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Gulaab Gang: Rajjo Rocks and Sumitra Sucks

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For our final fieldtrip of the semester, my classmates and I were supposed to view a Bollywood film at the FunAsia theater. However, due to a lack of subtitles on the films at the theater, my class voted to go out to dinner at a local Indian restaurant and watch an Indian film back in the classroom. Despite the reservations I had about how the film and dinner would be, they turned out to be entertaining and eye-opening.

Some students from my class and I began the night with a delicious dinner at Kalachandji’s in Dallas, Texas. The restaurant is located inside of the Hare Krishna temple that we visited at the beginning of the semester. It features buffet-style vegetarian food at a low price for all you can possibly eat. The restaurant surprisingly had a wide assortment of people from young businessmen to families to elderly couples. At first, I made a plate with a little bit of everything on it and then went back for seconds of the food that I preferred. The food was excellent and I could tell that the chefs had taken time and care in its preparation. There was a myriad of different dishes all which tasted great and were complex and uniquely different. I discovered that tamarind tea is extremely delicious and drank multiple glasses. I greatly enjoyed the atmosphere and food at the restaurant and cannot wait to go there with friends to expose them to the Indian culture.

After dinner, we headed back to campus to watch a movie directed by Soumik Sen titled Gulaab Gang. The movie we wound up watching was about a group of fearless women who fight back against social and political injustice. It is based upon a real group of women known as the Gulaabi Gang and led by Sampat Pal Devi. Devi attempted to block the release of the movie by suing the makers of the movie, but failed.  The only similarities between the two groups, the real Gulaabi Gang and the Gulab Gang, seems to be the pink saris that they wear as pointed out by film critic Shubhra Gutpa in his article about the film for The Indian Express. The film was met with stark criticism from multiple critics for being simply an “old-style good vs evil story” with the only real difference being that the power struggle was between two women. (Gupta) The film completely lacked historical accuracy and favored entertainment for the audience over education about the real-life gang.

Despite all of this, I found the movie to be extremely entertaining. I enjoyed the power struggle between Rajjo (Madhuri Dixit) and Sumitra Devi (Juhi Chawla) especially since it was between two women in a society that is usually dominated by men. The movie showcased a move toward the empowerment of women in India by featuring such prominent actresses and being centered around a real powerful all-female group. However, the dance numbers and action scenes took away from the overall message of the movie and made serious moments seem comical. The acting in the movie was over exaggerated, but proved to be very entertaining overall. I highly recommend the movie to someone interested in watching a funny and enjoyable Bollywood film with the understanding that the movie is not accurate to the actual in any way shape or form excluding their vibrant saris.

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Gupta, Shubhra. “Film Review: ‘Gulab Gang’ Is Actually the Old-style Good vs Evil

Story.” The Indian Express. March 08, 2014. Accessed December 05, 2016.

http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/movie-review/film-review-

gulab-gang-is-actually-the-old-style-good-vs-evil-story/.

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