I really wanted to like this. If it was even a little bit better, I would be praising it to the skies. But honestly, as it is, even the presence of Juhi and Madhuri could only bump it up a little past mediocre.
The lead performances were great. There are many fantastic shots of Madhuri striding towards the camera, a determined look on her face. As Rajjo, the strong-willed founder of a women’s ashram who fights for the rights of the downtrodden, she’s got scope for both gravitas and some seriously bad-ass fight scenes. And Juhi! She stops just this close to chewing all the scenery off the walls playing a scheming politician. It is an absolute delight watching them together onscreen. Two mature actresses who completely inhabit their characters, seeing them spar and scheme and fight--well, that’s something I’d like to see a lot more of.
I just wish they got better scripts. The plot is weak, the pacing is bad, and the supporting cast seemed to be around only as props to fuel the fight between Juhi and Madhuri’s characters. There’s some nascent exploration of the nature of power that is reminiscent of old-school masala, but it’s fairly heavy-handed. Juhi humiliates her staff with a wave of her hand and her spiteful nonchalance contrasts with Madhuri’s deliberate physical action. Her presence just fills the screen, and those parts are extremely satisfying. It shakes down to a mediocre good vs. evil star vehicle, though, and while it’s awesome (so awesome!) to see these actresses play hero and villain, the movie just can’t cash the check that the promos promised.
I have to say it. This movie is a lot like English Vinglish, right down to the device of characters having a mutually unintelligible conversation in different languages. But that’s okay. Just like Sridevi completely charmed me in English Vinglish, Kangana Ranaut is absolutely captivating throughout the entirety of Queen as Rani Mehra, simple middle-class girl taking the painful and unexpected chance to discover what she’s capable of.
We first meet Rani in the midst of wedding preparations. She’s excited and nervous about marrying Vijay (Rajkumar Rao) and then crushed when he dumps her right before the wedding with the same dogged persistence with which he courted her. She goes on her honeymoon trip to Europe anyway, and it’s not out of spite or willfulness, just an interest and not really knowing what else to do. I’m not sure why I didn’t enjoy it more, since watching Rani make friends and gain confidence as her wedding henna fades is pretty delightful. It’s much easier to root for her journey of self-discovery than any of the obnoxious men in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. You’ll just cheer when Rani stands up to Vijay in Amsterdam, after we’ve been treated to the slow reveal of his unpleasant personality.
The story could have used some editing, though. We really only needed the suggestion of Rani’s contact with her family to show us the growing change between her parents’ expectations of her and her own desires. We didn’t actually need to see every Skype conversation (although Rani frantically gesturing at her hostel roommate Taka to stay away from her webcam was pretty great and instantly relatable). The whole segment with the cranky Italian restaurateur was completely unnecessary. (Foreign people like good Indian food! Imagine that!)
What I like best is the way it ends. Finally she refuses Vijay, but in her own quiet way. She simply hands him the ring and leaves. We don’t know where she goes or what she’ll do with the rest of her life, we just know she’ll make her own self-assured decisions about it.
I love Parineeti Chopra so much. (I watched Ishaqzaade twice for her sake.) And this movie is worthwhile just to see her play Meeta, a woman who’s intelligent, vulnerable, driven, hilarious, lonely and just plain weird. I don’t know that they always handled her character well, but Parineeti just throws herself into being Meeta and you can’t take your eyes off her.
As a rom-com about two people who feel out of place in their own families… well, I guess it worked. They didn’t integrate the slapstick parts very well with the serious feelings parts and of course they made it all about Nikhil, Siddharth Malhotra’s character, who is much less interesting than Meeta. Nikhil is kind of a hapless dude who hasn’t done much with his life. He makes bad decisions in business, love, and haircuts, and usually does the right thing, but he’s not very good at it.
It’s not hard to see why Nikhil eventually falls for Meeta. She’s so completely her own person, feeling everything without pretense, and at every turn he encounters a new side of her. I wish we got to see more of competent Meeta, though, considering that she’s someone who has spent the last 7 years on her own getting a PhD in a foreign country.
I don’t expect a lot from Bollywood (or Hollywood, for that matter) with respect to sensitive treatment of mental illness, so I can’t find myself too disappointed with the attitude Nikhil takes towards Meeta’s antidepressants. I do feel compelled to point out, though, that while medications can have many weird side effects, I am confident that SSRIs do not make you eat toothpaste.
I don’t know. I enjoyed the movie, but it did let me down. I seem to have that reaction to quirky rom-coms a lot, but I never stop watching them.
I did really like the side character who was into Meeta and also randomly singing filmi songs. His rendition of Ek Garam Chai (with sound effects!) was hilarious.
