Gully Boy - A+ (Award Worthy)

After listening to massive wave of backlash against Alia Bhatt and Gully Boy from Kangana Ranaut after untimely death of Sushant Singh Rajput (May he rest in peace). I decided to watch Gully Boy out of curiosity and I was amazed how terribly wrong Kangana was to attribute someone's death to a movie or certain people. Gully Boy for a person like me who rarely watch Bollywood movies unless it's on Netflix is such a game changer. A whole movie not only on rap music woven into struggles of a poor guys from slums with the message of empowerment to youth, friendships and dream was astounding.

I don't even listen to rap music besides EMINEM, and I was enchanted by Indian rap which I have never heard in my life. I was amazed that they used no profanity laced rap in the movie to make it more appealing to younger crowed either. They showed Muslim background where singing in the family is the forbidden and empowered even Hijab wearing Alia Bhatt to speak her mind and still be the leading lady. To say she won award for 15 mints screen time is utterly ridiculous, you don't have to win an award for how much time you have spend on screen. Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs and Judi Dench in Elizabeth won Oscars for merely roles 10-15mints screen time. A movie like Gully Boy, which is one of kind real musical directed by a women is commendable.

The hate towards the movie from some part of the very vocal group speaks volume of misogyny in some individuals. who want to take advantage of someone's demise to settle their own old scores against old enemies from YashRaj, Karan Johar, Bhatt Family, Hrithik's family friends Javed Akhtar etc etc. is utterly shameful. A person who never worked with him or helped him while he was being trolled for Drive and rumours now is trying to become his ally. Nepotism exists in every industry even a shopkeeper hands over businesses to his family not stranger and to train them you have to put them through the business. Some get successful, but mostly miserably fail. Legendary actors like Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan were outsiders, there is mix balance of both sides and new crop Ayushman Khurrana, Kangana Ranaut, Taapsee Panu, Rajkumar Rao, Katrina Kaif, Kriti Sanon and Bhumi Padnekar are proof that if you have talent you can make space, it won't be easy but if you want an easy life then don't chase your dreams. Chasing dreams and accomplishing them is going to be hard and I am glad that this movie shows that and put a light on such topic and I hope people understand and focus on positivity and not the negativity.

A powerful movie which showed camaraderie among friends without jealousy, determination, family love and struggles living in slums with rap music is unimaginable in Bollywood mainstream cinema with top actors Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. The movie deserves all accolades as cinema like this needs to be encouraged and appreciated.

Gully Boy (Street Boy) is full of energy. So full of energy that I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for nearly 3 hours as this blend of hip hop music and dramatic performances put me in a state of daze. Unfortunately, when I was finally out of that daze, the humdrum, polished story stared me at the face, making me feign the gloomy air of a rapper that he assumes when he realizes he just got owned by his opponent in a street rap battle.

Hard-nosed Ranveer Singh plays the central character of Murad - dreamer, boyfriend of aspiring surgeon and rough-and-tough human being Safeena (Alia Bhatt),Engineering student, and a member of an extended family where the guardian and sole breadwinner (Vijay Raaz) has just recently married for the second time. In that order. Although, if it was for Safeena to decide, she would change that order and maybe even murder a woman or two to get that done. But since the screenplay is written for the masses by Akhtar and co-writer Reema Kagti, with substantial support from dialogue writer of the year Vijay Maurya, Gully Boy flows like a rap song. The poetry is very good and "hard" considering the rhythm by an ensemble of musicians including Divine and Raezy (Mumbai-based rappers on whose story the film is based),Raghu Dixit, and Mickey McCleary makes the viewers get out of their seats and dance like Murad does sometime during the slow-paced second half of the film.

At first glance, the short slices of scenes made me believe that I was watching the trailer of Gully Boy. And then the screenplay started to bring long shots into the mix and made me laugh my stomach off. As I have noted earlier, writer Maurya vomits knowledge and experience of street language into the screenplay, not only surprising you at the rawness of the sequences that it complements but also amusing you to a level that you fall in love with the characters. Although I am not a fan of Murad or his ambitions, I was blown away by newcomer Siddhant Chaturvedi and his introductory character of MC Sher. It almost felt like I was watching a real-life street rapper spread wisdom about hip hop and the real world among his peers. And whenever he spoke - which is akin to how he raps - it felt like I was experiencing an experience that I had never experienced in Hindi cinema. Sure, films about street urchins - down and out - but dreaming big and humming "apna time aayega" ("our time will come"),have been presented before, but not with so much energy and finesse. A good look at the scenes involving the slums of Mumbai and their people will enthrall you like only a few films have in the history of Hindi cinema.

If the music comes in first in this race (with "Apna Time Aayega" sung by Ranveer Singh and Divine taking the pie by at least eight miles from the second track Doori also by Singh),then the cast performance definitely gets the silver medal. Both Singh and Bhatt are phenomenal in what they do, especially enacting the appearance and behaviour of the poor. The latter just hits the roof with her enactment of Safeena, a ferocious true bred and highbrow, independent woman in mad love with the man of her life. Even if the film's energy as a whole gets compared with Singh's and the latter wins, there is much more to relish about the rest of the cast. Performances by everyone, notably including Vijay Raaz, Chaturvedi, Vijay Varma, Kalki Koechlin, and Amruta Subhash are a treat to watch. It won't be surprising if you wonder if these actors were made for the roles that they portray so effectively, uplifting the understanding of the social issues that I mentioned earlier.

Yet there is a pungent, uncomfortable element about Gully Boy that prevents you from calling it extraordinary. The story of a guy stricken with poverty trying to make it big in the millennium city is as common as a piece of garbage lying around in the same city. How perseverance and patience gets you ahead is another point that Akhtar brings into the fore, all the more making me question the point of such a film. Of course, the musicians have done a splendid work writing the songs and producing them, but I am not seeing any special reason or a special factor that would differentiate Gully Boy from an ordinary biopic about a person who tries to make it big in life. And that is what restrains me from singing any more praises of Gully Boy and avoiding the peak-end rule. Because those final 10 minutes are manically fantastic. But I will definitely say this: the music will uplift your mood like no other film has in a long, long time. And if that's your cue, then Gully Boy should be in front of your eyes this weekend.

Director Zoya Akhtar somehow always manages to make even the most humdrum of stories into ravishing pieces of art. Gully Boy is no different even if you look at it from the perspective of a person who hopes to see social issues being addressed through cinema. For it also marvelously hints at issues such as social status and inequality and wealth and even (Islamic) polygamy to an extent. The excellent camera work by Jay Oza will make you want to watch it for the second time on the big screen despite of this review. And that is the kind of movies that Akhtar makes, only to find them being watched and rewatched by cinephiles years from now.

Gully Boy gets everything right and pumps up your mood regardless of what position you are in in your own life, but just thinking about it a few hours after you have seen it will make you realize that it just falls short of becoming something that can be dubbed as extraordinary. TN.

Originally appeared in the Little India Directory (Singapore).

A wannabe n awful film loaded with tons of overacting by Ranveer (another case of nepotism, Anil Kapoor's relative).

The film is a mishmash of tired clichés. The cinematography, editing, direction, screenplay n acting were all lousy. It's an awful wannabe rap film. The film is loaded with clichés, scenes copied from 8 Mile, it is very predictable n not at all engrossing. Avoid this n go watch some good movies on Netflix.

So many fake reviews by ids created recently without any credibility man. Ranveer n his paid bhakts r flooding IMDb with fake one line reviews.