During our previous India class, we watched the  Indian crime drama film Gulaab Gang. This film was released in 2014. This film is directed by Soumik Sen and produced by Anubhav Sinha. The film takes place in Bundelkhand Uttar and Madhya Pradesh, as a group of strong women revolutionize themselves and strive to help the poorest of the poor. Rajjo is the main character and the fierce leader of the group. Her and other fiery women of the Gulaab Gang form together to build strength and empower themselves. The Gulaab gang members are activists that wear pink sarees. They fight against issues like rape, domestic abuse, electricity matters, education, and more. Rajjo runs the Galaab gang, where she helps educate little girls and teaches young women how to defend themselves. All of the gang constantly wear bright pink.

Rajjo ends up bumping heads with the shrewd politician who uses people, Sumitra Bagrecha. Rajjo decides to run against Sumatra in the local election. Sumatra tries her best to destroy Rajjo by maliciously having most of Rajjo’s Galaab members killed. Sumitra ends up winning the election. Once Sumitra has won, she decides to open up a school to educate less privileged children, which is actually Raja’s dream. Sumitra visits the Gulaab Gang’s village and with help she conspires to kill the rest of the members of the Gulaab gang. Sumitra attempts to shoot everyone with a machine gun, but Rajjo is able to retaliate by cutting off Sumitra’s hand. Rajjo ends up being arrested for violently chopping off Sumitra’s, and Sumitra is also arrested and is sentenced to life in prison.

This film was very eventful. It contained both action and dancing scenes. It was difficult to take the film seriously in the action scenes because of how unrealistic many of the fights were. It was also challenging to take some of the important scenes seriously because directly afterwards the Gulaab Gang members would break out into a cheesy song and dance, which would most likely never happen in real life. In Shubhra Gupta’s film review on Gulaab Gang, she wrote, “How can you take a film seriously when each bout of `lathi’-clashing is interspersed with group dances, with Rajjo-Rani doing the familiar Dixit` latkas’ and `jhatkas’?” (Gupta). Gupta also thinks that the film was a bit unrealistic and hard to take seriously during some scenes. She also believes that this film’s portrayal of the Gulaab Gang “is as make-believe as make-believe can get. ‘Gulaab Gang’ is faking it” (Gulaab). I agree with Gulaab’s opinion because  I thought many scenes in the movie looked fake and unrealistic. Overall, the film had a good message on how women can be strong and superior to men; that everyone should be allowed to be educated and fairly treated. I like how it supported women and the weak; however, I do think many scenes were over exaggerated. The story line was exciting and the message behind the film was positive; however, this is not a film I desire to see again or to request others to view too.

 

Gupta, Shubra. “Film review: ‘Gulaab Gang’ is actually the old-style good vs evil story.” The Indian Express, 8 March, 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.

Photo: http://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip/gulaab-gang-movie-review-juhi-chawlas-villainous-avatar-overpowers-madhuri-dixit-nenes-heroic-act/

 

Grace McMillin