So finally Simran is out after a 2-3 week drama surrounding its main actor's real life. And even though most of the audience who has seen the movie appears to be liking it, the film has received mixed response, even if mostly positive (primarily so because of Kangana's performance), from Indian critics.
Here's my take on what makes the movie work and what holds it from becoming a memorable cinematic piece.
I found the movie really engrossing. It slows a little bit in its second half before picking up again. What I want from a movie in the first place is that it should really hook me to my seat and Simran delivers.
I am sure that I do not need to talk about performance. Kangana seems to be getting better with her every movie that comes out, leaving her contemporaries far behind.
The story-line is quite new for Hindi cinema - it is about a flawed protagonist who lets simple human aspirations get out of hand and ruin her life. Bombshell Bandit, whose real life is the inspiration for this drama, was described by the American judge hearing her case as "one of the criminal minds that the court does not understand". It is about a very gray character - who does things we absolutely do not approve of, yet her personality and the movie make her appear innocent and somewhat likable.
And it is not just the criminal who is hard to understand but also the people around her. That she is able to rob banks based on handwritten threats and fake revolver may seem nonsense and hard to believe, but they are true to the real-life story of Bombshell Bandit. (It is probably not that the American police could not catch her, but that they probably deemed that the amounts robbed were not big enough to warrant resources for a full-fledged forensic investigation.)
That said, the movie gets messy, very messy in fact, in the second half. It is a tough topic to handle and the first part of the movie does very well. At the end of the day, this is a tragic story to show and there are no two ways about it. As Praf gets into more trouble, the movie becomes very difficult to watch for a lot of audience - after all, so many have tried their hands at gambling and felt the urge to continue. I wish the screenwriter and director had maintained the honesty of the first half of the movie in the second half, and let the story take its course. Instead, they try to assuage the audience's experience by attempting to make the robberies look light-hearted and funny (with a lively score in the background!). All the mood and the intensity that the first half has invested so much in building suddenly comes apart, and the movie begins to appear contrived and fake. Come on - these are bank robberies! Simran commits her first robbery as if it were plucking an apple from a wild tree. This is the first time she is committing a robbery - would she feel no mental dilemma and hesitation?? Though developed very well in the first half, suddenly, Simran's character appears to be a joke in the second half. And what's with Simran enjoying romance and ballads in the midst of all mental trouble? I almost feels that two different people have made the two halves of the movie.
Some people may complain that the movie packs too much and jumps over genres, but that is what real drama ought to be like. Nobody's life is a monotonous track; we live our lives in some moments of exhilaration/ comedy, some of dullness and some of tragedy; so why should any good drama be different? However, it takes extreme talent to pull off comedy in amidst suspense and tension, and the screenwriter and director are missing that flair here.
To its credit, the movie spans multiple themes, such as bad habits (esp gambling), bad company, women's (particularly divorcée) aspirations, immigrant life, marriage and sex, love, etc. but only manages to scratch the surface. In a mature Western society, these may merely be matters of common existence, but in Indian society, each of these can take on the role of a solo theme in itself and so the Indian audience can potentially feel confused and exhausted. I wish they had focused on driving home the messages of gambling dangers and lost American dream with more intensity.
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