Queen: Review

Rating: 4/5

Recommendation: Must watch!

Queen is gentle yet merciless, entertaining and endearing but yet overwhelming.

Here’s how Rani (Kangana Ranaut) introduces herself in a foreign country: I am Rani from Rajouri, India.

In case you thought of a place in Kashmir, hold on for a moment. She meant Rajouri Gardens – a locality in Delhi.

At such a juncture, you realize that the protagonist in front of you is dumb, lacks street smartness, has followed others all along and you, the viewer, has ended up choosing an inflicting movie that will depict how an Indian female is still suppressed and powerless in a society where ‘women empowerment’ is the latest buzzword.

Add further, Rani doesn’t know how to cross the road but has ventured on an international honeymoon. The glitch is: a day before the scheduled date of her marriage her fiance (Rajkummar Rao) has dumped her (without a reason) throwing Rani, her immediate and extended family in disorder.

During this agonizing aftermath, one feels that Rani may attempt a suicide but Rani ends up surprising her folks by asking for a ‘permission’ to continue as per the original honeymoon plan: Go to Paris and then Amsterdam, all by herself.

When Rani starts to accept the present day’s reality, stops pitying herself and witnesses other aspects of life, the viewer tends to get a feeling that they have, in a way, fallen in love with Rani’s innocence, resilience and sangfroid attitude.

That is where the beauty of Queen lies. As the confused lass navigates to find her way into the alleys of over-populated cities, changes hotels and restaurants, boards trains, hops on for boat-rides and uses complex maps to reach touristic attractions of Paris and Amsterdam, you start to crave for a happy ending to Rani’s miserable beginning.

This is where the script-writer and the director of Queen, Vikas Behl, keeps a firm grip on the movie: he makes you empathize with Rani’s plight but without emotional brouhaha.

In one scene, Rani shares with a French friend of hers that whole of her life she has adhered to instructions of everyone, be it her father, her mother, her teacher or her finance. There isn’t a single person whose instructions she hasn’t followed. And having done nothing bad or weird all her life, she feels as if she has become like Gupta Uncle, a person who never smoked or consumed alcohol but ended up having cancer.

Rani’s struggle and pain is palpable but the narration doesn’t teeter and lets the entertainment stay on. Rani, wherever she goes, finds friends with her infectious nature.

In one of the her happier moments, Rani mentions in Hindi to a Russian guy that she has a unique sense of humor. That is what Queen boasts about. So, Rani frequents night-clubs, gets on to a huge platform and swirls her pull-over over her head but, for a disciplinarian she is, she can’t throw her sweater in mid-air. Instead, she puts it inside her handbag and continues with her gyration to the high-voltage music.

Queen is admirable with its finer details of life — English Vinglish also touched upon the same — most of times we talk to ourselves and thus the language we communicate in whether understood by the other or not, becomes irrelevant. Essentially, whenever Rani and her friends are having a seemingly bilateral conversation, it turns out that in reality they are conversing with their own self.

Queen is out and out Kangana Ranuat’s movie. The preciseness with which Kangana Ranuat executes the scene in which she attempts to cross the road is mesmerizing. Queen overflows on similar finessing sequences.

All the sidekicks (friends around Rani) bring in an unique characteristic of their own, and each of them is charismatic in their own subtle manner.

Undoubtedly, the movie is slow and is in a sense predictable but the songs, background music and unusual yet innocent streaks of Rani keep you glued on to the screen. On more than a few occasions, Queen goes the Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara way: touristic sight-seeing and the thrill associated to it, but then those wouldn’t bother one for long.

I will go with 4 out of 5 rating for Queen and I insist that you give it a shot. For if you ever cursed yourself for being the way you are, and blamed the outside world for pushing you to the wall to make you feel so, Queen has a precise yet simple pointer in store for you.

Shaadi Ke Side/Effects: Review

Rating: 1.5 / 5.

The aftermath of ‘Shaadi Ke Side/Effects’  (SKSE) is disturbing. After coming out of the auditorium, you are left grappling with ‘atyaachaari picture ke after effects’.

Saket Chaudhary’s SKSE lacks a script and is a running portrayal of family life of a couple and their infant. Frankly speaking, ‘Parenting ke side/effects’ is what it is all about.

Although that’s not how it is announced but SKSE, more or less, is a sequel to Pyaar Ke Side Effects (Chaudhary’s previous directorial venture, 8 years back).

It presents a comic take on the challenges faced by couple turned parents. It goes further, it trivializes them too. A bit hilarious in that sense it may be, but clichéd is what it turns out to be.

Sid (Farhan Akhtar) is a genuine, caring husband who willingly gives in to Trisha (Vidya Balan), his wife, in all situations. But once a child enters their life, he ends up bearing the brunt of a newly turned mother who is deeply concerned about her infant.

This never-ending conceding game and subsequent patch-ups push Sid into a burn-out state of mind.

Perplexed, he turns to his brother-in-law – a perfect family man and a loving father – for some advice.

Till this juncture, the narrative generates repeated roars in the auditorium; largely because a number of guys would empathize with the man who keeps getting rebuffed by his wife, no matter how well-meaning his intentions are.

Beyond this, characters lose their consistency, scenes and situations look fixed-up thereby leaving you with a stretched feeling.

Take this one for instance: All through,  Sid fills-in with a voice-over about the harassment he has been through while bringing up a child but then ends up telling one of his friends: tumne shaadi nahin ki, tumko family nahin chahiye aur aaj tumhaari yeh haalat ban gayee ki tum mujh mein apni family dhoondh rahe ho!

(You never got married and subsequently didn’t have a family. Ironically, today you are attempting to search one in me.)

This leaves you with an expression: Arey…How?

Similar exasperating ‘effects’ are a plenty in SKSE.

There is a perpetual talk about money, bread-winner and financial budget of the family but then it remains unclear as to how the family presented to you is managing it.

And then there is a realization that there is no set mantra for a successful married life. When you hear that your confusion equals that of Sid’s all through the movie.

Farhan Akhtar fares average in portraying Sid. The character is monotonous and is gravity-deficit, too.

Vidya Balan fans are in for a huge set-back. She looks obese and ugly. Many of the scenes are reminiscent of her agony in ‘Kahaani’ and seductive streak of ‘Dirty Picture’. She doesn’t offer anything unique in this flick.

Ila Arun’s entry may bring in a little rejoice to a few but that doesn’t last long.

The detailing is deeply flawed on a myriad occasions. Sid watching a LIVE Manchester United football match on television when there is bright sunlight outside is just an example of many such instances.

Songs fail to strike a chord and any other ‘effect’ – sound, visual, special, etc. – don’t enthuse you either.

My rating is one and a half for the lighter moments in the movie, for this one the side-affects for the audience are inflictive –sedative yet exhaustive. It will take time for one to gather their composure.