4 stars
Rani Mehra (Kangana Ranaut) -- a 20-something virgin, shy, naive and conservative Punjabi girl from Rajouri Garden in New Delhi -- is cocooned around by her over-protective parents, adoring grandma and younger brother Chintu and is thus, leading a sheltered life. Vijay Dhingra (Rajkummar Rao), the son of their family friend, starts courting Rani incessantly after being introduced to her. By and by, she too falls for Vijay's enchantment and gets engaged. But after years of courtship, Vijay annuls the wedding just in the nick of time as he's a changed man now and states that they are different. Rani gets the biggest shock of her life and is utterly heartbroken. After her unsuccessful endeavour to plead with Vijay to revert his decision, she decides to go on her pre-booked honeymoon to Europe alone. In the first instance, she's perplexed but after hitting it off with half-French half-Indian Vijayalakshmi (Lisa Haydon), a free-spirited girl staying in the same hotel where Rani is staying, she fights off her blues and her wild escapade en route to self-discovery and self confidence leads her to finding unbridled happiness, which had eaten away at her after being bottled-up for years.
First things first! Vikas Bahl (director) deserves nothing less than a standing ovation for delineating the standard middle class sensibilities deep-rooted in a girl and her gradual transformation, with remarkably plenteous precision. Though improbable but his idea is pleasingly ingenious and Vikas seems to be au fait with the mindset of Indian movie buffs, who tend to fall in the idea of love more than the term of endearment. Vikas has mastery over physical and emotional details & his direction has that fine balances everywhere. Without veering into the superfluous melodrama of a woman wallowing in self-pity, Vikas passes on the message of optimism that women are second to none and have the capability to outmanoeuvre the impossible. The simple bag snatching scene and daadi's paragons, corroborate the statement. Vikas' narrative wisdom is palpable as every nuance has been mastered beforehand and the shots too, are of exemplary nature. The story/screenplay (Vikas Bahl, Chaitally Parmar & Parveez Shaikh) is replete with sanguine episodes and buoyant dialogues (Anvita Dutt & Kangana Ranaut). As Bahl depicts his story, the viewers become one with Rani's emotional rollercoaster journey. A couple of the inadvertent funny scenes are howlarious. For instance, Rani gets drunk for the first time in Paris and Rani's facetious remarks with foreigners, to name a few. The beholders' hearts will be connected to the core of Rani's discovery of inner strength and will-power through her journey, that she didn’t know existed. Capturing, dissolving and merging life-defining surroundings from Delhi to Paris to Amsterdam, late Bobby Singh was evidently a doyen in the field of cinematography. Additional cinematography: Siddharth Diwan, is A1 as well. Amit Trivedi's music highlights the mood of Kangana at every juncture, making her expressions and feelings relatable and utterly believable. Ditto for Allwin Rego and Sanjay Maurya's sound design. The lyrics (Anvita Dutt Guptan & Raghu Nath) too are intelligible, as per the theme of the movie. QUEEN kick-starts proceedings with a Delhi-wala wedding sequence, with the adrenaline pumping track "London thumakda" playing in the background that sets the mood right away. The scene, in particular, is well stocked with clinging of bangles, flickering of lights and Vintee Bansal along with Namra Parikh, production designers for Mumbai/Delhi and Europe respectively, crafted the sets which show the nuances in sheer perfection, what happens in an Indian wedding roundly. Manoshi Nath and Rushi Sharma's costumes are a concoction of both middle-class sensibilities and à la mode. Kangana gyrating (Choreographers: Bosco Martis & Caesar Gonsalves) to the beats of "Hungama Ho Gaya" under the influence of alcohol shows her heightened state of exhilaration. Casting (Parita Mandalia & Atul Mongia), filtering, blending of characters together and depicting them in a complex film like this, without outlasting any one character's limit and to give off a cosmopolitan effect, is a lesson indeed and how! Doing away with the mawkishly over-sentimental & predictable love angle upraises the effect. The denouement is brilliantly executed as well, which will sate the viewers' appetite. In the end credits too, there are Facebook updates of Rani's 'honeymoon', which is innovative.
On the flip side, clocking on the dot at 2 hours minutes, the movie unfolds at a leisurely pace and the bloated editing (Anurag Kashyap & Abhijit Kokate) should have been sharpened up, particularly towards the second half where the flick stagnates somehow. Too many songs in the first half act as party pooper.
Kangana Ranaut's sheds all her inhibitions in portrayal of crestfallen or euphoric Rani is a virtuoso act. Through her untamed body language, she takes life by the scruff of its neck and emotes through her eyes in an efficacious manner. She's a revelation, explicitly. It seems that she were born to exhibit the deglam look of Rani without even missing a beat. Watch out for her in the scene of burping in the car and the scene of her innocently buying adult toys, which is sure to bring the house down. Bravura! Rajkummar Rao fantastically raises abomination. Lisa Haydon is naturally/confidently first-class, neck and neck with Kangana. Yogendra Tiku (as Kangana's father), Alka Badola (as Kangana's mother), Mish Boyko (as Olik), Jeffrey Ho (as Taka), Guitobh Joseph (as Tim) and Marco Canadea (as Marcello) are amazing. Daadi is phenomenal, consummately.
QUEEN is a bold/daring step forward in exploration of the self, that too from the perspective of a female and thus, a nonpareil ode to Women's Day. For Kangana's superlative performance till date and transcendent story-teller Vikas Bahl, this slice of life affair is a crackerjack, which should not be missed for the world.
