Life of a GanGster. Review on Gangster

The outer premise of the film revolves around the life of a gangster, but deep within, the movie is about love, betrayal and sacrifice. The film deals with relationships and emotions at its deepest levels. The film revolves around a woman and two extremely different and strong men in her life. The film has strong content which manages to leave an indelible mark on the audiences. The film has the key elements that make it exceptional which is, romance, drama, emotions and style

Gangster has been produced by the Bhatt camp and directed by Anurag Basu. The film stars newcomer Kangana Ranaut(Simran), Shiney Ahuja(Daya), Emran Hashmi(Akash) and Gulshan Grover in a special appearance. The story has been written by Mahesh Bhatt. Gangster has a great storyline and the screenplay has been executed extremely well. The music by Pritam is beautiful.

The movie begins with a scene where Simran(Kangana) and another man get shot; they are both taken to the hospital. The man whose identity is not shown is serious, but Simran is conscious. She is being treated at the hospital, when she goes into flashback mode. She begins to recount the story of her life. Simran is an alcoholic who lives in Seoul, South Korea. She is an extremely dejected and lost soul; she tries to drown her sorrows in a bottle of liquor. But there is something within this girl that she has been suppressing, some deep pain that keeps gnawing at her and driving her towards self destruction and doom. Simran begins to recount the tale of her friendship with a singer, Akash(Emran) who sings in an Indian club. He senses that Simran is lonely and hiding some deep dark secret within herself and this is what draws him to her.

Akash befriends Simran and tries to make her open up to him, but every time he tries, she withdraws deeper into herself. Simran does not care too much about living; she is often in a drunken stupor. One day while she is completely sozzled, she falls into the sea and doesn’t really wan to live, but her friend Akash saves her. Finally one day Simran tells Akash why she is so depressed, why she drowns her misery in alcohol. He learns that she use to be a bar dancer, till the young don, Daya(Shiney) walked into her life. Daya is on the run from the cops, and Simran taking pity on him lets him hide at her house. Daya is smitten with Simran from the moment he lays eyes on her and even Simran thinks of him quiet often. He visits the bar that she dances in and sits for hours on end just gazing at her. But one day he is forced to interfere when some drunks leer at her. Daya beats them up senselessly and takes Simran out of this world once and for all.

Simran is happy and she hopes that her dream of having a happy family like any girl will finally be fulfilled with Daya. But that is not to happen, Simran’s dream remains a dream and she gets enveloped into the harsh realities of living by a gangster’s side. Daya and Simran are always on the run. Simran is now in Seoul, while Daya is always on some mission or the other in another country. Simran pines to be close to someone and wants to share her life with someone. In the interim she meets Akash, a man who can give her all the things that Daya cannot, stability, security and a family. Akash and Simran’s friendship has blossomed into sensual love. At the same time Daya returns and is confronted with Simran and her lover. Daya is ruthless in his rage against Akash and almost murders him. But Daya loves Simran unconditionally and pleads and begs her to give him another chance. He promises to leave back his violent, gangster life and start afresh. Simran decides to give him one more chance. They move to another city, where he even does hard labour just to keep Simran happy.

But Simran has Akash at the back of her mind and when she finds out that she is pregnant with his child she can no longer stay away from him. Simran has now got to make the toughest choice of her life. She makes her decision and this one decision affects the lives of these three people forever.

Anurag Basu keeps the viewer glued to their seats, in the first half with a good screenplay, the heavy dose of emotions and fine performances. But the second half is even more riveting. The twists and turns in the film manage to leave the viewer gasping for more. The climax is simply superb. Even the climax is fraught with twists and turns making it extremely intriguing. The script and content itself is exceptional and director Basu’s amazing capability takes the screenplay to an even higher level. The emotions and relationships between all the characters are depicted with a rare excellence. None of the characters are black or white; all of them have shades of grey. An extremely realistic portrayal of relationships.

The music of the film done by Pritam is extremely touching and in sync with the situations in the film. The songs have a haunting sound that brings the scenes alive for the viewer. There are so many tracks that have a beautiful, catchy tune like Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai and Bheegi Bheegi. Even ‘Ya Ali’ has a great touch. The songs manage to touch the viewers’ emotions and also depicts the scenes brilliantly. Cinematography by Bobby Singh is wonderful with the beautiful locales of South Korea. The scene shot on the terrace, is extremely captivating, the hustle and bustle of Seoul and the vibrant colours of the land is done in a deft manner. Even the dialogues have been written well.

But the violence depicted in the film in a few scenes was a little irrational and over the top. Daya just shooting aimlessly with two guns in hand, firing away. The inconsistency of what kind of work Daya was involved in was never depicted in the film. Also the lack of the gang was quite noticeable. In some scenes Simran’s voice sounded a bit forced, and her lisp was quite prominent.

The performances by the actors were outstanding. Kangana was simply amazing and merged herself into the character. Unbelievably her first performance was definitely first rate. Kangana is definitely the star of the film and has given a punch packed debut. Even when her character makes a grave mistake, the audiences’ heart seems to go out to her in stead of hating her. She definitely has unconventional looks for a bollywood actress, but the lass has managed to prove that performance precedes everything. Shiney Ahuja is dynamic in his performance as Daya, the gangster. The actor is a powerhouse of talent, even though he does not have many dialogues in the film, his performance and facial expressions are breathtaking. Among the many magnetic scenes where Shiny excels, two which stand out and makes your heart ache is the scene where Shiney begs Simran for one chance and falls into her lap and the other one is his outburst and cry of pure, raw anguish and pain. Definitely an actor to watch out for. Emran Hashmi too gives a credible performance; his performance is in line with his acting. Gulshan Grover’s special appearance too is quite adept.

Gangster is a splendid film that will definitely impress you. It has a superb script, remarkable screenplay, great content, soulful music and outstanding performances. The high voltage drama gives you a complete high and the end leaves a poignant impression on the viewers