 Perhaps, here’s the best contemporary filmmaker turning yet another glistering motif on his papers into screens. Frankly, ‘Gulaal’ has the clichéd vernacular trait of Anurag Kashyap. Aye, the best rigid characterizations have been a patterned style of Anurag. That’s been more illustrious right from his script work of ‘Satya’ made by Ram Gopal Varma. Of course, this isn’t a perfect piece of work for all but for preferably the miniscule groups (film buffs or wannabe filmmakers) who would love watching his unique filmmaking. Like Dev D, it has this film to has strong love quotients but goes coalesced with politics and violence. Nothing but a reformative revolutionary is how the protagonist has been delineated.
‘Gulaal’ is about an innocent student Dileep who comes to Jaipur to study, accompanied by his faithful servant Bhanwar. Here he comes in contact with Rananjay Singh "Ransa" (contemporary intelligent, sensitive young man who refuses to abide by traditions; his ideologies clash with his father's, the local raja), Jadwal (who is abounded by the old school of thought; he is the college goon who rags Dileep); Anuja (the professor enraged with Dileep; despair brings both together and a strong emotional bond develops between them) Dukey Bana (a powerful local figure who leads an army of radical Rajputs struggling to get the Rajputana back from the Government of India challenging the very idea of democracy); Kiran (uses Dileep for power and personal interest).
Against the backdrop of a local political intrigue, the film begins with a Rajput conglomerate gaining strength as Dukey Bana and a few ex-Royals convince a reluctant Ransa to contest for the college elections on behalf of the Rajputana party; Ransa and Kiran battle it for the General Secretary's post. The rivalry between the two gangs intensifies and Ransa is forced to withdraw, which he resists. Eventually this leads to his murder by Karan (Kiran's brother and Rasna's illegitimate sibling). Using the sympathy wave, Dileep is compelled to contest elections in Ransa's place and made to win.
After losing the elections Kiran tries winning Dileep's trust, gets close to him and pretends to fall in love. As he tries to fit into the shoes of the General Secretary an insecure Dileep gets emotionally dependent on Kiran and distance grows between him and Anuja. Dileep finds himself trapped in political maneuvers and realizes that this is not what he had wanted. It dawns on him that he is being used by Dukey; when Dileep confronts Dukey, he is faced with the horrifying truth!
The rest of the story is all about the consequences that follow which are bizarre.
 As mentioned, though characterizations have been marked trenchantly, few minor ones have been stroked carelessly… For instance, Jesse Randhawa and few others have a perfect alpha but the end is left out with finesse. Anurag Kashyap has flawed with the screenplay. Though the first half is loaded with a racy track, it’s completely contrastive in the latter part with an ungratifying climax. Appositely, the most elite group would take it on as a docu-drama genre, but how about the other centres?
Kay Kay Menon overwhelms with a stunning performance. On the role of a rustic aggressive entity, he rules out his best. Piyush Mishra and Deepak deserve the same credits for what they’ve done to their characteristic portrayals. However, Anurag takes the roles of Kay Kay and Raj Singh to a greater extent that scatters everyone’s attention especially in the penultimate sequences. As the auteur decides to carry on through so many parallel stories, he struggles with them in the latter part.
What stops the film from hitting the highest point is that it lacks certain realities. With the film centering on critical issues, Anurag does it, caricaturing things at most of the parts. You can spot them with an ease that lets you frizzled with lots of puzzling thoughts.
Rajeev’s cinematography is top-notching. With his particular darkened-tones with best innovative angles, the film obtains an authentic look. It’s a thought-evoking-style of lyrics penned by Piyush Mishra. Aarthi Bajaj’s editing could’ve been crispier.
On the whole, ‘Gulaal’ does brilliantly in the initial stages, but later dribbles slowly with irksome proceedings. Anurag Kashyap indeed should’ve penned them bright and shorter to make it delivered powerfully.
Verdict: Strictly for miniscule groups.
Rating: ***
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