Our Rating:
Guddu Rangeela — Not as Rangeela as expected
Guddu Rangeela starts off in a village in Haryana when two small-time delinquents Guddu (Amit Sadh) and Rangeela (Arshad Warsi) come together as orchestra frontmen. A visa to Kenya is celebrated with a pompous ‘Visa Celebration Party’. Guddu collects donations from other people, while Rangeela attracts large crowds with his ‘modernised’ Mata-ka song. Guddu makes a fashion statement with his Salman Khan bracelet and ‘Being Hanuman’ jacket. (Yes, being Hanuman. You read that corrcetly.) Rangeela on the other hand, calls himself a star in his ‘After whisky I am risky’ coat. (Tacky, we know.)
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The film is based around a very far-fetched idea. Old bridegroom Rangeela, is running away with his young bride Babli (Shriswara).
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You see the two of them running across a bridge, hand in hand while Billu (A very tacky and scary version of Ronit Roy) stands with a rifle, taking aim. Babli gets shot instead and she stumbles and falls into the river. A very dramatic scene ends.
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The action moves from a Haryana village to Chandigarh, to beautiful Simla and all the way back. The first half, with its cat-and-mouse like scrimmages pass by swiftly. We get to know why Guddu and Rangeela are the way they are and it’s an interesting catch. We meet a fresh trio – a police informer (Bhattacharya), a caretaker of a hilly escape (Kala) and a girl with a very mysterious past (Aditi Rao Hydari) — all of whom despise Billu.
Cops (Sial and Gupta who are hilarious) are added to the mix, and everyone gets down to the chase!
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The film is good fun. But when the entire plot fades into the ‘samaaj-ka-badlaav’ area, director Kapoor loses his footing: trying to marry a comic and social commentary, which can be a bit tough. That’s what doesn’t let the movie be the fun it was supposed to be. The purpose of the movie’s plot is completely lost as everyone suddenly begins to talk about samaaj and changes in society and loses it’s satire focus.
The plot strands in the second half, becomes laboured with the manoeuvres we rather ignored come about all the way till the heavy climax. The movie is fine otherwise, Arshad Warsi and Amit Sadh are hilarious in ways you wouldn’t expect, Ronit is a charming antagonist and everything is just fine until the second half begins to bore you to death and the climax, which makes it all the more worse.
A solid hole-less plot with lines to match would’ve made the movie a lot better, but that clearly doesn’t happen. So if you’re bored on a Friday night and up for some comedy mixed with a crazy lot of drama and to a certain extent— society and “samaaj” drama, go for Guddu Rangeela. You might just enjoy it.
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