Revolver Rani

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Vir Das, Piyush Mishra, Zakir Hussain, Pankaj Saraswat, Zeishan Quadri

Director: Sai Kabir Shrivastav

Producer: Raju Chadha

Plot: Chambal: the land of rebels, politicians, bullets and blood. In this hostile territory, you either live by the gun…or die by the gun. Revolver Rani is set in this hostile world where there are no friends; only fragile alliances and deadly enemies that aim straight for the head. But sometimes you don’t need to take lives to finish your enemies. Sometimes you just need to go for their heart. Revolver Rani is a satirical and unusual love story set against the back drop of politics. It’s about Alka Gujjar (aka Revolver Rani), the leader of a political party, and her obsessive love for Rohan Mehra, a rising star of Bollywood.

The elections in Gwalior have just finished and Alka’s reign has come to an end. Her opposition, the Tomar party, have come into power and want to use their new position to take out Alka…but first they want to hurt her. The Tomar’s kidnap Rohan from Mumbai and take him back to Gwalior with the aim to kill him. They’re about to pull the trigger when Revolver Rani turns up all guns blazing and saves his life.

Revolver Rani has a very unique story at its heart that has only ever been hinted at before in Bollywood. This film will bring that story into the limelight and show the viewers what would happen if a political giant fell in love with a Bollywood star and then had to protect him from her enemies. It’s a very authentic satire, littered with dead bodies, love and black comedy that builds up to an iconic climax set in the Shivpuri Bird Sanctuary just before the break of dawn.

Even if she is deadly…Revolver Rani needs love too!

Rating: 3/5 Stars (Three stars)

Star cast: Kangana Ranaut, Vir Das, Piyush Mishra, Zakir Hussain, Pankaj Saraswat

Director: Sai Kabir Shrivastav

What’s Good: The sagacious thinking, the sapidly racy plot fashioned on Quentin Tarantino style & mostly Kangana’s glorious performance.

What’s Bad: The somnolent screenplay which gets you disinterested transforming into bipolar narrative, shuffling between romance & revenge.

Loo break: Some

Watch or Not?: Revolver Rani is a commendably tantalizing attempt for Bollywood. Kangana’s calling it shots (quite literally) paired with her wicked conniving smile is tempting. The narrative in its illustrious moments lures us into its absorbing premises before turning languid. Though the product was made with a more competent vision in mind, the execution wasn’t tempered correctly which makes the film fall a few notches. For the mettlesome imagination, Revolver Rani makes for a gripping watch.

User Rating: 

Alka Singh (Kangana Ranaut) is a dacoit-turned-politician, who loses the seat of Gwalior to the Tomars who have thugged the adivasis out of their lawful lands. The political nexus begins its play and the kingmakers at work begin their job on resurrecting Alka to power.

Amidst all of this, Alka finds a new interest, her toy boy Rohan (Vir Das). With Bollywood aspirations in hand, he is here to use Alka to get successful and vice versa as Alka uses him to satiate her sexual fantasies and thirst. Rohan ends up being used in the game in turn but the story is about whether Alka manages to attain power or settle for being an powerless woman in a man’s world!

Revolver Rani Review: Script Analysis

Definitely not out of story paradise but the high spirits from on-start will make you sit up and notice the film. Alka Singh is a regular Chambal girl, with her distinct taste for phasion, phun & gun. The movie had an enchanting way to begin the bullet game of this unusual Queen. Somehow Kangana’s unsure imagery from her last film floated in my mind and in an instant the bubble was shattered with a loud bang out of this Rani’s revolver. Alka lost the seat of Gwalior to the opposition which leads to a gang war of sorts. For a dacoit turned politician, the brush with power wasn’t very easy on her as her seat of power slips into the hands of someone else.

The story is plain staple. Quite on Bullett Raja lines. Politics, Power, Love & Revenge form the basics of this story. But it isn’t a coherent tale with its glitches surfacing quite soon in the story. The strong characterizations do help in making the story hold its ground but the fundamental problem is the way the film unfolds. The scene before the interval bell strikes is shocking, but doesn’t quite connect with the audiences who stumble on to a completely different ground henceforth.

The entire motive of the film comes under fire with the flavor the story takes. I find it highly questionable when a woman who is blazing guns at goons is suddenly warming up to emotions. And frankly, it kills the fun. The overdose of estrogen in the otherwise testosterone charged film kills the dark ambiance, the humor and more.

The love track is filled with ample quirky moments in the beginning. It isn’t anything near being romantic and that quite works well until the film’s moments gets overdrawn. It is quite a simplistic story which if tackled well contained the embryo of a terrific film, but that didn’t quite work. I quite liked the granular satire in the writing which never barges with the narrative but acts as a calm catalyst, refraining from going over the top. In Bollywood it is quite an art to maintain decorum when it comes to humor, which in this case gets bold but not sleazy.

Revolver Rani Review: Star Performances

It won’t be an erroneous statement to make if you call this an entirely hail, Kangana product and quite justifiably so. There is swagger in her dialogue delivery, confidence in her demeanor and most effortlessly she is sinful, brutal and absolute rogue. Playing all these with such a versatile quality exposing many unseen shades of a character that risked on being deemed caricaturish, she was un-apologetically reveling in a role she had bitten quite rightly into.

Vir Das was quite half baked in his work and gave a performance that did not quite have a soul. His role had a lot of possibility and scope but the actor doesn’t quite try experimenting much with it.

Piyush Mishra stands out in a role that is memorable. He is flawless as the kingmaker who knows the intricacies of his conspiracies right and plays the right hue of clever every time he is on screen.

Zeishan Quadri is attention grabbing and quite well synced in a role that unfolds well.

Revolver Rani Review: Direction, Editing and Screenplay

Sai Kabir might not have exactly done justice to his imagination, the director’s keen eye for detailing can’t be missed even in the film’s weakest moments. In every scene, the ambiance he sets, the mood he creates, the pitch of it all shows the director’s potential with regards to attaining finesse in the matter at hand. He is quite well acquainted with the ground realities of Chambal and weaves a story that is quite in-keeping with the turbulent aura of the area. Guns being the patent norm is quite a wonder-story that Sai told surprisingly well. I loved that one particular scene where Kangana gatecrashes into a celebratory party and guns down people.

The Coco-Chamcham love story is well attempted but badly treated. And I am not sure if it entirely is Kabir’s given that Vir-Kangana’s chemistry lacked a certain notch of needed dramatic touch to it. The music is well constructed and Usha Uthup’s momentous voice still has some magical vigor in it to give you a high.

Revolver Rani Review: The Last Word

Revolver Rani is a better than good film that is pulled back due to its hassle some screenplay and craggy editing. The film could have been way more meritorious with heightened drama and better action but suffering from the known second hour plague, the film loses focus squandering its potential in thin air. Kangana Ranaut however, doesn’t allow the film to waste away. Her enigma alone makes it quite an irresistible and scrummy watch. I am going with 3/5.

Revolver Rani Trailer

Revolver Rani releases on 25th April, 2014.

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