I think Gulaal is till date is the best movie directed by AK. The movie goes far beyond Maqbool and Omkara, not undermining them, those two were also milestones for contemporary Hindi cinema, but Gulaal was something extraordinary. Each and every character played perfectly, along with the metaphors, it was a perfect sync.
This is a wholesome product of an excellent script with the most honest and sincere performances. The beauty of AK is that the movie is not what it seems.. like just like in "No Smoking"... where its not about smoking but about personal freedom and the surreality surrounding it. Even in Gulaal, one might find the story very political, about the revolution, college elections but NO, its just the backdrop. The main story is how the main protagonist, Dilip's character develops upon that backdrop. How he gets molded by the different personalities that comes in his life, starting from Ransa, Anuja, Duki Bana, Kiran and then his own remorse. If you closely look, each and every character's role stayed the same, Ransa, Anuja, Duki Bana, Kiran, Karan and Bhaati... they all revolved around the development of Dilip which is something amazing.
The movie is also about reviving personal identity which was aptly shown by the clever politics of Karan and Kiran. And the movie doesn't stop here, the complex female characters add more color to it. Its such a movie where not even a single moment was wasted or was not required. Starting from Dilip being ragged to Dilip being dead, its those characters, the metaphors, the camera-work, music, everything synced so beautifully, it left me spellbound. Its 3AM here, and I just finished watching it and I just couldn't help myself writing about it. Well done AK as your movies always add a new dimension to the Hindi "noir" movie movement.
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