Gulaab Gang

There is something slightly touching about the climax of the film Gulaab Gang which kind of made me think that how great it would have been if they have empowered the women in the story in a much sensible way than this Dabangg style. Polishing an usual male centred film with some rough attitude dialogues Gulaab Gang directed by Soumik Sen just becomes a masala version of a typical Prakash Jha film that has certain political backstage dramas.

The story is set in a rural village of Madhya Pradesh and a group of women known as the Gulaab Gang lead by Rajjo Devi are in a way fighting against the illegal deals and irregularities in their village. As the elections came near, political leaders approached Rajjo Devi seeking support . The crookedness of the ruling party leader Sumitra Devi and the rough justice of Rajjo initiates a rift between the two. Gulaab Gang basically focuses on the mind games between these two characters.

Occasionally some really catchy dialogues pops out in this movie which helps you to get your focus back. When we look at the overall script, there is very little realistic and innovative ideas that we can find. 3/4^th of the movie is the same old formula of gangster revenge films that has the central protagonist and men (women here) fighting against injustice in their own terms, losing team mates because of rude tactics and ultimately winning the game. Almost all the formula fights which we see in Salman Khan movies ( recent ones) are there in the story line and with such poor co ordination in stunts and too much of exaggeration in the capturing part, you will not support this female aggression and victory. There is less substance in the story to make us scream from their side.

The film certainly has a really attractive star cast. Madhuri Dixit has that charisma to be Rajjo Devi who ultimately wants an improved lifestyle and education for the girls in her village. The dancing Diva shines with her dancing skills but couldn’t make an impact with the much needed action sequences. For me Juhi Chawla was comparatively the best among these veteran leading ladies. Her characters mannerisms reminded me of the antagonistic Shah Rukh Khan and the most talented political villain Manoj Bajpai. Juhi had the advantage of portraying a totally different character and she did a really impressive job. Divya Jagadle and Tannisha Chatterji were also impressive.

Soumik Sen couldn’t give the movie an intriguing feel. Each of the adventures done by the gang stood alone making it look like a series of disjoint heroic acts. Only place the director scored was in making the combination sequences of Juhi and Madhuri. With some fire in the dialogues in those particular scenes, there is a little life in this film. Music wasn’t that great but the choreography of a few songs were catchy. Edits lacked aggression and the cinematography is okay.

So Gulaab Gang doesn’t have that freshness to gain any feministic sympathy. A better script with events that has less masala and more sensible tactics would have helped the movie. My rating is 2/5 for this pink Dabangg.

By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.

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