Saturday 30 November 2013

BULLET RAJA : Movie Review


If Ram -Leela gave an impression of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's particular cinematic style, BULLET RAJA carries bold stamp of Tigmanshu Dhulia's vision of real raw cinema at its best. This movie is Tigmanshu's best political thriller till date with everything in perfect Black and White. The tagline of the movie which says that " Aengein to garmee badaeinge " stands true with context to the raw power packed screenplay that Tigmanshu has penned down for this movie. Mind you, this movie is not everyone's cup of tea especially in context to its raw treatment and intertwined screenplay which becomes too complex at times. It takes guts to turn the conventional formulistic cinema about male bonding and revenge into a tightly wound intelligently scripted and judiciously executed drama of political subterfuge in Uttar Pradesh. This is a film about the scummy people who govern our country from the fringes. Politicians and entrepreneurs hobnob with criminals and criminals end up becoming heroes of the masses just because democracy in India gives us little to choose from.
 
 SCRIPT & SCREENPLAY                                  :             The  highlight of this movie is its storyline and screenplay which has been penned by Tigmanshu Dhulia and Amaresh Mishra. Bullett Raja is woven around characters who aren't particular about the company or the morals that they keep. They are the kind of characters who either end up rich or dead. We can only curse them under our breath. And yet the spoken language of the characters remains liberated from overt profanities. The same goes for the characters themselves, so lowly and yet redeemed by unexpected bouts of humour and even compassion. The way Saif's Raja Misra meets Sonakshi's sketchily-written character and the manner in which the script allows him to warm up to her without wasting time is a marvel of scriptural balance. Indeed, Dhulia in his most nakedly commercial outing, catches the routine friends-on-a-rampage plot by its lapels and goes for the kill with splendid skill. This is a fearless film. And then, Dhulia takes his audacity from city to city in Uttar Pradesh. The jagged but constantly coherent plot takes the very conventional characters (good-bad heroes, bad-bad villains, a damsel in distress and lots of decadent politicians) on a bumpy journey across the politics of the cow-belt where there are no sacred cows. Only brazen wolves. Dhulia, in his most mass-oriented cinematic outing to date, brings a lot of Jai-Veeru's Sholay bonding into play. They gamely sink their teeth into the morass of Indian politics, giving a stirring dignity to inherently unsavoury episodes from the murky politics of Uttar Pradesh.


STARCAST                                                   :                               Another, major highlight of the movie is its cast ensemble. Each and every actor, whatsoever character they are playing has done his job commendably and have fit in the mould of their characters to the hilt of perfection and leading from the front are Saif and JimmySaif Ali Khan's Raja Misra ( no 'h' in the surname, plij ) is a scummy sort of Robin Hood who is a mix of goon and boon, gun and grins doesn't tire of reminding his adversaries of his Brahminical roots. Here's an actor who can bring gravitas to his character without weighing it down in self-importance. Saif has great support from the ever-reliable Jimmy Shergill. Even, Jimmy has portrayed with utmost conviction and has looked totally at ease while performing which speaks volumes about his acting skills. Sonakshi Sinha plays her 'typical' Bollywood heroine role, and does not have much to contribute.    Gulshan Grover and Raj Babbar in negative characters make you nostalgic for their performances in the 90s. Even Chunky Pandey, who plays a negative cameo in the first half is really commendable. Ravi Kishen plays a character with a lot of potential in the movie and could have been utilised better. A special mention should go to Vidyut Jamwal as he delivers a power packed performance and the jaw dropping stunts in his special appearance of say around 45 minutes. In the ensemble cast, the noticeable performers are Vipin Sharma, DeepRaj Rana, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Mahie Gill, Sharat Saxena, and Rajeev Gupta.

TECHNICAL FINESSE                                    :                     The music for this flick has been given by Sajid Wajid  which is fairly average and yes, one track, " Tamanche pe Disco" has has been composed by RDB. But, Sajid-Wajid have provided a good background score with a true Hollywood western style mouth organ playing at the pauses and the intense parts of the movie. The cinematography of the movie is by P.S.Vinod who has captured locales of U.P, Chambal, Mumbai and Kolkatta with fine tuning and aplomb. Another person who deserves due credit is Rahul Srivastava who has edited the movie and controlled the film's reckless momentum and hit the right notes while taking a route that hardly affords safe options. Now, coming to the master craftsman Tigmanshu Dhulia, who has written the story, screenplay, dialogues as well as directed the movie and fared exceptionally on all the fronts. Apart from the screenplay, his dialogues are crisp, brazen and in tandem to the screenplay..sample this..Brahman bukha to sudama, samjha to chanakya , rutha to ravan. Dhulia's skills as a raconteur of remarkable aptitudes is most evident. He merges mythological and historical allusions into current politics and he weds heroism and hooliganism without causing any discernible damage to his work's aesthetics. Dhulia's treatment of violence in the hinterland is sharp and constantly tongue in cheek. Midway through the mayhem he brings in Vidyut Jamwal ( described picturesquely as (Chambal Ka Chowkidar) to bring our scummy hero Raja Misra under control. Tigmanshu has become a director to reckon with and undoubtedly is one of the best when it comes to making raw, unadulterated cinema.  



WOW MOMENTS                                                    :     Watch the camaraderie between Saif & Jimmy as it has to be seen to be believed. After, a lot of time Filmy dosti has come which matches and reminds you of Jai -Veeru of Sholay which one of the characters refers to in the the movie itself.

 CONCLUSION                                                      :      It is a conventional, formulaic cinema made in raw, brazen, unadulterated and tightly wound way which is a treat for genuine movie lovers. It is definitely not the run of the mill kind of cinema and has been intelligently made and presented.

  ROHIT SHARMA.
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