Guddu Rangeela Is As Colorful As Its Title

In Subhash Kapoor's Guddu Rangeela, Amit Sadh's character (Guddu) has a tendency of cracking a cheeky joke to diffuse the tension in an otherwise grim situation. In one such lovely moment, he talks about an untameable tiger which the biggest of hunters couldn't nab. One day, a cocky hunter showed up and told the villagers that he will nail the beast by posing as a cow. The following day, the villagers discover the scattered hunter who says that the tiger obviously didn't show, but who let the bulls loose in the first place?


The joke sums up Guddu Rangeela, two orchestra singers who snoop around wealthy households, tip off actual thieves and get paid for their word. They harbor the ambition of becoming gangsters but end up getting into situations without completely understanding the consequences of their seemingly bold actions.

It is an overdone plot already, but Amit (spot-on as the goofball) and Arshad Warsi (Rangeela, remarkable) share a comfortable camaraderie that is outright fun to watch although it can't be compared to Salim-Javed's Jai-Veeru, who are too idiosyncratic to be matched.


One of the duo's adventures bring them in the freakishly scary heartland of Haryana where Khaps hang couples with great relish and local MLA Billu (an intimidating Ronit Roy) shoots lovers and inspires fathers to bump off their daughters as easily as Ryan Gosling woos women. However, when Rangeela kidnaps his sister-in-law (Aditi Rao Hydari, strong character but she looks like she lost her way and ended up on a different movie set), it triggers off a revenge drama so badass, so quirky, so irreverent that it is bound to inspire claps and chuckles and whistles.

That's the thing with the film. It is a delicious cocktail of several genres and comes together as a stunningly shot (Jamie Foulds) Indian Western with a climactic fight that is both - brutally satisfying and expressive of how the regressive Khap ideology should be ideally addressed. A scene that involves Billu being beaten up with his head covered in a water vessel is simply stunning to watch. Rarely do our filmmakers get the violence right. There is blood and gore and mind-numbing action and then there are well-choreographed action sequences with minimal blood and maximum lore. Guddu belongs to the latter category.


The tricky territory of hard-hitting social cause being addressed with humor can go disturbingly wrong, like was evident in last week's Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho, but having done this in Phas Gaye Re Obama (there is a wonderful ode to this film in Guddu) and Jolly LLB, Subhash Kapoor seems to have mastered the art of mixing societal issues with dark humor (unlike the lighthearted comedy of Raju Hirani). This ends up leaving a profound impact on the viewer.

Clocking in over two hours (a song could have been ducked out), the film at once is an epic love saga (there is a sweet romantic track between Amit and Aditi and Arshad has a backstory with the gorgeous and equally effective Shri Swara), a revenge thriller, an action-comedy, a social-drama, all shot with the treatment associated with Hollywood Westerns.

Yet, it boasts of an earthy charisma, some memorable supporting characters - Rajeev Gupta shines as the inept cop while Dibyendu Bhattacharya is extraordinary as Bengali babu - that brings the buffoonery of people living in the Northern hinterland alive. What makes it even better is that the film has strong female characters that aren't reduced to decorative props but actually go all badass on the Khaps.

Truly, Phas Gaye Re, Subhash.