Rangoon (2017)

In 1943, as the Second World War rages on, India is fighting a combat of her own: independence from British rule. Subash Chandra Bose, founder of the Indian National Army, has become disenchanted with Mahatma Gandhi's Ahimsa (non-violent) movement and desires to fight fire with fire. Recognizing the growing dominance of Imperial Japanese Army in the Indo- China region, the INA allies itself with the Japanese, hoping to ride the wave to Delhi. Indian troops in the British Indian Army are locked in pitched battles with both the INA and its Japanese contingent. In one such skirmish close to the Indo-Burma border, Jemadar Nawab Malik (Shahid Kapoor) and a group of fellow soldiers are cornered by the Japanese infantry. Running to escape on a barge, he is shot and captured as a prisoner of war. Meanwhile, the INA's top brass desperately seeks finances to replenish its heavy ammunition to aid the charge to Delhi.

Rangoon - quite a movie! It's an action film, make no mistake about it. And it has generous dollops of epic romance, fortitude and a plethora of human emotions that all the characters wear on their sleeves. This is not a film that relies on symbolism or on subtlety. Quite in-your-face, this is a film set during the tumultuous times of the Indian Independence and the Second World War on a grand scale. What I really liked about the film is Vishal Bhardwaj's evident love of film-making that came out in the period-piece sets during Kangana's shooting of the wild Toofan Ki Beti. The sets, shooting styles evoked a heady mix of nostalgic 40's films with raucous action and macho heroines. The heady aroma of pop-culture was replete throughout the scenes, especially in Miss Julia's super heroine costume where she jumps like a skilled acrobat onto a chandelier and escapes with a hapless damsel against various goons. Her escape is nothing short of spectacular – high-kicks in leather- clad boots, followed by punches, an escape on a motorcycle that culminates in a high-flying sortie on a warplane. This is solid action and I could not help but wonder of the film within the film that - what was the sensational story of Toofan Ki Beti? The character of Miss Julia is the fulcrum – the character around which the situations revolve, but soon the war engulfs all. Like a bildungsroman, Miss Julia, a super heroine in the reel world, grows into maturity in her love for Nawab, into a super heroine in her own right. The culmination is poetic, and some might say, even clichéd, when she dons her costume one last time to save the love of her life. That her love is doomed and that the war finally subsumes all is tragic, but we are made to see into her mental growth, where she fights out of her naiveté, into a woman who finally finds her own voice – as an individual in her own right. The film also makes excellent use of the minor characters, how each build and adds to the atmosphere, to give a sense that there is a darker and massive backdrop against which the characters interplay their lives. Vishal Bhardwaj makes this an important locus in the film – the voices of the minor characters help the audience visualize, like a synecdoche, in quick snippets, of the freedom struggle, the INA, Subhas Bose, Hitler, Churchill and the whole vicious panorama of war. The characters of Zulfi, Julia's troupe, the war nurse, the Indian rajah all command significant screen time to build the context. The other important aspect of the film was to showcase the little known area of Arunachal Pradesh with its wild beauty. All the three main actors, Kangana, Shahid and Saif provide matured and stellar performances. But the scene steal-er was the evil British Major General, like Major Hans Landa – a suitable and stock villain, refusing to die. A film that is full on entertainment and with the right amount of drama. Not to be missed.

Vishal Bharadwaj has come up with an excellent story and and a very strong script writing along with Mathew Robbins and Sabrina Dhawan. Set in the 1940's background where the Indians were subjected to the ideologies of freedom struggle advocated by Gandhiji and Netaji, the story takes off with the main protagonist Julia(Kangana Ranaut) dancing to the tunes of her mentor in the film industry Rusi or Rustom Billimoria(Saif Ali Khan). The story takes a twist when Julia requires to stage-perform herself to the soldiers on the Indo-Burma border where she gets to meet Nawab Mallik(Shahid Kapoor) who introduces her to herself and the true meaning of love. How Julia fights within herself to find who the true love of her life would be among Rusi and Nawab is what to be explored on the big screen.What I think Vishal Bharadwaj does best is he starts scripting his stories with people already in his mind. He repeated his best actors Saif Ali Khan from 'Omkara' and Shahid Kapoor from 'Haider'. Kangana Ranaut completes the ensemble of very strong and superb cast of this film. All the three leads are great when it comes to emoting those intense dialogues and the comic repartee's here and there. All Vishal's films in someway or the other have glimpses of Shakespeare's way of story telling. Each scene in his movies seem to emerge out of a beautiful painting on a canvas.Everything about this movie story, screenplay, production values, casting, and especially cinematography which actually takes you in to the period in which the story is set. And how can someone forget the Music and the Background score of the movie which needs a special mention. Off all the songs the two melodies from Arijit Singh especially 'Yeh Ishq Hai' takes you in to a different world altogether. All other songs are visual treat to watch and gives you a feel of ballet performances with huge colorful sets and backgrounds.The movie is good in all departments and full marks to the entire cast and crew of Rangoon.

The movie revolves all around the love-triangle amongst Rusi, Miss Julia and Jamaadaar (Nawab Malik). Its like the title of the film is just used to make the plot sound heavy but actually the plot is found weak, which would've been much better if more of the unsung history of Rangoon was portrayed in the film. Full marks to Kangana for doing justice to the key role she plays in the movie, but one less for saying 'Bloody Hell' so many times, and a bonus for looking nevermore sexy on screen while playing the glamorous actress Miss Julia. Both of Shahid's and Saif's role are written to be auxiliary, therefore, they don't get a chance to be impressive. Overall, Rangoon fails to live up to the expectations that Vishal Bharadwaj - Shahid duo has set for us.