We as human beings, live in two worlds. The first that is given to us, the one we are born into; while the other, is the one we wish to achieve. It is a world that we would want to create for ourselves that is better than the one we currently have, in whatever form: striving to achieve freedom of various kinds, be it financial, emotional, physical or societal. Each day, what motivates us to get out of bed is to create the world that we believe we deserve, from the raw materials present in our real world. Now the path is definitely not a straight route, neither is it easy. But the length can be gauged by the choices made to achieve it.
Over 20 years ago there was an album that came out named ‘Breathless’, the singer for which was Shankar Mahadevan and Lyricist, Javed Akhtar. One particular track was called ‘Breathless’, as defined by Wikipedia, ‘is a steady stream of a song that goes on without a break, stanzas, verse or apparently even a pause for breath.’ Basically, a longer way of saying, rap. It was what put Shankar Mahadevan at center stage. Obviously at that point of time I did not know there existed an art such as this, in music. I had loved that song then and do now too. But today, after 20 years, when that same form of music is so rampant, it is something that I absolutely detest. I have learnt that a rapper’s superiority today among their peers, depends on how well they can insult their opponent, poetically. And if you prove your might there, then you can rap something worthy, well maybe.
Gully Boy, written by Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar and directed by Zoya Akthar is the story of Murad played by Ranveer Singh, who belongs to the slums of Mumbai but wishes to rise above the same. In his quest to make his way out of his real world to that of a better one along with Safeena, played by Alia Bhatt, is what this feature presentation encompasses. The film is loosely based on the life of street rappers Divine and Naezy. Now while the subject matter of the film covers areas of poverty, drugs, physical abuse and the eternal, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree mindset, the nucleus of the film is Murad’s creative genius and ability to write poetry together with being allured by the art of rap, which is what gives it its USP.
Straight up the movie makes you reach out for the snooze button in the first 10 minutes and continues to do the same with larger intervals of time. At a running time of nearly 160 minutes this work of art could use some serious editing. While the direction is kept clean and sharp panning through the ‘gullies’ of Dharavi, the character attributes that are captured are more animal instinctive. Jealousy, belittling, greed and physical confrontations is what is embossed on screen.
Being an admirer of Zoya Akhtar’s work, the story telling that I was looking forward to, was unimpressive and that’s where the disappointment lies. With an extremely predictable screenplay, the movie has no edge of the seat moments and none emotionally appealing despite having a slum background to it. It’s a regular inspirational story with the similar hardships that one goes through, but at the end of it, you feel tired instead of being emotionally choked or adrenaline fueled.
Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt are established actors and have proved themselves time and again and here too have done justice to their respective characters. However, there is nothing extraordinary or grossly disappointing in their skills making it a decent display of their art. Vijay Raaz has put his heart and soul into his character and is convincing in his character portrayal. Siddhant Chaturvedi as Srikant has made a mark with his acting abilities and the ease in front of the camera while Kalki Koechlin sticks to her ABC’s of acting doing quite alright.
With 18 tracks in the album, the music of the film is a collaboration among various artists, mostly in the field of rap and hip hop and personally do not appeal to my music taste. I could barely appreciate the “new rap anthem” ‘apna time aayega’, only because of the poetry but would not play it as a track on my playlist. Of course, an audience that enjoys this genre of music would believe differently.
All in all, a decent story and inspirational, but the execution and length really sucks the life of it not to mention the painful ‘rap battles’ that one has to deal with if you are not fond of the style of music. Overly marketed and hyped, the movie in my opinion does not do justice to the perceived expectations. A forced love story as Alia’s character could very well be omitted and it still would not make any difference to the theme and plot of the film except for the fact that there would be no female lead, shows the ill placement of characters in the executed story. If you did not manage to get the tickets, I would take it as a blessing and would much rather prefer to watch it with my fast forward button in place, when it graces AmazonPrime. Ranveer Singh fans however will think differently.
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