Revolver Rani

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid

Rating: 3.5/5 stars (0.5 stars solely for Kangana Ranaut's stupendous performance)

Revolver Rani" is Kangana Ranaut all the way, from first frame till last. After her career-defining turnover in the highly acclaimed "Queen", she follows it up with an equally succulent performance in a film, which though not as brilliant as "Queen" is still decently entertaining fare. Without taking away anything from the Director - Sai Kabir does fashion a good film that captures the murky politics and rustic climes of Central India - it is Kangana's performance that elevates this crime- comedy, eventually making it punch much above its weight.

Though Sai Kabir, writes and directs a well-planned script - paying lavish homage to Tarantino (clearly his idol), Kashyap (clearly another inspiration), and Dhulia (yet another inspiration but also his mentor and producer) - he keeps losing his grip over proceedings and at times the homages do appear to deviate from the narrative at hand. However, just when there appears to be a dip in the story arc, Ranaut comes along and holds things together with her theatrics, histrionics, nuanced emotions, brash dialogues, and delightfully mouthed expletives. Make no mistake, Kabir does weave an engaging political yarn with loads of dark humor, but unfortunately doesn't manage to maintain a lucid flow throughout. Perhaps, he'll get better with experience - this is after all his debut feature. The cinematography paints an earthy canvas of the rustic interiors of the country, the editing is moderately passable, the background score could have been way better, and the songs are nothing to write home about.

Providing terrific support to Kangana are the reliable as ever Piyush Mishra (one of his best performances yet) and Zakir Hussain. Sadly, for the first time, Vir Das underperforms, and it could just be that he was terribly miscast in the roles of a scheming romantic hero. Zeishan Quadri is grossly underutilized in a poorly written role. "Revolver Rani" serves up a treat for fans of Kangana Ranaut, while also catering to patrons of crime movies and those who enjoy dark comedies. Bollywood finally has another top class actress besides Vidya Balan to bank on in today's times - one who can be relied upon delivering a strong performance consistently along with oozing star power in her roles.

This is my first review here and am compelled to write one because of a lot of shitty ones floating around. This movie is by far kangana's best work till date. Rarely dies one see such boldness and aggression in a bollywood actor, so much so that no past references come to mind. Kangana has completely broken the mould and come out with something innately local. The film itself has moved past many stereotypes like a woman playing the savior to her lover with such machismo. Piyush mishra, as the machiavellian balli mama is great too.

But the film truly belongs to Kangana. This girl, is leaps and bounds ahead of any other Indian actress in recent times

Director Mr. Sai Kabir work is very good. He was not bothered about right or wrong about general perception of hit film but he was celerity of mind regarding this film. Very small characters are justified well. Story is new and different. Screenplay is very good. Dialogues support the film well. Credit goes to writer and Director Mr. Sai Kabir. Neither the promo nor the title of the film was indicating any emotional quotient but this film has that emotional touch and in a very good way. A shot justifies the title well where just keeping the gun behind her palm, makes her heart beating again. I just loved this scene and concept. This film deserves sequel and makers have clearly justified it. Even very fine things and emotions are taken care in good way through scene and shots. Humor is placed in very subtle but appropriate way. Goon uses his lower part of Kurta for blowing air is one of such example. Performance wise Kangana Ranaut is out standing. Vir Das is OK. Piyush Mishra is very good. Jakir Hussain is fine. Music is OK and it gives the required support in emotional scenes.

Brash, offbeat, unconventional - this sums up the latest outing of the latest Queen of Bollywood, Kangana Ranaut. This bandit queen avatar of hers is no less interesting where she immaculately displays the anger, attitude, madness, vulnerability and insecurities of Alka Singh. Boss, Kangana has literally replaced Vidya Balan in the territory of varied women-oriented dhansu films (2 in a row this year itself)!

As far as the movie is concerned, the storyline lacks depth but it is the realistic performances of all actors which infuses life in the movie. Director Sai Kabir has literally tread Tigmanshu Dhulia's lanes with this one. Another good part of the movies is the surprise element and twists and turns it keeps throwing till the last scene making it pacy and thrilling, esp in the second half.

Madhya Pradesh, the bihads of Morena and Chambal and local politics literally come alive on screen. Enough comic value is added by melodramatic characters, their mannerisms and Hinglish takia kalams. Vir Das has for the first time got a chance to play a lead role (though the hero remains Kangana), but he doesn't disappoint. All other actors esp. Piyush Mishra as 'Mama' do full justice to their roles.

Music is as unconventional as the movie (Nice to hear Asha Bhosle and Usha Uthup after long).

Verdict: Not meant for all. Only those who are really interested in off- beat and non-mainstream (typical rom coms type) cinema, should venture in.

My rating: *** ½

P.S.: The symbolic comparison of our (Revolver) Rani with Rani Laxmibai in the climax should not be missed.:)

Directed by the renowned theater veteran Feroz Abbas Khan as his second film post GANDHI, MY FATHER (2007), this is indeed a courageous attempt by the makers, since there When they released its first teaser, everybody got excited riding on the QUEEN wave assuming that here comes another gem from the talented yet under-rated actress Kangna Ranaut. But the impact reduced a lot just after a few days, with the film's complete theatrical trailer coming in having numerous shot being blindly fired by every character on the screen just like some uncontrollable kids. So the doubts were clearly there watching the 2-3 minute glimpses and they all came true as I watched REVLOVER RANI this Friday with a mixed kind of excitement.

Directed by Sai Kabir with an inspired vision reminding you of explosive films by Tigmashu Dhulia, Anurag Kashyap and to some extent RGV too, the film no doubt walks on some ground breaking lines initially. But only after the first 30 minutes, it simply becomes anybody's guess that this is yet another example of those bad films with excellent promotional stuff fooling the audience. Strangely progressing with many weird insertions REVOLVER RANI even becomes intolerable post intermission and that is the reason I witnessed a few youngsters moving out of the theater too shouting out loudly cursing the makers.

In short, nothing really works in this film having an extremely potent plot with a huge potential. The direction portrays it all in a silly kind of lazy mode with an equally less energetic background score having quite weak arrangements and the performances too fail to pick it up ever in the entire duration. Here I would not like to blame the writer completely as he does come up with few interesting sequences at regular intervals. But it's the execution of the twists which fails to impress the viewer throughout, turning them to something bizarre too at times. Cinematography & productions values constantly give you the feeling of watching something above the routine. But the poor to mediocre songs act as a few more nails in the ready coffin visibly. The director tries his best to convert everything beautiful into ugly following an intentional mode and such is his confidence in this unusual product that he even goes on to add another ugly scene in the end pointing towards a sequel too.

Honestly REVOLVER RANI remains a perfect example of the truth that actually a film is all there in the mind of a director only and the actors are just performing their individual scenes as given to them on the sets. Because here you can clearly see every single actor in the film performing as if he is acting in a cult movie, to the best of his or her ability, without having any idea of what it's going to be as a final product in front of the real audience sitting in the theater. Kangna tries to behave as cruelly (or kinky) as possible with her given lines and Vir Das works hard to provide the lighter moments required through his great comic timing. Plus we also have Piyush Mishra, Zakir Hussain, Kumud Mishra, Pankaj Saraswat & Zeishan Quadri too giving their sincere performances offering some timely pleasure.

Yet there is no QUEEN here in REVOLVER RANI and the film is a big mess despite having such talented names in the cast.