3 stars
Dark comedy is not for everybody but black humor is gradually beginning to make inroads into Bollywood as the sensibilities are changing and the ghetto has been broken. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Sankat City (2009), Ishqiya (2010), 7 Khoon Maaf (2011) and Dedh Ishqiya (2014) experimented with dark humor that took on the establishment. While some attained the cult status and the rest failed to strike a chord with the audience because it is difficult to experience laughter and discomfort simultaneously. Debutant director Sai Kabir's Revolver Rani is one such dark B-grade concoction of politics, comedy and a bloodletting love story.
Set against the backdrop of Chambal, Kangana Ranaut is playing the titular role of Revolver Rani alias Alka Singh, whose father -- who died early when she was just seven -- never accepted her for being a girl child. She craved his love but was fascinated with his revolvers. She picked up the revolver because she saw her mother being raped in front of her. She grew to womanhood in the company of her sly & manipulative mama, Balram Singh (Piyush Mishra), just to be a terror in the area but now, he uses Alka for power. She shot her husband dead because he had an affair and supposedly thought of Alka as sterile. Alka belongs to a lower caste but she dreams of escaping to 'Benice', orders clothes from Italy and primps like a diva in metallic conical bras. She is a dacoit-turned-politician and has just been ousted from her political position of power by the Rural Development Minister, Thakur Udaybhaan Singh (Zakir Hussain). With the help of her mama, she starts fighting for tribesmen/adivasis whom Udaybhaan, in the company of two half-witted brothers, has cheated out of their land. She falls head over heels for struggling Bollywood actor Rohan Kapoor (Vir Das) in the meanwhile but he starts using Alka as a ladder to climb up in Bollywood. Ultimately, he becomes her toy boy and when Alka decides to shut all her guns down because she's pregnant with Rohan's child, the opposition leader traps Rohan in order to destroy Alka completely. What follows is Alka's journey of deceit, betrayal & survival...
The story (Sai Kabir) is offbeat and a great satire of political love. This issue has never been raised before in Bollywood. Even though the premise of the flick is unbelievable and too wacky to be true, the plot redefines pulp fiction by fusing notoriety and crass in right dosage ala Quentin Tarantino's style of movies. Right from the avant-garde production design (Mayur Sharma) to accomplished cinematography (Suhas Gujarathi) capturing the hinterland with rigour to assorted background score uplifting the mood (Surender Sodhi), the detailing is precise and real attitude of goons and politicians are shown with utmost precision. Military insignia laden jackets paired with salwars, metallic bra and eyecatching sunglasses suit Kangana's demeanour outright. Kudos to costume designers (Ridhima Pandey & Gavin Miguel) for the quirky/unusual wardrobe! The dialogues (Sai Kabir) are rib-tickling with usage of broken English dialects only enhances the pleasure of watching a true-blue desi politics. The TV anchor in the film managed to evoke the maximum amount of mirth. The director nails in characterisation of the characters, which is sheer humourous. Sai Kabir has done a fantabulous job in his directorial debut by mixing love and violence in an unusual way and sticking to the reality of the land of rebels, politicians, bullets and blood where the people either live by the gun or die by the gun. The twists in the tale, the superlative acting & the hard-hitting climax pack a solid punch and are the highlights of the enterprise. Though aimed at the hoi polloi, the movie is *not* easy to digest because it needs the viewers' attention right from the very onset as the content is raw, real and riotous.
On the grey side, the film has no logic whatsoever. The slow & laborious runtime of 132 minutes with those thirteen outlandish songs (music: Sanjeev Srivastava) popping out of nowhere, make the viewers dog-tired. A dark comedy should be neatly peppered with pacy situations to keep the watchers hooked but the movie has got scenes so long drawn-out (editing: Aarti Bajaj) that the whole impact fizzles out by the end of it.
Kangana Ranaut is evidently the best thing in the film. She is on a nailing spree. One cannot imagine this role without Kangana. Portraying a crazy, vulnerable, aggressive, abusive and nymphomaniac dacoit with tanned tone and kohl eyes is no cakewalk but she slips into the skin of Alka with elan. A virtuoso act, indeed! Vir Das is confused throughout. He is wasted. Piyush Mishra is fantastic, as always. He is phenomenal especially in the second half. Zakir Hussain and Pankaj Saraswat are pitch-perfect as shrewd politicians cum goons. Deana Uppal is a femme fatale. Kumud Mishra, Nikunj Malik, Jami Jafry, Preeti Sood, Rahul Gandhi, Zeishan Quadri, Zafar Khan, Sanjay Singh and Abhijeet Shetty are consummately terrific in their respective roles.
On the whole, to endure Revolver Rani the viewers need to have a *strong appetite* as it is the *most brazen* dark humor to have churned out of Bollywood in recent times. The superlative performances -- particularly Kangana Ranaut -- along with plenty of good laughs and stirring effort of debutant director Sai Kabir make for a wild watch. Give this one a shot! And yes, it has a hint for the sequel as well!
