QUEEN- A STORY OF LITTLE JOYS

             QUEEN- A STORY OF LITTLE JOYS

The little joys in QUEEN are evident from the first frame as the entire family is dancing away to glory (LONDON THUMAKDA) to celebrate the joyous occasion of RANI-QUEEN-KANGANA’s wedding and after 5 minutes they are shown mourning together once the wedding is called off. A weeping rani facing the social rejection closes the door on the outside world, but you see the mother standing outside the door for the entire night, just right behind where she should be (her daughter’s back) and the grandmother is shown motivating RANI (sitting outside the door) about the wonderful things that the future has in store and the tempo is set. 

The casting of national award winning actor (FASHION) KANGANA RANAUT and stunner LISA HAYDON is impeccable as both of them hit the right notes from beginning to the very head, their combination is like the classic Fast bowler spin bowler (A la Mcgrath and Warne) duo. They are out there to take wickets oops I mean win hearts and they absolutely succeed in doing that. The screenplay by VIKAS BAHL, PARVEEZ SHAIKH and CHAITALLY PARMAR is top notch and keeps you on the edge of your seat even though this in not a thriller. 

Reality of girls like RANI is that they are very much a part of the society till date, slotted somewhere between unfortunate girls who are abused in every nook and corner of our country to the more privileged liberated girls out to conquer the world. As a drunk RANI says in a monologue “MAINE HAMESHA SABKI BAAT MAANI HAI, KABHI KOI GALAT KAAM NAHI KARA” at that point you don’t feel funny but you feel her pain and that is the beauty of KANGANA RANAUT’s performance that it is very believable and transparent. 

The real hero of the movie/project (Kangana is the reel hero) is the director VIKAS BAHL, who has had such an amazing life till date that most of the people out there including yours truly would (not be jealous but) be in awe of a journey which has been nothing short of the LIFE OF PI, after graduating from film school he learnt the ropes in advertising (NON CREATIVE), but just as he was getting to the corner office he moved on to television where he was the business head of SAB (some of the best comedy shows in Hindi in the last decade) and took it to the no.1 spot in its segment, then he moved on to UTV where under the tutelage of the legend Ronnie Screwvala produced movies like AAMIR, DEV-D, UDAAN and NO ONE KILLED JESSICA, just as UTV was about to be acquired by DISNEY and BAHL’s prospects were about to get more global he left to co direct a marvel of an effort called CHILLAR PARTY and followed it up to start a production house with ANURAAG KASHYAP and VIKRAMADITYA MOTWANE called PHANTOM which has given us LOOTERA , HASEE TOH PHASEE and now QUEEN.

You don’t give stars to a movie like QUEEN, just like you don’t give stars to the neighbourhood halwai ka boondi ka ladoo and just gobble it up instead of singing its praises to the world, the same ladoo that rani had when she got up the next morning (after the wedding was called off) and decided that she would proceed on her journey alone, such is the power of a ladoo and such is the effect of QUEEN.