Movie Review – Gully Boy

Apna Time Aayega

Ever since I knew that this Gully Boy was a good boy, I was not interested to watch the movie. The whole rock n roll concept without drugs seemed to be too goody goody for me. I thought this movie would be more to prove a point that a good boy can become a Gully Boy. But I was proved wrong, thanks for that. Zoya Akthar holds her fort in a unique way. She is not afraid to make movies which are generic yet infuses her own charm.

Similar thing had happened with ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’. When I watched it the first time I was not so impressed with the movie. That might partly be due to the fact that I was in terrific form during that time, watching all art house movies. But when you accept what kind of film it is, then it becomes a terrific film. It’s not a ‘growing with time’ film but more of a ‘accepting the fact’ type of film. The film can be not liked for reason such as ‘not being a heavy film’, ‘a little more serious exploration of each characters’ but not because ‘it’s by rich boys’. I remember seeing a stand up where the emcee says something like, “I’m depressed, let’s go to Spain” in a funny way, which was irritating by the way. Of course, they’re not meant to be taken seriously. In spite not being taken seriously, the comment still sucked. As if its only the poor people who get depressed.

Coming to Gully Boy, the film doesn’t jump into music mode just like that. Music is a part of Murad’s (Ranveer Singh) life and so is Safeena (Alia Bhatt) and his family. It’s not one of the stories where a protégé couldn’t be a performer because he had to convince people. He couldn’t because he couldn’t convince himself first that it’s his future. At some point everyone who watches movies would want to become a filmmaker, I guess he had not even reached that stage but he’s not matured enough or accepting enough to consider that this is life and this is what he’d do. He just goes with the flow.

Luckily for Murad, he has got Safeena, except for some skull breaking, face punching pyrogenics she’s a fine woman for one who’s in love, and a dream woman for spectators. She does a great job, the way she teases her friends, the way she handles her father and the post breakup sequence, how she pinches her cheeks and gets back to meet Murad. What a scene that was. Safeena is an encouragement without any annoyance. Of course, she doesn’t go to Tara level of encouragement. Because Murad is not as deep down in dumps like Ved. But she does enough without being dramatic (except for those skull crushers of course). So, Murad has a fine support in her. He can do his job without thinking about one aspect of life, marriage.

On the other hand, the real hero of the movie MC Sher (Siddhant Chaturvedi) just oozes with his performance. I thought he was a rapper for real. I was even more amazed when I came to know that he was not. I grew more respect for him. The way he says ‘bhaaaai’ was like wow. If it was so fantastic for someone who loves Mumbai but not been in Mumbai, how fabulous it’d have been there for people living there. I was afraid at some point he’d become villain or what’s worse, his character would be killed but nothing of that sort happened. Even in the scene where he fails to enter the final, his spirit is intact. Like Murad, ‘is jungle ki asli sher tu hai bhai’. He indeed was.

Another character who woos you every single time she enters the screen was Sky (Kalki Koechlin). Guess Kalki Koechlin is in her best phase of life. I thought with her so non-Indian face she wouldn’t survive in the industry. But she made a mark and made quirky, sexy. Oh, she does ooze oomph doesn’t she. Not only in this movie but all of her recent movies. She’s so good when given minimal screen space, like a pinch hitter, she just comes and hits every ball for boundary. So effortless.

The movie so effortless moves forward from one stage to other, there were some fine scenes like the one where he drives and her owner cries, instead of consoling, he raps. He enters the same bar where the bouncer previously asks him to go out. In a way it was a ‘Checkhov’s gun’ scene. When the same scene happens in climax, there is no extended shot of the bouncer. Rather the lady who checks ID lets Gully Boy in without even asking for his identity. That was cute.

Most of the songs work whether or not you understand lyrics, I guess that’s the real win. But when the film moves and moves without the title song and finally ‘Apna time aaega’ happens it works like hell. When Safeena comes for encouraging him I couldn’t help but remember ‘Tamasha’ climax. But it couldn’t match up to that level yet it worked beautifully. Post that the title appears like a stamp, wish the movie had ended there instead of needlessly making a soupy scene and spoiling the punch.