, one witnesses violence, gory picturization, swears and slangs. But not in a single frame are they unnatural. Every single adult viewer of India would have anticipated a derogatory slang where they have been actually put.
This movie is one of those cases in which you have to see more than what actually meets the eye.
Let us take a few of the characters of Gulaal, which are very symbolic and highly prone to getting no attention at all to the normal 'karan-johar-subhash-ghai' genre movie watcher.
Let's talk about the half blue colored guy, whom kay kay menon calls ardha naarishwar in a frame. I felt a very imposing presence of this guy in the movie. He actually represents the juxtaposition of power and deceit.
Now this is Anurag's interpretation of Male and Female in the movie, and he isn't wrong. The power of Dukkey banasa and the deceit by Kiran lead to the downfall of Dilip; and thus from the very beginning of the story, we get a hint of the actual villains.
Let's talk about Prithvi Bana. He is the second most mysterious character. His bold verbal aggresiveness earns him a couple of slaps from kay kay, and a lot of thoughts from the viewers. The spoof of 'Sarfaroshi ki tamanna' ain't funny. But it hurts.
And it hurts everybody, not because of its irony, but its truthfulness.
Throughout the movie, Prithvi appears to be the most sensible guy, who knows everything, but still can't do anything. Why? The rein of Power is in Dukkey's hands. So he irritates Dukkey, but the base intention is to wake him.
And then, the guy with a flute. Remember the guy with a mirror in Delhi 6? While in the later, the protagonist Abhishek explains to all what that mirror guy tried to convey, Anurag Kashyap leaves the interpretation of the presence of the flute guy to us.
Indian Cinema has crossed a milestone in abstract picturization, and well, abstract characters like this make m e want more from Anurag and directors of his genre... Unfortunately not many, I guess...
Then we have Anuja, who wipes off the word 'nihilism' written on the blackboard, the day she returns to teach in the class after gettin ragged by the students.
This sheer act of rubbing carelessly celebrates the definition of nihilism, as she himself has accepted the world of negative utopia, and is now not concerned with enlightening the people with any kind of sincere knowledge about nihilism itself.
Dukey (Kay Kay Menon). He is a very very complex character. With Madhuri(Maahi Gill) as his kept, he throws a darker shade to his already power driven strong character. But he talks sensible, and its disturbing to see him die in the end of the movie.
Kiran... Well, this character is one of the rarest in Indian cinema, and I appreciate AK for the way he develops this character. I could identify this bitch with someone. But then, most of us will definitely identify this character to someone we know.
And someone we know quite personally.
And at last, Dilip. He stands taller among the talls in the movie. With a great character build up, we gradually get a hang of why a shy, coward, politically correct, ideal student develops into a determined murderer.
His strangely insane love for Kiran might be undigestable for some, but those who have tasted the flavour of infatuation would definitely understand why he falls for the bitch so intensely, and shakes the roots of his very own well wishers. (Though no one was his well wisher, btw. Not even his own dad, to be true.)
There are other characters like Bhaati, Ranvijay, and the main villain Karan, who have been very instrumental in progressing the story and leading it to its gory end.
I could also find a resemblance of this movie's story to the epic, Mahabharat. While in Mahabharata, Karna ( yes, Karan has actually been inspired from Karna) is the illegitimate child of Kunti. (yeah yeah, I know the nonsense crap of the Sun god makein Kunti pregnant coz' of her sheer curiousity about a certain blessing). Here, we have Karan as the illegitimate child of his Highness... In both the stories, there is a fight for the throne.
In Mahabharat, Karna loses.
But in gulal, Karan wins. He's no saint, but then who is in gulal? None.
Kudos to Anurag Kashyap. You have taken realistic cinema with abstract picturization to a much higher level.
But the expectations have also risen now.
Alec.
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