top of page
Search
myrtlemorfeeqrvs

Love Gunday



Notwithstanding an attention-grabbing title that suggests a daredevil saga of tough gangsters, endless blood and ceaseless violence, Gunday (Outlaws/Thugs/Goons) is in reality a lengthy, silly, tiresome, effete love story.




love Gunday




Refugees from Bangladesh, the two gundays Bala and Bikram behave like two wayward high school punks overdosing on local hooch than two big time gangsters who are supposedly the crime lords of Calcutta.


Once love enters the picture in the form of cabaret dancer Nandita (Priyanka Chopra), who both Bala and Bikram fall for, dhandha (illicit businesses of Bala and Bikram) completely fades into the background and the film is irretrievably ruined.


Arjun Kapoor and Malaika Arora are one of the most adored couples in Bollywood right now, and never feel hesitate to express love for each other. Recently Malaika praised her boyfriend Arjun for his new film Kuttey.


Arjun plays a cop in Kuttey, he said in a statement, "It is really encouraging to see that people, media and the industry has loved the trailer of Kuttey and is excited to see me in this film. I have realised that people want to see me push myself to deliver a credible performance. It happened with me in Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar and I can see the same love coming back to me again with Kuttey trailer."


He further added, "Whatever people have seen is only a glimpse to what my character does in the film or what really happens in Kuttey. If they have got hooked onto our film, it's all that we wanted to do with this trailer. Now, hope people will love what I have done in the film. I'm eager to see the response when the film releases."


Story:The movie takes you back in 1970s, when Bangladesh became an independent body. The film is based on the story of two inseparable friends Bikram (Ranveer Singh) and Bala (Arjun Kapoor).With shelter in Kolkata, these young orphans are refugees - who fight for their living every day. Since the first meet they become best friends and stand by each other in almost every ups and downs.As they grow old they find themselves in between the murky mafia world of arms carrier and coal bandits. The two besties also become the goons of the city.As their story proceeds, they fall in love with cabaret dancer Nandita (Priyanka Chopra). The things were going right till the time ACP Satyajeet Sarkar (Irrfan Khan) makes an entry to stop both of them and end the black market business.So, how will he stop them and end the black market business? How Bikram and Bala will survive their friendship? You will have to watch the film to get all these answers.


Although, Deepika has always been on the backfoot when speaking about her relationship with Ranveer, the latter on the contrary has always been seen talking about his lady love and even announcing his feelings to the world.


In contrast there's the so-called love triangle between Nandita (Chopra) and the two men. Not only is there a severe lack of chemistry on this front, the one love song that Nandita stars in has her and Bikram striking poses. How telling. And let's not forget how Bala sees Nandita: as the goddess Durga. You could go all intellectual and see her as a fierce embodiment of marriage and convention, trying to intimidate Bala into abandoning his relationship with Bikram. Or you could just pause for a moment and wonder who, other than Durga's husband Shiva, thinks of being in love and imagines a martial goddess.


Arguably, their ascent is not the point of Gunday. The love that Bikram and Bala share is, and that's what is both showcased and tested in the course of the film. When ACP Satyajit Sarkar (Irrfan) is told that he must bring Bikram and Bala to book, he decides that it makes sense to burn the existing files that document the duo's misdeeds and then try to separate them by sowing seeds of doubt in their friendship. The scene shows Bikram and Bala come close to one another and smoulder at the camera while a fire crackles in the foreground. I was half expecting for either Bikram or Bala to take the other one by the hand and walk around the fire seven times.


No one from Bollywood may have officially come out of the closet to protest against the appalling decision to let homosexuality remain criminalised in India, but wittingly or unwittingly, 2014 has seen the industry cheering for LGBTQ rights vociferously. First we had Dedh Ishqiya and now we have Gunday, in which heterosexuality does its damnedest to drive a wedge between Bikram and Bala's love for one another right till the last shot of the film. But the film both begins and ends with one image: Bikram and Bala, together, forever.


There is a place, in popular film, for a genre piece that plays exactly according to the established template for that genre as a means of highlighting skillful execution. "Gunday" is a fine example. Its gangland saga narrative isn't a particularly novel one, with its morally ambiguous cops and love triangles and so forth. As a '70s throwback it's definitely not alone in recent years. And yet "Gunday" is a thunderously entertaining movie, which is down to its cast and director.


"Gunday" also features two splendid supporting turns. Priyanka Chopra features as a kind of meta-Priyanka Chopra, a character who exists to start a love triangle, and to essentially be an item girl made flesh in the world of the movie. Ultimately she's what Robertson Davies called the "fifth business": not the heroine, not the villain, but a character without whom the story couldn't exist. (Further explanation impossible without spoilers, upon which the previous, with apologies, tap-dances.) 2ff7e9595c


0 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page