Gangubai Kathiawadi Review : Its Alia all the way…go watch it

REVIEW

Gangubai Kathiawadi Review : Its Alia all the way…go watch it

Producers- Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Jayantibhai Gada

Director- Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Star Cast- Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn, Shantanu Maheshwari, Vijay Raaz, Chhaya Kadam, Jim Sarbh, Varun Kapoor and Seema Pahwa

Genre- Social

Platform of Release– Theatrical

Rating- ***1/2

Jyothi Venkatesh

At the outset itself, let me tell you that the film Gangubai Kathiawadi is based on S Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges’ hard-hitting book Mafia Queens of Mumbai and sets out to chronicle a middle class Gujarati girl Ganga’s rise to power and fame from a demure small-town girl in Gujarat, to end up as the undisputed queen of Kamathipura in Mumbai.

Set entirely against the gritty backdrop of the red light district kamathipura in Mumbai, the gritty film tells the story of many young women who were sold off to brothels for a few hundred bucks, solely through the eyes of its protagonist Gangubai (Alia Bhatt).

If you ask me what the plot is, it is very wafer thin and about how way back in the late 1950s or early 1960s when a starry-eyed and naive Ganga is conned by her own vagabond lover Ramnik (Varun Kapoor) to elope with a promise that he will pave the path for her to make it as a heroine in Bollywood. What turns out is that Ganga (who rechristens herself as Gangu, and eventually Gangubai), ends up being the savior heroine of Kamathipura instead. With her raakhi brother Ibrahim (Ajay Devgn) as her supporter, she succeeds in fighting her opponents and the social stigma that brings out the fighter within her.

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It’s an Alia Bhatt show all the way, as Alia sets out to slip into the role of the brothel owner in a world full of brothels and lustful men, after the demise of the brothel owner played by Seema Pahwa. Though you wonder whether Alia would be able to fit in the part which required a boisterous lady in the beginning, Alia takes your breath away , to her credit, Alia delivers the much-loaded whistle eliciting dialogues with her own inimitable supreme confidence, terrific audacity and a killer instinct of her own.

On the other hand, Ajay Devgn, though he has been cast in a brief role as the local Don Rahim Lala, leaves a big solid impact. The rest of the supporting cast like Seema Pahwa, Vijay Raaz, and Jim Sarbh put in their best foot forward, but length wise they fall short in comparison to Alia who is here, there , everywhere almost throughout the entire length of the film.

While Jim Sarbh is exemplary in the role of the local journalist who is attracted by Gangubai, Shantanu Maheshwari as Gangu’s love interest also puts out a fine performance, and the tender moments between Gangubai and him remind you of your own younger romantic days of yore. Chhaya Kadam has not been ex

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Like every other Bhansali film, this one, too, is a visual delight but you tend to get a very absurdly bright picture of the brothel when the camera sets out to capture the dark alleys of Mumbai’s red-light area, with extravagance and ample gloss, the hallmark of each and every Bhansali movie, whether Bajirao Mastani or Padmavat or for that matter Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela

While music composed by Sanjeay Leela Bhansali is brilliant and there are some songs which linger in your mind long after you walk out of the theatre, the story falters half way through with quite a few loopholes when unfurling some poignant truths about our society, the lives of sex-workers and raises some hard-hitting and pertinent questions, but sadly there is plenty about her life that remains untold in Bhansali’s bid to glorify the life and times of Gangubai but all said and done, this is a film which will remain in your hearts because it is a film which holds light for the future for women