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| Movie Review Queen: Kangana Ranaut revels in her solidly-written role, and delivers a first rate, heart-felt performance. |
Movie Review: Queen
Star Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao; Lisa Haydon
Director: Vikas Bahl
Stop press: I have just seen an honest-to-goodness, full-fledged,
full-bodied film. A FILM, hear me? Not an American sit com masquerading
as one, or yet another meaningless 70s masala remake. ‘Queen’ is a
significant Bollywood marker, a film that is intensely local and
gloriously global, with a terrific lead performance by Kangana Ranaut,
in a story that bubbles over with real feeling and meaning.
Rani (Kangana Ranaut) is dumped just a day before her wedding by her
fiance Vijay (Rajkumar Rao). Devastated, she decides to flee, because
staying home to lick her wounds is not an option. So, she finds herself
in Paris, and the journey she embarks on makes ‘Queen’ the kind of
coming- of-age, discovery-of-self tale that Bollywood usually doesn’t
touch with a bargepole. Because women-centric films don’t do well, do
they? This is where Phantom Productions, which has made this ( their
first was ‘Lootera’), has stepped in. (See Pics:
Kangana’s last minute promotions)
It starts with a loud Punjabi wedding, and you enter the film, mildly
diverted by Rani’s loud Punjabi family, doing ‘giddha-shiddha’,
‘mehendi-shendi’, but not before you’ve had time to register that the
Rajouri Garden ‘mithai’-shop-owning middle-class-ness of the Mehras is
just right. And that Mummyji, Daddyji, the plump ‘chota bhai’, and
Dadiji are all pitch perfect.
Big Punjabi weddings and Bollywood have had a long relationship, but where ‘
Queen‘,
both the girl and the film, start coming into their own, is when Rani
is left to fend for herself, first in Paris, and then Amsterdam. A lone
Indian girl, a ‘behenji’ with a ‘desi ghee tadka’, would usually fumble
her way across crowded streets and annoyed pedestrians and find herself
in a handsome stranger’s arms, sing a few songs, do a few ‘nakhras’ and
gratefully accept ‘mandap’ and ‘mangalsutra’.
But not Rani aka Queen. She does make silly touristy mistakes, nearly
gets mugged but doesn’t let it get to her, and discovers she has a
spine after all. Lucking into a long-legged hotel maid Vijay Lakshmi
(Lisa Haydon) is the first departure from standard Bollywood practice:
this other Vijay takes Rani under her wing, drags her into a store with
lovely Parisian clothes (these Paris maids are not just drop dead sexy,
and enjoy their libido, they can afford all those designer threads?),
and generally hand-holds Rani for an enjoyable spell.
Bahl’s second directorial venture is a delight: his first, ‘Chillar
Party’, had some spark, but nothing prepared me for this. The story,
which could easily have slipped into mush, stays free of drippy
sentimentality, barring one or two raised-violin scenes. Rani is given
interesting companions: in Amsterdam, she is handed a multi-cultural trio, a
vertically challenged Japanese, a black Frenchman, and a good looking
Spaniard, as well as a dishy Italian. Again, this could have turned into
a clichéd international-accented soup, but despite a couple of
exaggerated mis-steps, it stays grounded. And Rani is well on her way to
learning the meaning of friendship and freedom in a land far away from
home, where girls have to live with the word ‘allowed’ .
Kangana Ranaut revels in her solidly-written role, and delivers a
first rate, heart-felt performance. There are only a couple of slips (in
one, she pronounces the word ‘fiance’ perfectly, all rounded vowels:
given her Rajouriness, this should have been a straight opening of
mouth). I was also quite taken aback by the speed with which she junks
her ‘chatak’ Lajpat Nagar ‘kurti’ look and adopts pastel, understated
dresses. But no matter, I found myself watching Kangana Ranaut much more
than her clothes. Her mobile face has sensibly been kept free from
pancake, and more than anything else, Ranaut comes off believable: she
does hurt like no other Bollywood heroine currently can.
Lisa Haydon nearly walks off with the film in her small role. She
doesn’t place a single foot wrong as she strides long and smooth next to
the diminutive Kangana. She left me asking for more. And the bunch of
‘foreigners’ that Rani raps with in Amsterdam are all well drawn, and
what is even better, nicely rounded. The one part I didn’t feel as
convinced about was Rao’s: he is made to whine and mumble altogether too
much, as he makes his way through the film in uneasy fits and starts.
But that’s all right because this film isn’t about him. It’s about,
hallelujah, her. It’s probably quite deliberate that Lisa Haydon’s name
is also Vijay. And Ranaut is Rani, Queen of Hearts.
You go, girl.
