Gangubai would have been Bhansali’s most impactful, but fails to
Hyderabad: Conjure the ‘actors’ of our cinema who have taken on the role of a person from the “oldest profession”. Nargis, Meena Kumari, Vyjayanthimala, Waheeda, Sharmila, Shabana, Smitha, Rekha, Vidya and if there is an actor who is the farthest in imagination to appraise the role it is indeed Alia Bhatt. Woefully miscast. Her valiant attempt, her emotive skill set notwithstanding our Gangubai is too template, too contrived, too studied and scripted to strike a chord.
Far removed from what one conjures up as a sex worker from Kamatipura– Gangubai is more Sanjay Leela Bhansali than Kamatipura. This would well be SLB’s most impactful film from Devdas to Padmavat and yet suffers the signature bandwidth and the attendant issue of grandeur and gloss. In fact, sometimes Gangubai Kathiawadi borders on being counter-productive and seems to make it a tad glamourous.
The storyline is simple and talks about a girl from Kathiawar with tinsel town in her eyes, led into believing she can act with Dev Anand if she runs away from home with the moolah – only to land in the flesh trade under the iron fist of Madam (Seema Pahwa). How she grows in stature, fights the exploitative mechanism, wins an election against Razia Bhai (Vijay Raaz), finds help in a brother figure in Karim Lala (Ajay Devgn), falls in love with the neighbourhood tailor Afshan (Shantanu Maheshwari) and raises issues including legalising sex trade, makes for long winding script of cry, scream, mascara and lehnga-choli clad women.
Not a single person in the cast is great. While Seema Pahwa tries hard to beat her branded roles – she ends up being stereotypical and over the top. Vijay Raaz tries hard in a poorly etched role to do a Sardasiv Amarapurkar (Sadak). Ajay Devgn musters some credibility in a miniscule role.
For all her effort, talent, sincerity, Alia is simply not made for the role: we have seem Sharmila and Shabana deglamourize the role, many others: Meena, Nargis, Waheeda, Vidya, Rekha have essayed the role with mixed success.
Alia Bhatt’s stylised iodised silver jewellery with garnets to add, designer jute silk sarees, urban body language, lack of depth in her voice rob Gangubai of her credibility. This is not about Alia in scenes of her vulnerability, she is very good. Good in flashes, as with the film, they don’t add up.
The film has its moments: like the collective letter of remorse addressed by the inmates to the father, the fight for education, the statement to tie the feet of the corpse firmly test the evil intent of a person are flashes of superiority. The finale lacks punch as does the film despite the effort from SLB and AB.
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