Gulaal

Touted to be the best movie till date to come out of Anurag Kashyap , Gulaal is a powerful cinema.  Come to think of it , this was expected. Anurag Kashyap has given us Black Friday , No Smoking , Dev D, none of which are your run of the mill bollywood flicks.

At the outset , the story is about independence movement spear headed by KK in a fictional state. First half runs through briskly and requires complete attention , otherwise risking missing out on complex character relationships. Also another risk is missing out on powerful dialogs and songs with contemporary lyrics from Piyush Mishra.  This man is a powerhouse of talent , and bloggers are already going mad about how much we have lost in not getting to see him earlier.

Its important to get the context to completely understand the complex intertwining of politics, love , deceit , disenchantment. It seems Anurag was in lot of anger after trial and tribulations he had to go through to get Paanch released ( looks like it is going to release in 2009 ) and he had been listening to Pyaasa  song "Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to Kya hai". All of that was poured out to a story and Raja Choudhary ( Dileep ) chipped in to provide the context ie Rajputana movement and added to that Piyush Mishra's music score. End result is a compelling watch.

Although I was bit letdown by 2nd half and especially the climax, there is no taking away the impact it has as you walk out of the theatre.  Gulaal is a must watch for any lover of pure cinema.

Go watch it today and make sure you listen to all the songs , if not for their tune but for their lyrics.

Sample this rejig of "Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna" , which sadly is not part of the soundtrack. Hope Anurag releases a CD of just the dialogs.

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil me hai
Dekhna hai zor kitna bazu-e-kaatil me hai
Waqt aane pe bataadenge tujhe e aasmaan
Hum abhi se kya batayen kya hamare dil me hai

Oh re Bismil kaash aate aaj tum Hindustaan
Dekhte ki mulk saara kya tashan, kya chill mein hai
Aaj ka launda yeh kehta hum to bismil thak gaye
Apni aazaadi to bhaiya laundiya ke til mein hai.

Aaj ke jalson me Bismil ek gunga gaa raha.
Aur behron ka wo rela naachta mehfil mein hai
Haath ki khadi banaane ka zamaana lag gaya
Aaj to chaddi bhi silti englison ki mill mein hai

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil me hai…
….kya batayen kya hamare dil me hai