Gulaal

Anurag Kashyap rightly said that 'Gulaal' is his most angry film yet. 8 years in the making, Gulaal lacked salability due to its lack of stars, bold and convoluted story and the controversy surrounding Kashyap's initial works – 'Black Friday' and 'Paanch'. But here it is now, what can be touted as his best work till date, the film that relates to today's India with the ambitions of the pragmatic youth confronting the deceptive, greedy and zealous hypocrites who breed malice and violence in the name of deeply rooted values. This engaging battle has been brilliantly crafted by Kashyap with an exhaustive script and screenplay that not only amplify a convoluted plot but do justice to the multitude of highly talented actors. Mind you….. 'Actors', and not heroes. But even more than these essential elements is the contribution of one man whose soul stirring lyrics, beautiful compositions, didactic and engaging dialogs and an awesome performance in a supporting role move you if not enchant you. Piyush Mishra, who was so far a theater actor in Delhi is thus a revelation of astounding talents.

Gulaal is a socio-political drama about the President of the Rajputana community who is uniting his people against the injustice that has been inflicted upon them over the years by the government of the very democracy that their ancestors had once fought to gain. Dukey Bana (Kay Kay Menon) is a powerful icon among the Rajputs who strives to bring a new student in law college, Dileep Singh (Raj Singh Chaudhary) at the helm of college politics. Dileep has just walked into this lawless world of autocratic cruelty that has no mercy for the weak or innocent and thus begins his study of law. Dileep, being the righteous individual who does not share the vision of Bana and his supporters is often caught in an emotional turmoil when he wants to be rebellious, but the power in the hands of the mighty tend to vanquish every uprising against them and so he battles his own cowardice and naivety among the radicals.

Some vital characters form the true essence of the film's plot that revolves around love, betrayal, politics, deception, greed, hypocrisy and of course, the ultimate fight to gain power. Supporting this endeavor are Deepak Dobriyal, Abhimanyu Singh, Aditya Shrivastava, Mahie Gill and Ayesha Mohan in well etched out characters. Kay Kay Menon is at his wicked best but with reserved intensity that goes full blast during his speeches or confrontations with his brother or Dileep. Raj Singh Chaudhary has been around in small roles but this film will slingshot him to recognition if not stardom for his natural ability to portray himself as the innocent and vulnerable Dileep Singh whose journey through the tyrannies of cruelty, violence, betrayal and hypocrisy elevate him to becoming an uncompromising individual. Piyush Mishra's character is the film's poetic narrator. His presence on screen is less cinematic and more theatrical and the distinction is evident when comparing with the rest. Apart from being the song writer, music director and singer for Gulaal, Piyush Mishra is also the dialog writer and wisely has he kept the best ones for his part. In fact, every time Prithvi Bana comes on screen, his dialog and message have a deeper connotation which will make you think for days. Listen intently to 'Sarforishi Ki tamanna' being adapted to current times as he calls upon Bismil to take a look at today's state of affairs. Watch him mimic Dukey Bana's mission to claim the state of 'Rajputana'while also denouncing the plan while singing 'sale hai! Sale hai!' . These are powerful scenes that have exemplary direction, screenplay and dialog with equally astounding performances.

The film's music is par excellence. Seldom have we seen or heard songs so timely in the screenplay, so soulful in meaning and so rich in language. 'Beeda' is classic folklore sung so well by Rekha Bhardwaj. 'Aaarambh hai prachand' is a song denoting a strong initiation and so it very much is in the story as the entire election campaign in the college is executed during the song which gives us a deeper insight into battle and victory. 'Shehar' is perhaps the film's best song with its lyrics flowing through every scene that it runs with. The evil times in the city could not have a better narration. Piyush Mishra's all-round deliverance in this song with Anurag's execution of the screenplay makes this song a spectacle in itself. The hilarious 'Ranaji' teases with references to international terror acts. Shilpa Rao's mesmerizing rendition of 'Aisi saza' is truly representative of the emotions after betrayal. 'Yaara Maula' is a deep, soul stirring composition of evil taking over innocence in its most vulnerable state. Once again, the story leaps forward with the simple play of lyrics that translate the emotional turmoil. The movie ends with 'Duniya', the epitome of Piyush Mishra's talent showcase. 'Yeh Duniya agar mil bhi jaaye toh kya hai' sums up what the movie had to say. The final scenes shall give you the chills with the outstanding lyrics playing for the conclusion.

Gulaal is a very impressive piece of cinema that will be cherished by only a few due to its unconventional story telling. It is a dark and evil tale of India itself. As we progress in these times with our ambitious goals, we are often obstructed by our culture, history and orthodox values and Gulaal shows us a shockingly real picture of that confrontation. It is time we adopt this kind of cinema with the richness that it has in its script, screenplay, lyrics, dialogs, performances and Anurag Kashyap's relentless pursuit of his vision.

• 9.34 on a scale of 1-10.

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.

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.

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.

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.