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Gangubai Kathiawadi movie review rating: Three stars out of five
Few movies have explored the dark origins of prostitution and why it continues to persist. Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) doesn’t go there either with Gangubai Kathiawadi.
Greatest strength, biggest weakness?Â
Bhansali is aware of his commercial Hindi film sensibilities. Entertainment of the masses with sharper, pretty, painstakingly created visuals is his space, not realism. Even when the source content screams out loud for a realistic drama. But it is not to be, not at the cost of endangering box-office prospects.
One can’t blame Bhansali either, to an extent. At the time of writing, Jhund, easily and already on my top ten list of Best Indian Movies of 2022 is struggling to recover the production and marketing costs at the box office.
That said, as a movie-loving audience, have more appreciation for directors like Nagraj Manjule, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Nandita Das, Alankrita Shrivastava, and Konkona Sen Sharma, who strive to take risks, and rewrite the rules of filmmaking.
SLB strives for epicness, dialogue-baazi, heroic swag walks, intricate. loving song picturizations, applause-inducing monologues, sprawling storytelling within this boxed framework movie after movie – a choice that is both his biggest strength and limitation.
Gangubai Kathiawadi story
In post-independent India, Ganga, a teenage girl from Kathiawad flees to Mumbai with her lover, only to be cheated and sold by him to a brothel in Mumbai’s notorious Kamathipura.
Brothel owner Sheela (Seema Pahwa) cruelly tames her into the trade. But Ganga is no ordinary girl. She has a great fight in her. Ganga pushes to dominate Sheela and happens to befriend powerful city don, Rahim Lala (Ajay Devgn), leading to her gradual reputation as a mafia queen.
Grand fictional takeÂ
Bhansali displays great sensitivity to the plight of the sex workers but stops short of showing us the stench, dirt, and dead meat numbness of prostitution.
He makes the flesh trade a distant, background frame to Gangubai’s story. In one scene, he makes it look comfortably beautiful, with prostitutes artfully holding lamps to their painted faces when the lights go out.
Bhansali understandably doesn’t want a Adults Only censor certificate for Gangubai Kathiawadi. Result: The opening scenes of a female child forced into the flesh trade don’t get nightmarish. It is only a setup for the glorified, powerful heroine entry.
Then the detailed art direction, cinematography (Sudeep Chatterjee), beautifully song sequences, rhyming, good background music (Sanchit Balhara, Ankit Balhara), metaphoric, high-end dialogue exchanges take over.
There is no denying that despite scattered bits, over the top and awkward moments, most scenes work. Gangubai Kathiawadi is compelling in large bits and parts.
Flashes of brilliance Â
The Prakash Kapadia and Utkarshini Vashishtha written dialogues bend to the tried-tested Hindi film formula, though there are some beautiful sparkles in the second half.
The song compositions and picturizations prosper and remain SLB’s greatest talent, despite theme repetitions – Garba, qawwali.
There are many powerful nods to empowered women, glimpses from Bhansali’s earlier movies like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Padmaavat, Goliyon ki Ras Leela: Ram Leela, and Bajirao Mastani.Â
Gangubai Kathiawadi: The downersÂ
The screenplay doesn’t flow organically, always looking to make Gangubai’s actions reasonable. Nowhere does the movie tell of her mafia queen status. Did she do no wrong and still dominate and fight the system? SLB idolizes Gangubai to the extent of ironing out any darker aspects.
The confetti raining finale is a weak ending, after the rousing public speech. The story feels incomplete, doesn’t seem to have come full circle.
SLB glosses over the brutality of prostitution in parts, almost loses the plot in making a Hindi film hero out of Gangubai. Yet, the fictional celebratory, applause-wanting depiction works. The exaggerated don’s walk (Ajay Devgn) and unconcerned daredevil gait of Gangu fit the classic Hindi film drama genre.
Alia Bhatt surprises, bosses GangubaiÂ
The teaser gave the impression that Alia Bhatt was miscast, but Alia gradually warms up to the role, ultimately bossing the second half with stunning restrain and command.
How Ganga responds to a journalist’s respectful greeting, her final speech at Azad Maidan, the school admission scene where she introduces herself as a prostitute, gets through a tricky drunk scene with the hiccups coordinated masterfully, the rhythm and music of dialogue delivery…Alia owns the role.
Indira Tiwari (Good in Serious Men with Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is superb as Kamli, Ganga’s only friend-colleague. The excellent Vijay Raaz and seasoned Seema Pahwa have criminally little to do, Jim Sarbh carries the journalist garb well. Ajay Devgn has a been there, done that ease to playing a Mumbai don.
Gangubai Kathiawadi review
Floating on Alia Bhatt’s incredible, revelatory performance, Gangubai Kathiawadi is a good, if not an entirely convincing watch on the big screen.
SLB’s conviction and passion to tell stories his way, with no compromise on the visuals, costumes, white colour pattern, and lavish sets, his knack for extracting superb performances, helps get over the story, screenplay flaws to an extent.
Gangubai Kathiawadi is a true blue Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie, not insightful, but a quirky celebration of living life on one’s terms, against the odds.
