Queen - Go Go Go Watch this Movie!

*****

If Zindagi Na Milegi Dobaara got a smile on your face with its three young men on a road journey through Spain, Queen captures the mind-blowing journey of Kangana Ranaut as a simple humble Queen traipsing through France and Amsterdam in an unpretentious journey of self-discovery related in such a comical fashion that you just do not want it to stop. It is not to deride when one says the script is almost predictable but more of a salute to good writing that it is taken to new heights simply by creating comical vignettes bolstered by some of the finest acting seen in decades by not only the lead actress but all of the characters so laboriously etched out to make them more than believable.

When the lead actress, Rani, within the first five minutes establishes her connect with the audience, you know you are ready to settle down for a ride that does not only have you holding your sides but also marvel at some of the finest comical dialogues delivered so casually with a dead pan middle class humble face.

Queen as a title is not terribly encouraging for those who corroborate a mix of the title and a teaser to decide whether it’s worth the outing. It is simply the English synonym of Rani the person straight out of a Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee movie of the 70s living in Lajpat Nagar of Delhi with her even more stereotypical Delhi Mithai (Sweetmeat) shop owner parents going through the routine of life, getting ready for the big day of her life and in a nod to the modern women not shy of looking forward to her honeymoon and married life. In one of the finest enacted scenes in recent times you watch Rani with who you have already fallen in love with meet up, clandestinely, at her to be groom’s behest only to have her forbidden fun turn into a tragedy as he deserts her two days before marriage. Kangana displays histrionics that onlookers will not only want to embrace and comfort her but also whack the groom (Raj kumar Rao) for doing it to her.

This then, the turning point in her life, leads her to a strange quest of completing the circle of her planned life of having a honeymoon albeit without her husband. Then begins a roller coaster of a discovery as a total simpleton she meanders around Paris and Amsterdam and the journey and her trysts with various characters who dot the landscape of these two countries. The interactions do remind you of Sridevi and her journey across the US in English Vinglish without taking away the freshness of the story. Enjoy the rollicking fun as she meets extremely well etched out, even if stereotypical, foreigners, her travails at a lodging, discovery of a less conservative western world, befriending pole dancers and moonlighting hotel staffers. It will absolutely kill the fun to describe anything more and the dream team of Queen just does not deserve that.

The mantra of the success of a film is simply well fleshed out and believable characters including those on the street (though you do catch foreigners staring at the shoot and that does get distracting). The people around the main protagonist seem so real that you will find it hard to believe, the marvel of a director Vikas Bahl actually had real actors doing those. Wish TV soaps took some lessons from this movie on how to recreate simple watchable family dramas with believable sets.

Rajkumar Rao is emerging as a force to reckon with like we saw Irfan Khan emerging a few years back. He makes us hate his character and root for Rani and that speaks volumes of the man’s abilities moving from a simple cannot hurt a fly type of person in Kai Po Che to a male chauvinist who believes that women are better off at home as the male provides and is sure that his fiancée should feel liberated if he dumps her and be open to embracing him when he changes his mind. He makes himself so annoying that you stand behind Rani and will her to kick him out of her life. Does she? 

Like in Sholay, Lagaan, Swades , 3 Idiots, Munnabhai all movies where the script works hard to populate the story with real people who stay with you long after the movie is over, you are unlikely to forget any single character even with a two minute role in the movie. Be it the loving father who is not averse to saying Namaste to cleavage revealing girls, teenage kids looking forward to Skype sessions with his sister, the protective mother, the modern nanny, an Italian cook, a cab driver who endures a not so sober Rani and her hungama and even those brief roles enacted by serious actors in the marriage sequences. These people stay with you long after the movie is over. If at all you rush out it is to make a quick beeline for the midnight cab queue and people can catch you smiling away as you reminisce some of the sparkling humor. You  are unlikely to forget the finest piece of drunken acting since Amitabh Bachchan did it in AAA.

Dialogues are the king here and to know that Kangana Ranaut is credited to the dialogues as well pleasantly surprises you. Kangana will have a new fan base and she has probably jumped from no 10 to No 1 joining the leagues of Alia Bhatt with her Pataka Guddi act and Deepika with Thangaballi. Marvelous actresses who are redefining Hindi cinema with brilliant directors like Vikas Bahl and Imtiaz Ali.  Kangana Ranaut will in probability sweep away all awards but if she does not she can be rest assured she has a place in our hearts. Hungama ho Gaya!

Go Go Go watch this movie, just to commend the women power and the fine humor it can create!