Film Review: QUEEN

Total Paisa Vasool!

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Lisa Haydon, Rajkummar Rao
Director: Vikas Bahl

Venkat’s friend recommended the film to him and he had seen it twice already before accompanying me to Cinemax Sion to watch it for the third time. It did make me wonder what the film was about. I had seen a couple of promos and I like Kangana’s acting; reasons enough to watch the film.

THE STORY

The film begins with the Mehendi ceremony a couple of days before Rani’s aka Queen’s (Kangana Ranaut) wedding to Vijay (Rajkummar Rao). She’s completely excited and dances along with her family, looking forward to her married life.

Later in the evening, Vijay asks her to meet him at Café Coffee Day and tells her that he does not want to marry her. She is shocked, hurt and in tears. But he refuses to listen to her pleas. She is unable to believe that he plans to ditch her as it is he who has wooed her over the years. Rani is from a middle class family where a woman leads a protected and conditional life. Vijay had to chase her over many months before she responds. Now he wants to call the wedding off as he feels she cannot adjust to his fast pace of life.

Rani decides to go on her honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam by herself as she had used up all her savings to buy the tickets for her dream destinations.

The rest of the story is how Rani gets back her confidence and moves on in life. Until the point when Vijay wants her back in his life. Will she marry him now?

MY PERCEPTION

Kangana Ranaut has been consistently working on her acting skills and getting better and better in her roles. There may be some of her films that have not succeeded but I am sure it was not because of her. She was just amazing in her role as Queen. I cried and laughed along with her and so wanted to get up and dance when she did. She exuded that much energy in her role. Fantastic!

While Rajkumar Rao’s character was irritating (it was meant to be), he has done an excellent job of it.

Lisa Haydon as Vijayalaxmi who befriends Kangana in Paris has a chunky role and she has done complete justice to it.

Every other character, Queen’s parents, brother, grandmother, her roommates, the Italian restaurateur she meets in Amsterdam, was perfect for his/her role and each one was very good.

After so many years – maybe a couple of decades – I felt that I did not want a movie to end when it did. It was that good. The film ran for about 2 ½ hours and was flawless with a superb script, excellent direction, awesome role play and ideal music.

VERDICT: What are you waiting for? Get to the nearest theatre and see the film. Total paisa vasool!

RATING:

*Silly
**Shaky
***Smart
****Snazzy
*****Super