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I would first like to thank the Indian Censor Board for being generous enough and let a movie
like Gulaal be screened in theatres. For it would have been extremely tough for them to
handle a director like Anurag Kashyap whose “unconventional” movies might have caused
them many a nightmares. We dwell in the banality of real life everyday and the censor board
probably thinks right when they feel we should watch fantasy on the screen. Hail Censor
Board!!
My eyes well up as I thank the websites and the Indian people that have classified “Gulaal”
as a flop. It is very complicated a movie for them to understand and rightfully so. Why should
cinema express what is happening in the society? Don’t we already know all of it? Anyways,
that it was a flop helped me watch the movie two times quite smoothly in the theatres with no
hassles and I am indebted to them for that.
I would like to thank my friends with whom I had a number of discussions regarding the
movie thus enriching each other.
Through this essay I have tried to extrapolate the movie “Gulaal” to paint a picture of India.
There are various aspects and symbolisms in the movie which both conspicuously and
intrinsically portray what India is. Infact, I chose the movie Gulaal as a topic because it was a
very contemporary movie and apart from the figurative way the movie was made, it was very
relevant to what India as a nation is today and one could draw parallels directly.
In order to reduce any unfamiliarity with the movie, the essay starts off by giving a brief
introduction to the movie. Then it delves into describing how the storyline, dialogues, lyrics
and other symbols in the movie depict what India actually is.
Introduction
Gulaal is a movie directed by Anurag Kashyap which released in March 2009. It stars actors
like Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Srivastava and a few prominent theatre personalities like Piyush
Mishra, Deepak Dobriyal etc. Piyush Mishra has donned multiple roles in the film from
acting to penning the lyrics to composing the music. The film is dedicated to Sahir Ludhianvi
and all the poets who had a vision of India. The plot starts off with Kay Kay Menon
vociferously addressing a gathering of people who have their faces smeared with colour. He
talks about creating a separate state for the Rajputs and retrieving back Rajputana from the
Indian Government. The movie then goes back on a flashback mode where Dileep Singh, a
Rajput from Bikaner, comes to Rajpur to study law. He stays in a bar named ‘69’ with
Abhimanyu Singh “Ransa” who is a prince but stays alone owing to his hatred for his father’s
aristocratic ideologies. The docile Dileep Singh is quite impressed with the exuberant and
powerful persona of Ransa. Dileep is then ragged in the university hostel by Jadhwal and his
friends and he is locked naked with a girl Anuja in one of the hostel rooms. Anuja is a
lecturer at the same college. When Dileep informs Ransa, they go to the hostel to fight
Jadhwal and his group but are again beaten up. Ransa then goes to meet Dukey Bana (Kay
Kay Menon), a leader who is gathering support for his Rajputana movement. Dukey Bana
gives them his support in avenging Jhadwal. After that Dukey asks Ransa to contest for the
General Secretary elections. The Maharaja’s illegitimate daughter Kiran, aided by her brother
Karan is also contesting in the election. Ransa though is killed by Karan and Dileep is forced
to contest in his place and wins the election as Dukey rigs the process. Kiran seduces Dileep
to become the cultural secretary. Dukey Bana uses the money got as sponsorship for the
college cultural to fund his Rajputana movement. Dileep finds this out and though Dukey
explains to him the situation, he is not party to the propaganda going on. Meanwhile, Kiran
gets Dileep to resign from his post and becomes the general secretary herself and ditches
Dileep. She even tries to seduce Dukey but his right hand, Bhati steps in at the right time.
Dileep meanwhile is frustrated and angered at what has happened and goes on a killing
rampage, even killing Dukey until he finds out that Kiran had used him to make her ends
meet. Even he is killed and the movie ends with Karan being chosen the new leader of the
Rajputana movement.
The movie is interspersed all through with poems and dialogues from Piyush Sharma (Prithvi
Bana) and songs which take the story further and convey the larger implications of the plot.
The film apart from having a gripping script has also been made very poetically and
figuratively. There are various imageries about India that build up through the dialogues and
poems which is cinematized with Rajasthan and the Rajputs as a medium. Though the plot
entails around Rajasthan and their struggle for a separate Rajputana, the incidents in the plot
convey a meaning which should not be restricted to that particular territory. The concepts that
build up as the story unfolds are listed below:
These were the various aspects through which I believe the movie Gulaal portrayed the story
of India. Though the exact meaning of the plot, the various symbolisms etc. cannot be
irrefutably stated unless and until it is out from Anurag Kashyap’s mouth, this essay dealt
with my understanding and interpretation of the movie. Right or wrong is a different matter
altogether, but the exercise was worth the time spent on it and the learning aplenty.