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GUDDU RANGEELA
ABOUT GUDDU RANGEELA
Director Subhash Kapoor has a talent for political satire and social commentary. Phas Gaye Re Obama (2010) was an honestly enjoyable kidnapping comedy, and Jolly LLB (2013) took some humorous potshots at the Indian legal system.
In Guddu Rangeela, Kapoor has once more attempted kidnapping and socio-political tropes, but with much less success. Amit Sadh and Arshad Warsi play Guddu and Rangeela respectively, a couple of stereotypical north Indian goofballs involved in small-time scams. When they finally bite off more than they can chew and end up in desperate need of 10 lakhs, they're forced to accept a kidnapping job that involves holding a speech- and hearing-impaired girl named Baby (Aditi Rao Hydari) for ransom.
It's all fine and cool in the beginning - the film is a straightforward comedy with a fun dose of rural north-Indian humor. One scene has the two of them entertainingly crooning a song called 'Mata ka email' before an audience.
Visualize a political goon from the heart of Jatland, who doesn't blink an eye before slaughtering people in broad daylight and threatening and slapping cops in public. Now, can such a person be blackmailed into coughing out crores of rupees for a video CD that just shows him having consensual sex?
Starring Arshad Warsi and Amit Sadh, the film revolves around two minor criminals, who tip off dacoits about wealthy households after performing at orchestra events. When the two are targeted for extortion by a corrupt cop, they have no other option but to agree to a kidnap-for-ransom plot, which is not as straightforward as it seems.
The duo end up kidnapping Baby (Aditi Rao Hydari) and soon realize that their actions are sending them on a collision course with Billu Pehelwan (Ronit Roy), a political goon, who is also the Khap enforcer in those parts. Now, it seems that Rangeela (Warsi) has a decade-old personal score to settle with Billu and how he uses this chance to seek revenge forms the rest of the plot.
Subhash Kapoor had mesmerized many with his last movie Jolly LLB, but this time he mishandled the plot, we must say. The plot does have potential, but Kapoor forsakes logic in favour of drama. Credit to Kapoor for attempting to highlight the issue of Khap Panchayats and honour killimgs with this movie, but the issue has been dealt with in such a half-hearted manner that one is bound to feel a sense of incompleteness.
While Warsi is fine, yet again, as the bearded small-town lead, Sadh is utterly miscast as a goof. Hydari has little impact; but then she doesn't have much to work with in terms of character.
Ronit Roy has been playing the angry antagonist since his Údaan' days and the only difference here is his Haryanvi accent and his sentences laced with words like 'manne', 'tanne' and 'ghana bawra'. But, he does have a powerful screen presence, which works in his favour. In fact, character actors like Brijendra Kala, Dibyendu Bhattacharya and Rajeev Gupta are the ones, who win hearts with their acts and timing.
As far as the plot is concerned, like mentioned previously, logic seems to go on a vacation at various points in the movie. Kapoor seems to enjoy complicating the plot for no apparent reason.
The music is quite ordinary as are the action scenes. Unluckily, with all the drama and the powerful and controversial subject, the story does not justify the issue.
There's an ungainly attempt at 'women's empowerment' towards the end.
Overall, it is an average revenge drama film and watch once for the savior acts of Arshad Warsi and Ronit Roy.
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