Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Vir Das, Piyush Mishra, Zakir
Hussain, Kumud Mishra, Pankaj Saraswat
Director: Sai Kabir
Watching the movie ‘Revolver Rani’ will generate two
distinct sentiments in you. First – Sheer applause for Kangana Ranaut for
daring to take up such a role and successfully managing to look ugly, agile,
psychotic, as well as a fashion enthusiast, in all the frames. Second – Though Sai
Kabir has done an ok enough directorial job, you do miss the chiseled rustic
take of a maverick like Anurag Kashyap.
Given the backdrop of Chambal, Madhya Pradesh, the
movie starts with a political tussle between a local politician and ‘Alka’ aka
Kangana, both of whom aspire to become MLA and as per the thumb rule of the
land, feel free to display and use muscle power and firearms as and when they
feel like. Characterization of ‘Alka’ is rather unclear. Most you can make out
is that, she is a bold dacoit type woman who had her first tete-a-tete with a
firearm at the age of seven! She is brought up and mentored by her maternal
uncle ‘Balli’, who ably guides her with a shrewd mindset and loves the idea of
winning the election more than he loves his niece! He has absolute no patience for
anyone or anything that may come in its way, including his niece’s love life or
motherhood.
It goes without saying, that Kangana Ranaut has
acted differently and excellently, very much like a la Vidya Balan in ‘Dirty
Picture’. She is confidant, uninhibited and never tries to step outside the
character to justify the insecurities of a leading heroine. Piyush Mishra
(Balli), as ever has done an excellent job. In fact, he is the only one in the
film who displays depth of character. Vir Das has done an ok job of the role of
a toy-boy turned love interest of the protagonist, who ever smilingly dances to
her wishes for his personal ambition and monetary interest. This is his first
attempt without funny lines. Zakir Hussain and others have done well too. Story
narration and editing leave a lot to be desired. Even the background score
could have been much better. However, the opening score by Usha Uthup is nice
and well sets the mood of the film.
Inspite of good storyline, star cast and performance,
this movie watching experience seems incomplete, primarily because the genre of
the film is unclear. The movie starts as a South style action flick with oodles
of attitude and panache and you really look forward to see the treatment given
to such a subject by a leading Bollywood actress. But then out of nowhere, the feisty
protagonist turns soft and confused and you are left thinking with a sinking
heart that the ‘stylish victory’ at the end that you were so sure of will definitely
not happen and you will be required to make peace with one of the stereotyped
Bollywood film endings!
