I was hooked to Gulal, the moment I saw the first trailer in the beginning of Dev D. I devoured all songs till the lyrics completely occupied my mind. The lyrics, the music, the tone .. the whole feel of the songs is brilliant and the underlying story exceptional. I was eager to see it and today I did. Below is what I think about it. It is not a review, its an adulatory remark. Hail Anurag Kashyap.
Gulaal is sheer ideological portrayal of contemporary currents underlying the generations of India. On one hand, there are the first-hand witnesses of partition, to whom it feels like a deep wound and they are cynical of the current state of affairs. They are hellbent to twist the word and the world around them to suit what they feel is the common interest. There is a second class of these witnesses who have seen the corruption of power and turned their face away – to west, to despair, or inwards to an innate madness. On the other side is the simpleton, unaware of and unworthy of the change this world demands. And then there are the numerous pullers, who are power-hungry self-satiating in-betweens.
It is the ego struggle between these ideologies that is translated to an exchange constantly etched on celluloid in the form of Gulal. The exchange of hate, love, jealousy, desire and ambition. What is beautiful in the portrayal is that the exchange is raw, unadulterated, free and human. What makes it special is the feelings and the strong performances that sketch these feelings on the screen. It has strength, beauty and in-your-face reality. There is a near-poetic margin in this ideological disarray, the wit and sarcasm that completes an outstanding page of human emotions.
Gulaal is Love .. Power .. Revolution and much more. If you have the libido for it, Gulaal is your intellectual orgasm.
