The Mindless Winner!!

Kangana Ranaut is on a roll these days. Slowly, but steadily.
..she is climbing the steep steps of stardom and popularity. To all of us, who dote on strong, women-centric movies … Kangana is an idol. She symbolizes the ultimate image of feminism in her movies. She doesnt shy away from looking unglamourous on screen. She doesnt play the hero’s love interest dancing on item numbers or crying for love and attention. She doesnt don chiffon sarees or bikinis or italian for that matter. She feels more comfortable in hindi than in english and doesnt have the ‘accent’ which almost everyone in Bollywood flaunts these days. She is not going around with any big star and is very friendly with the actors and actresses. And she didnt get all this served on a plate. She has had her troubled times. From tolerating physical abuse from Aditya Pancholi, a strained relationship with Adhyayan Suman and a long-distance fling with director Nicholas Lafferty, Kangana has gone through troubled waters too and has come a long way since. But unlike some, she hasnt flouted videos of her depression or havent starred in fashion magazine videos teaching the rules of feminism. No sir. Kangana has always been in a separate genre of her own.

In this movie, she has proved yet again.. why she is the current indisputable “Queen” of bollywood. In ‘Tanu weds Manu’ she played the wild child avatar to the T, whom we couldnt help but love. She has returned to India after 4 years, in ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’. Playing the ‘enfante terrible’ act yet again, kangana somehow sends her husband played by the  restrained and diametrically opposite R. Madhavan to a mental asylum. The reasons for her displeasure and irritation with her marriage are never highlighted, but who cares, because by the time Kanagana lands in Kanpur, she is back to her antics and everybody is busy raising eyebrows at her. She meets up her old flames and remembers her old days wih half nostalgia and half melancholy, heaving a heavy sigh. Mohammad Zeeshan Ayub sparkles as the lawyer and the new ‘Aashiq’ who refers to himself as ‘Kandhaa’ for the ladies and dotes on Kangana who is the ‘Batman’ of her mohalla. In the meanwhile, Sharmaji aka Madhavan, releases miraculously from the london mental asylum, lands in Delhi, and meets Kusum, the quintessential ‘sports quota waali’, haryanvi, tough but simple-hearted girl. For reasons unknown, Manu Sharma starts stalking Kusum and starts feeling for her. And for more unexplicable reasons, Kusum, falls for Manu, although knowing pretty well that she is just a face replacement for Manu whose wife she resembles.

More mayhem follows, with the entry of Raja Awasthi, the unlucky lover, played by the inimitable Jimmy Shergill, who unfortunately is about to be engaged to Kusum from Delhi. Adding to the madness is Pappi (Deepak Dobriyal), Manu’s best friend, who is hell bent on proving that he’s the best idiot around. He plans to kidnap a chick called ‘Komal’ in Punjab, and abducts him only to take her to Kusum’s place, where Manu and Kusum plan to marry. In the meanwhile, Tanu’s best friends Payal and Jassi join her to Punjab to find Komal, and surprisingly, on reaching Punjab, forget about Komal and become engrossed in Manu and Kusum’s wedding. If you are already bogged down by the mindless plot, let me tell you, the ‘plot’ has nthing to do with the movie’s fun. Because, the fun here lies in Tanu’s swagger, Kusum’s simplicity in which she ‘old-school girl’ with a lovable haryanvi accent. The fun here lies in Arun kumar aka Zeeshan’s vibrancy with which he tries to impress Kangana and then the vengeance with which he tries to mar her life. The fun lies here in Pappi’s over-the-top antics ..sometimes bordering on hamming. The fun here lies in Raja Awasthi’s sarcastic lines making fun of his own unlucky situation. The fun in this movie lies in the overall light-heartedness and a certain relatability of the overall film. Because when you see Manu’s father giving him marriage advice and Manu’s mother bantering about endlessly in the backdrop, you realise you have seen this situation and gone through this. When you see Kusum replying coyly but responsibly towards Manu’s advances , you remember the girls you have come across in DTC buses. The dialogues are hilarious …. the best ones i have heard lately in any movie. Every character has been given the best lines… ones which you can help but remember hours after you finish watching the movie. 

Although Kangana’s swagger and her impeccable haryaanvi act wins our hearts, the rest of the cast is just as superb. However mindless it is…  however illogical the plot maybe… this crazy movie….is indeed a winner… a mindless winner