THE DARK COLOURS OF DEMOCRACY

FILM: Gulaal (2009)
DIRECTOR: Anurag Kashyap
CAST: Raj Singh Chaudhary, Kay Kay Menon, Ayesha Mohan




Probably the most important character in this movie is that of Piyush Mishra who happens to be the music director and lyricist of this movie. The movie opens with the fact that it is a tribute to the various poets who have deeply inspired the freedom movement of India. There could not have been a better person than Mishra to give this tribute. His songs will be remembered for the feat of carrying the theme of this movie amazingly. The depth of the words he has used make you a victim of several emotions. You may cry, you may smile, your blood may boil and you may just stay silent admiring the talent of this genius. Gulaal deals with a very delicate issue that revolution today is misunderstood and malpractices are occuring in the name of revolution. No one wants to bring a true change, revolution is a heavy word which serves the purpose of bringing momentum and energy to overthrow a power and to gain....power!

It is the lust of power which is driving the world now. Kashyap brings his world in Rajasthan. Kay Kay Menon plays a mass leader of an association which wants "revolution" and is as usual a brilliant performer. Abhimanyu Singh plays a brief but a powerful role of Ranasa who is the legitimate son of His Highness. He is contesting for the General Secratary post in a university. Fighting for the same post is a young and beautiful girl, Kiran. She too is the daughter of His Highness, but she is the illegitimate one. A ragged student of the college is our protagonist Dileep Singh, fantastically portrayed by Raj Singh Chaudhary.

Gulaal has its strength in the poetry and the dialogues and the brilliant Kashyap direction has made it a masterpiece eye opener. I often feel bad using the word eye opener. The irony with our society has always been that our eyes have been opened, yet we are blind when we actually have to do something to change it. This movie targets almost everything bad in the society and pretty decently carries it too. Depth is the word which is inseparable from Gulaal. The filthy dynamics of politics, the inhumanism of humans, the thirst for power and the power to get power, the paradox that power begets power and only power gets power have been strongly portrayed.

The happenings of the movie might be thoroughly depressing and saddening and maddening to a major section but what comes as a gift is the amazing cinematic treatment of Kashyap. He seems to have the fancy for red, blue, green lighting and unicolour filters and we see its extensive use in his movies. There was too much of yellow in No Smoking, too much of blue in Dev.D and here we see too much of red in Gulaal. These colours are not just for funk, they again as I said, are deep. The red here stands as a symbol to Love, Betrayal, Power and its misuse, Murder and Revolution. Even if you miss out on this movie, dont miss out on the music. The serio comic fast paced number called Ranaji and the meaningful Aarambh are two brilliant tracks from the album. But surely the best and concluding one is the defining one, Duniya. If you can withstand depression and appreciate hindi heartland slangs then that would be a great additional qualities to watch Gulaal . The question this movie deeply leaves on your mind and the answer for which may not exist iss, "What the hell is this circus called democracy?"