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/movies/revolver-rani/md3336.htm
Dark comedy is not for everybody but black humor is gradually beginning to make inroads into Bollywood as the sensibilities are changing and the ghetto has been broken. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Sankat City (2009), Ishqiya (2010), 7 Khoon Maaf (2011) and Dedh Ishqiya (2014) experimented with dark humor that took on the establishment. While some attained the cult status and the rest failed to strike a chord with the audience because it is difficult to experience laughter and discomfort simultaneously. Debutant director Sai Kabir's Revolver Rani is one such dark B-grade concoction of politics, comedy and a bloodletting love story.
Set against the backdrop of Chambal, Kangana Ranaut is playing the titular role of Revolver Rani alias Alka Singh, whose father -- who died early when she was just seven -- never accepted her for being a girl child. She craved his love but was fascinated with his revolvers. She picked up the revolver because she saw her mother being raped in front of her. She grew to womanhood in the company of her sly & manipulative mama, Balram Singh (Piyush Mishra), just to be a terror in the area but now, he uses Alka for power. She shot her husband dead because he had an affair and supposedly thought of Alka as sterile. Alka belongs to a lower caste but she dreams of escaping to 'Benice', orders clothes from Italy and primps like a diva in metallic conical bras. She is a dacoit-turned-politician and has just been ousted from her political position of power by the Rural Development Minister, Thakur Udaybhaan Singh (Zakir Hussain). With the help of her mama, she starts fighting for tribesmen/adivasis whom Udaybhaan, in the company of two half-witted brothers, has cheated out of their land. She falls head over heels for struggling Bollywood actor Rohan Kapoor (Vir Das) in the meanwhile but he starts using Alka as a ladder to climb up in Bollywood. Ultimately, he becomes her toy boy and when Alka decides to shut all her guns down because she's pregnant with Rohan's child, the opposition leader traps Rohan in order to destroy Alka completely. What follows is Alka's journey of deceit, betrayal & survival...
The story (Sai Kabir) is offbeat and a great satire of political love. This issue has never been raised before in Bollywood. Even though the premise of the flick is unbelievable and too wacky to be true, the plot redefines pulp fiction by fusing notoriety and crass in right dosage ala Quentin Tarantino's style of movies. Right from the avant-garde production design (Mayur Sharma) to accomplished cinematography (Suhas Gujarathi) capturing the hinterland with rigour to assorted background score uplifting the mood (Surender Sodhi), the detailing is precise and real attitude of goons and politicians are shown with utmost precision. Military insignia laden jackets paired with salwars, metallic bra and eyecatching sunglasses suit Kangana's demeanour outright. Kudos to costume designers (Ridhima Pandey & Gavin Miguel) for the quirky/unusual wardrobe! The dialogues (Sai Kabir) are rib-tickling with usage of broken English dialects only enhances the pleasure of watching a true-blue desi politics. The TV anchor in the film managed to evoke the maximum amount of mirth. The director nails in characterisation of the characters, which is sheer humourous. Sai Kabir has done a fantabulous job in his directorial debut by mixing love and violence in an unusual way and sticking to the reality of the land of rebels, politicians, bullets and blood where the people either live by the gun or die by the gun. The twists in the tale, the superlative acting & the hard-hitting climax pack a solid punch and are the highlights of the enterprise. Though aimed at the hoi polloi, the movie is *not* easy to digest because it needs the viewers' attention right from the very onset as the content is raw, real and riotous.
On the grey side, the film has no logic whatsoever. The slow & laborious runtime of 132 minutes with those thirteen outlandish songs (music: Sanjeev Srivastava) popping out of nowhere, make the viewers dog-tired. A dark comedy should be neatly peppered with pacy situations to keep the watchers hooked but the movie has got scenes so long drawn-out (editing: Aarti Bajaj) that the whole impact fizzles out by the end of it.
Kangana Ranaut is evidently the best thing in the film. She is on a nailing spree. One cannot imagine this role without Kangana. Portraying a crazy, vulnerable, aggressive, abusive and nymphomaniac dacoit with tanned tone and kohl eyes is no cakewalk but she slips into the skin of Alka with elan. A virtuoso act, indeed! Vir Das is confused throughout. He is wasted. Piyush Mishra is fantastic, as always. He is phenomenal especially in the second half. Zakir Hussain and Pankaj Saraswat are pitch-perfect as shrewd politicians cum goons. Deana Uppal is a femme fatale. Kumud Mishra, Nikunj Malik, Jami Jafry, Preeti Sood, Rahul Gandhi, Zeishan Quadri, Zafar Khan, Sanjay Singh and Abhijeet Shetty are consummately terrific in their respective roles.
On the whole, to endure Revolver Rani the viewers need to have a *strong appetite* as it is the *most brazen* dark humor to have churned out of Bollywood in recent times. The superlative performances -- particularly Kangana Ranaut -- along with plenty of good laughs and stirring effort of debutant director Sai Kabir make for a wild watch. Give this one a shot! And yes, it has a hint for the sequel as well!
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/movies/revolver-rani/md3336.htm
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