Raanjhanaa :My Review

Cast: Dhanush, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub

Director: Anand Rai
Dhanush makes a grand entry into Bollywood by doing what he does best. A Hysterical lover.

And this time he does it with added cuteness in Hindi with certain charm and accented originality. He is undoubtedly the star of Raanjhana, a love story with amazingly written dialogues and screenplay, that keeps you hooked in anticipation of what comes next. A love story that lets you feel the pain of the protagonists’ love, dilemma, innocence through the shifting window of time, through which Kundan (Dhanush’s character in Ranjhnaa) grows and so does his love for Zoya (Played by Sonam Kapoor).
AR Rahman puts his magic in the songs and makes you connect with the plot. Songs are literally the type which can make you dance, with the crowd as well as in the solace of your bedroom.
Kundan is the perfect epitome of teen innocence and craziness, trying to be different in “professing her love”. He is persisting, even enjoys 16 slaps that are offered by the lady he is in love with. In a perfectly depicted scene of how a hysterical lovers act around India, he cuts his wrists making Zoya hug him. She gets sent to Aligarh to study as her family comes to know about this, while our Lover boy waits in Benaras. Old school, some would say.

Raanjhanaa movie review
But when Zoya returns. She had left those old benaras days behind her. But the hero’s persistence remains intact. He makes sure that she doesn’t get married by employing tricks then and now, on Zoya’s insistence. Why ? Well lets leave that as a suspense.
Filled with twists and turns, this is not just a love story about these two. There’s politics and power, there’s the benaras flavor, friends who will always have your back.
Apart from Dhanush, his onscreen friend Murari, played by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub, who has some of the best dialogues to his credit, does a great job. Highlighting the plight of small town lovers he comes up with, “Mohalle ke aashiqon ke pyaar ko aksar engineer doctor hi udaa lejaate hain”. While dhanush is crazy for Zoya, Bindiya (Played by Swara Bhaskar of Tanu weds manu and Aurangzeb fame) is crazy for Dhanush, with bold dialogues like, “baapu ke kapde to phaad diye, hamare kab ” to which Danush replies, “Kundan ke pyajame ka naada itna dheela nahi, ki blouse ke huk se khul jaye
Murari and Bindiya put the life in the first half of the movie, while the politics in the second, coupled with some great one-liners and scenes involving Dhanush makes it worth a watch.
Director, Anand Rai utilizes these two characters to keep the tempo going with their amazing dialogue delivery and support to the leads. The knack with which Dhanush has understood the character and puts his life in it in every scene is amazing. The credit also goes to the director for it.
Sonam‘s is a character that you will hate, although chances are you will hate her acting as well. Except scenes where she is crying, where she surprisingly does emote, she is the only flaw in casting. It’s an all-out Dhanush movie.
To sum up, Ranjhna is a story of a hindu boy being in love with a Muslim Girl, in the town of Benaras. The colorful town, filled with vibrant images of religious diversity, but stark opposition when it comes to marriage.

 

Avoiding a few clichéd plot elements, one can enjoy this lovely outing of Dhanush. A Good entertainer, one shouldn’t miss.

I’m going with 4 out of 5, for this Dhanush Starrer. Indulge yourself.

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13 Comments

  1. For the Bolly crowd Dhanush has to do well 🙂 All the reviews so far indicate its a great movie which should have avoided too much politics in the 2nd half !!
    yet .. Abhay Deol is a reason I cant ever miss this movie 🙂

    • I Won’t say much about Abhay here, he is just another character in this out-and-out Dhanush movie. Although the story allows a bigger role for him, yet there’s not much of him. He doesn’t fit well, IMO. Second half is a little draggy but with all the things happening one after another, you do look forward to. Its somehow like a book, where even being a Love story, they try to put in efforts to explain whats’ happening around.

      PS: I’m writing longish comments these days 😛

      • you should thank me for the long comments .. I think 😀

      • Nice review and I agree that the movie is an out and out Dhanush movie, If Shahid Kapoor was casted as Kundan I am pretty sure Raanjhanaa would be considered as an average or below average flick.. Thank god Aanand Ji changed his mind, followed his heart and convinced Dhanush to take this role..

        Swara, Zeeshan, Abhay & Sonam all played their part well, Sonam has certainly improved with her expressions at few scenes which is the one good thing in acting with good actors, you will learn from them

        • It is indeed, a Dhanush spectacle.

          As far as Shahid kapoor is concerned, i agree he wouldn’t have taken it to this heights. The reason the movie worked, was Dhanush’ innocence and complete devotion to the character. At the same time, the dialogues in hindi were a treat to watch. There’s certain joy involved when you hear people who come from a different language set-up speak in an other language.

  2. aamjunta

    Nice review. After reading so many reviews… decided to watch this movie at the earliest 🙂

  3. deepak

    Just saw the movie and I agree with your review 100%!

  4. Sat

    Having watched Dhanush in few Tamil movies. Just in first few frames of the movie, I understood that Kundan Character(Tapori like) is tailor made and a cake walk to Dhanush. My only wait was to know how well he could deliver the same in Hindi. I think he exceeded expectations of most audience. North Indian audience may not have seen his performance, that may be one reason.
    Seeing some one new with tremendous performance will blow us away. for eg: Manoj Bajpai in Satya, Vivek Oberoi in Company etc.
    In my opinion
    Over all Movie is great , 5 for 5
    very passionately narrated,
    Thanks to Anand who shot movie in actual lanes of a small town rather taking to dreamy expensive sets. Screenplay is spectacular. Dialogues are salt of this recipe along with Intense facial expressions and eye contacts. Dhanush has done his magic again. I believe he can do better looking at his previous movies (Tamil). Sonam was looking very beautiful and few shots she looked older than Dhanush. I can say her acting improved a lot.

    Cheers! enjoy the movie.

  5. Bushra

    If it wasn’t for the constant ‘wrist slashing’ thing, i would’ve given it 5/5. A true entertainer from Bollywood after a long long time! Everything from the place its set(Lucknow) to AR Rehman’s music and Sonam’s attempt at acting clicks abt this film! Love the shayaris and one liners in between too. Your review brought some sweet memories back! 🙂

    • That “wrist slashing” thing is quite original and takes place more than you think in smaller towns.
      The movie was raw look at gali-wala romance.

      And yeah it was just an awesome movie, except Sonam in it 😛

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