There's a key moment early on in Vikas Behl's wonderfully subtle film 'Queen', where a chirpy Rani skips the family tradition of not meeting the groom before marriage, and taking her cherubic brother with her, goes to a coffee joint for a pre-bridal meeting with her fiance', Vijay.
She reaches the cafe' where she is greeted with a wry smile from Vijay, and after the customary small talk, is tersely told that the marriage needs to be called off; he has hit upon new ventures in business and needs to concentrate completely on his career, and that he could do without the distraction of marriage and family right now.
Something beautifully moving and textured happens here. Instead of wailing and wussing like a Hindi Cinema actress who is to be married in two days ought to, Kangana plays it extremely close and remarkably low-key. Her eyes fill with tears, but she keeps glancing side-ways to check if someone is not seeing her. She keeps pleading, yet, remains wary of not making a scene in front of others. She keeps her voice low, even when she is begging Vijay to marry her.
At this point, you would have forgotten that you are watching a film; you would feel as if somebody had secretly recorded a real-life couple going through an emotional break up and in a moment of stupidity, decided to upload it on YouTube. That nuanced yet hard-hitting is the portrayal. This scene could also be held out as a general template for the movie- a sensitive and subtle melodrama. Or you could say- mellow drama.
There's not ONE moment in the entire movie which would feel like a movie. The feel would be that of watching a home-video shot by a family member on his handheld camera. This treatment makes the film very different, but not necessarily in a good way all the time.
So when scenes like the one mentioned above, where you are expecting a lot of emotional discharge are presented in this low-frill, no-fuss manner, you get hooked up instantly. Like the one where Rani's room mate Vijaylakshmi (A terrific and breath-taking sexy Lisa Haydon) instead of going through the entire hogwash of how she was born, explains in one sentence- "Mom meet Papa in Goa. Boom-boom. Main paida ho gayi."
On the flip side, moments that SHOULD have been energetic and exciting lose much of their zing with such librarian treatment. Like the one where Rani returns the Engagement Ring to her fiance'. The impact should have hit harder but the scene plays out in such a restrained manner- she could be asking the time to a by-stander in a bus-stop.
Having said that, the movie's best moments are its silent ones. And this effect is enhanced manifold by the superlative turn from Kangana Ranaut as the titular 'Queen'.
We all know Kangana from the "pop-a-vein" screaming, hair-wrenching roles that she plays. I, for once, was extremely happy that she hadn't gone low-key like this in any of her previous films. In the hands of a lesser director, that would have completely lost the punch of her performance in this film. It was a delicate, extremely personal portrayal. So real was her acting , that when an airport officer tags her briefcase with her name "Rani", I didn't have a minute's hesitation in realizing that I had completely bought her character by then.
P.S- Rani's male family members and I realized at the same time what a gorgeous beast Lisa Haydon is. She looks a bomb-shell here. There's a scene here where she casually takes her jacket off. I glanced sideways and caught the guy sitting beside me drooling on his phone's screen. Of all the 'Anjelina Jolie' clones that have come up on Indian screens recently, right from Sarah-Jane Dias to Neha Sharma to Esha Gupta, I think she's the one who can go that extra mile. Just give her a role like this one that she can do justice to.
And why just Haydon? I think after a long time did I chance upon a film where the central characters get so mixed with the supporting characters that the entire movie becomes an ensemble piece. The last time I had felt this was while watching "Jaane Tu ya Jaane Naa", where the support cast had simply run off with the show. Here also, the character actors are, in one word, brilliant.
In short, all those of you who had loved 'Udaan', that story of a boy going through the pangs of adolescence before finally discovering the adult in him, should check this out- you will love this gender-bender.
She reaches the cafe' where she is greeted with a wry smile from Vijay, and after the customary small talk, is tersely told that the marriage needs to be called off; he has hit upon new ventures in business and needs to concentrate completely on his career, and that he could do without the distraction of marriage and family right now.
Something beautifully moving and textured happens here. Instead of wailing and wussing like a Hindi Cinema actress who is to be married in two days ought to, Kangana plays it extremely close and remarkably low-key. Her eyes fill with tears, but she keeps glancing side-ways to check if someone is not seeing her. She keeps pleading, yet, remains wary of not making a scene in front of others. She keeps her voice low, even when she is begging Vijay to marry her.
At this point, you would have forgotten that you are watching a film; you would feel as if somebody had secretly recorded a real-life couple going through an emotional break up and in a moment of stupidity, decided to upload it on YouTube. That nuanced yet hard-hitting is the portrayal. This scene could also be held out as a general template for the movie- a sensitive and subtle melodrama. Or you could say- mellow drama.
There's not ONE moment in the entire movie which would feel like a movie. The feel would be that of watching a home-video shot by a family member on his handheld camera. This treatment makes the film very different, but not necessarily in a good way all the time.
So when scenes like the one mentioned above, where you are expecting a lot of emotional discharge are presented in this low-frill, no-fuss manner, you get hooked up instantly. Like the one where Rani's room mate Vijaylakshmi (A terrific and breath-taking sexy Lisa Haydon) instead of going through the entire hogwash of how she was born, explains in one sentence- "Mom meet Papa in Goa. Boom-boom. Main paida ho gayi."
On the flip side, moments that SHOULD have been energetic and exciting lose much of their zing with such librarian treatment. Like the one where Rani returns the Engagement Ring to her fiance'. The impact should have hit harder but the scene plays out in such a restrained manner- she could be asking the time to a by-stander in a bus-stop.
Having said that, the movie's best moments are its silent ones. And this effect is enhanced manifold by the superlative turn from Kangana Ranaut as the titular 'Queen'.
We all know Kangana from the "pop-a-vein" screaming, hair-wrenching roles that she plays. I, for once, was extremely happy that she hadn't gone low-key like this in any of her previous films. In the hands of a lesser director, that would have completely lost the punch of her performance in this film. It was a delicate, extremely personal portrayal. So real was her acting , that when an airport officer tags her briefcase with her name "Rani", I didn't have a minute's hesitation in realizing that I had completely bought her character by then.
P.S- Rani's male family members and I realized at the same time what a gorgeous beast Lisa Haydon is. She looks a bomb-shell here. There's a scene here where she casually takes her jacket off. I glanced sideways and caught the guy sitting beside me drooling on his phone's screen. Of all the 'Anjelina Jolie' clones that have come up on Indian screens recently, right from Sarah-Jane Dias to Neha Sharma to Esha Gupta, I think she's the one who can go that extra mile. Just give her a role like this one that she can do justice to.
And why just Haydon? I think after a long time did I chance upon a film where the central characters get so mixed with the supporting characters that the entire movie becomes an ensemble piece. The last time I had felt this was while watching "Jaane Tu ya Jaane Naa", where the support cast had simply run off with the show. Here also, the character actors are, in one word, brilliant.
In short, all those of you who had loved 'Udaan', that story of a boy going through the pangs of adolescence before finally discovering the adult in him, should check this out- you will love this gender-bender.
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| Hindi film Queen reviews |