Saturday, March 14, 2009

Laali mere laal ki, jin dekhey tith laal. Laali dekhan mai gayi, mai bhi go gayi laal.

Dileep Singh (Raj Singh Chaudhary) , a meek seedha, bhajan singing, god fearing fellow turns up to study law in Rajpur. Awaiting a spot in the hostel, he rooms in with RanSa (Abhimanyu Singh). RanSa is not appropriate company for Dileep, being a degenerate who likes to womenize, drink, and smoke weed. Hence Dileep tries to meet the warden of the hostel for a quicker entry, but to his horror finds himself mauled, stripped and thrown into a room with another naked girl, a young teacher who has just joined, Anuja (Jesse Randhawa). He is mortified and finds a good friend and benefactor in RanSa, who helps him get over his trauma. In turns, RanSa is sucked into student politics by his benefactor, Dukkey Bana (Kay Kay Menon). RanSa is a scion of the royal family and his adversory in college elections is his bastard half-sister Kiran (Ayesha Mohan). Every one seems connected to each other by blood or history.

There are old maharajas who carry a chip on their shoulders for having lost their legacy, there are bastard children seething to claim their name, there are leaders with illusions of bringing back the glorious past. The seemingly innocous elections are bloody and ruthless, with both parties going hammer and tongs at each other to win. Even the student Annual Function is a means to minting money, and a display of power by roping in rich sponsors. Dileep is repelled and intrigued by all these goings on, but finds himself sucked into the whirlpool aginst his will.

In the end, there is a thin line seperating the good from evil, and the most ruthless person wins.

This film is full of violence and anger, and though the catchline is Love.. Power.. Revolution. The Love should read as sex. So far, movies in politics have shown a woman as either the moll of the leader or his shadowy wife, it is for the first time that we see a woman using sex as a means of getting what she wants. To makes things easier for her, Kiran (Ayesha Mohan) has the sophisticated ingenue look of a girl one takes home to one's mother. It is a shock to realise how ruthless the sweet looking girl can be.

Kay Kay Menon, Deepak Dobriyal, Abhimanyu Singh, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Mahie Gill, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa, Piyush Mishra, Aditya Shrivastava, Mahie Gill all put in marvellous performances. The music is apt and the lyrics are awesome. Both by Piyush Mishra. Even the dances, choreographed by Maansi, are really good. Mahie Gill has a small role here, she is a mistress of the local leader Dukkey Bana, who dances at night and runs a beauty parlour in the daytime. Abhimanyu Singh has a personality to die for.

So far I have seen only two films by Anurag Kashyap. Gulal and DevD. Here is a director, I feel, who is able to harness the best talent in business to make a consummate film. His casting is first rate, he is able to bring the perfect ambience to the movie, the music is always very easy on the ear, with a special mention for the lyrics. This movie may not be the best ever, but it is a very honest and a praiseworthy effort.

Of course - as they say in Punjabi - you need a jigra to see his films. A kind of a toughness, no namby-pambiness. It says the world is harsh place, and though life destroys you, you love it nonetheless.