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/movies/queen/md2553.htm
Rani Mehra (Kangana Ranaut) -- a 20-something virgin, shy, naive and conservative Punjabi girl from Rajouri Garden in New Delhi -- is cocooned around by her over-protective parents, adoring grandma and younger brother Chintu and is thus, leading a sheltered life. Vijay Dhingra (Rajkummar Rao), the son of their family friend, starts courting Rani incessantly after being introduced to her. By and by, she too falls for Vijay's enchantment and gets engaged. But after years of courtship, Vijay annuls the wedding just in the nick of time as he's a changed man now and states that they are different. Rani gets the biggest shock of her life and is utterly heartbroken. After her unsuccessful endeavour to plead with Vijay to revert his decision, she decides to go on her pre-booked honeymoon to Europe alone. In the first instance, she's perplexed but after hitting it off with half-French half-Indian Vijayalakshmi (Lisa Haydon), a free-spirited girl staying in the same hotel where Rani is staying, she fights off her blues and her wild escapade en route to self-discovery and self confidence leads her to finding unbridled happiness, which had eaten away at her after being bottled-up for years.
First things first! Vikas Bahl (director) deserves nothing less than a standing ovation for delineating the standard middle class sensibilities deep-rooted in a girl and her gradual transformation, with remarkably plenteous precision. Though improbable but his idea is pleasingly ingenious and Vikas seems to be au fait with the mindset of Indian movie buffs, who tend to fall in the idea of love more than the term of endearment. Vikas has mastery over physical and emotional details & his direction has that fine balances everywhere. Without veering into the superfluous melodrama of a woman wallowing in self-pity, Vikas passes on the message of optimism that women are second to none and have the capability to outmanoeuvre the impossible. The simple bag snatching scene and daadi's paragons, corroborate the statement. Vikas' narrative wisdom is palpable as every nuance has been mastered beforehand and the shots too, are of exemplary nature. The story/screenplay (Vikas Bahl, Chaitally Parmar & Parveez Shaikh) is replete with sanguine episodes and buoyant dialogues (Anvita Dutt & Kangana Ranaut). As Bahl depicts his story, the viewers become one with Rani's emotional rollercoaster journey. A couple of the inadvertent funny scenes are howlarious. For instance, Rani gets drunk for the first time in Paris and Rani's facetious remarks with foreigners, to name a few. The beholders' hearts will be connected to the core of Rani's discovery of inner strength and will-power through her journey, that she didn’t know existed. Capturing, dissolving and merging life-defining surroundings from Delhi to Paris to Amsterdam, late Bobby Singh was evidently a doyen in the field of cinematography. Additional cinematography: Siddharth Diwan, is A1 as well. Amit Trivedi's music highlights the mood of Kangana at every juncture, making her expressions and feelings relatable and utterly believable. Ditto for Allwin Rego and Sanjay Maurya's sound design. The lyrics (Anvita Dutt Guptan & Raghu Nath) too are intelligible, as per the theme of the movie. QUEEN kick-starts proceedings with a Delhi-wala wedding sequence, with the adrenaline pumping track "London thumakda" playing in the background that sets the mood right away. The scene, in particular, is well stocked with clinging of bangles, flickering of lights and Vintee Bansal along with Namra Parikh, production designers for Mumbai/Delhi and Europe respectively, crafted the sets which show the nuances in sheer perfection, what happens in an Indian wedding roundly. Manoshi Nath and Rushi Sharma's costumes are a concoction of both middle-class sensibilities and à la mode. Kangana gyrating (Choreographers: Bosco Martis & Caesar Gonsalves) to the beats of "Hungama Ho Gaya" under the influence of alcohol shows her heightened state of exhilaration. Casting (Parita Mandalia & Atul Mongia), filtering, blending of characters together and depicting them in a complex film like this, without outlasting any one character's limit and to give off a cosmopolitan effect, is a lesson indeed and how! Doing away with the mawkishly over-sentimental & predictable love angle upraises the effect. The denouement is brilliantly executed as well, which will sate the viewers' appetite. In the end credits too, there are Facebook updates of Rani's 'honeymoon', which is innovative.
On the flip side, clocking on the dot at 2 hours minutes, the movie unfolds at a leisurely pace and the bloated editing (Anurag Kashyap & Abhijit Kokate) should have been sharpened up, particularly towards the second half where the flick stagnates somehow. Too many songs in the first half act as party pooper.
Kangana Ranaut's sheds all her inhibitions in portrayal of crestfallen or euphoric Rani is a virtuoso act. Through her untamed body language, she takes life by the scruff of its neck and emotes through her eyes in an efficacious manner. She's a revelation, explicitly. It seems that she were born to exhibit the deglam look of Rani without even missing a beat. Watch out for her in the scene of burping in the car and the scene of her innocently buying adult toys, which is sure to bring the house down. Bravura! Rajkummar Rao fantastically raises abomination. Lisa Haydon is naturally/confidently first-class, neck and neck with Kangana. Yogendra Tiku (as Kangana's father), Alka Badola (as Kangana's mother), Mish Boyko (as Olik), Jeffrey Ho (as Taka), Guitobh Joseph (as Tim) and Marco Canadea (as Marcello) are amazing. Daadi is phenomenal, consummately.
QUEEN is a bold/daring step forward in exploration of the self, that too from the perspective of a female and thus, a nonpareil ode to Women's Day. For Kangana's superlative performance till date and transcendent story-teller Vikas Bahl, this slice of life affair is a crackerjack, which should not be missed for the world.
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/movies/queen/md2553.htm
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