Ritu's Reviews

A word of advice… the next time your out at a coffee shop, take a good look who your standing around. You never know, you may just be in the presence of the next big upcoming star! A coffee shop is precisely where our female lead of today’s film, Kangana Ranuat was discovered by director Anurag Basu. He was in search for the right face and she was at the right place. Take a look at the Bhatt brother’s presentation of Anurag Basu’s Gangster – A Love Story and see Kangana in action!

The title “Gangster” automatically forces negative associations. Presumtions that the film contains violence and mobster action are made. The Bhatts Gangster - A Love Story hardly focuses on those aspects of a gangster’s life. In fact the film is female oriented sharing the plight behind being in love with someone of the dangerous profession. It’s a twisted tale of friendship, love, and life. A story about the ultimate deception from all three.
Anurag Basu does a solid job in executing this presenation. He carries the flow with consistency and allows for a good mix of action, thrill, and romance. The flashback sequence is touching, while the post-interval episodes maintain a level of curiousity to see where what direction the story will proceed.
Cinematography presents Korea in with an apt take, fitting with the needs of the script. The pace of the film is slow, not necessarily due to editing, but lenghty pieces incorporated in the script. Music by Pritam is awesome with catchy tracks using a Sufi-influenced flair. Vocalist James, from Bangladesh, has a distinct voice that adds feeling to his tracks.
Emraan Hashmi is becoming a staple in the Bhatt camp, he performs much better here than in Kalyug. A decent show of growth, he shows competance. Shiney Ahuja shines in his complicated character. Only given a limited number of lines, his performance is purely based on expression. For the most part he emotes well, better in stern scenes vs. tear-jerking emotional scenes. He shapes out more like a yuppy than a man of strength. Kangana Ranaut is brilliant for her first film. With only college theatre experience she carries off a power packed performance in a story primarily revolving around her with panache. Truly a star to watch out for this 19-year old has many years to go! An area that could use improvement is voice modulation, given she fixes that hurdle, she’ll be jumping leaps and bounds forward.
The specialty of Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt is that they make films new to Indian cinema, (although they may borrow concepts from American cinema), have an exemplary taste in music, and utilize upcoming talent. Its for these reasons we need to keep the Bhatts and the Ram Gopal Varma’s in the industry because they dare to be different. If it wasn’t for these breeds we would be watching the same predictable hit formulas of the Chopra’s and Johar’s. These production houses allow their directors to be creative and explore questionable scripts. Sometimes a hit, and sometimes a miss, they fear not when it comes to growth in the spectrum of films hindi cinema has to offer.
Gangster – A Love Story offers an endearing story that is emontionally intense. Some will find it to appeal and deliver to their senses and others will walk away indifferent, viewing it as time pass. Ritu Mahindru gives it credit, for a decent film in its genre with 3 stars.

The Bhatts’ can take credit for putting the careers of hotties like Bipasha Basu with Jism Mallaika Sherawat with Murder, and even today’s numero uno Rani Mukherjee with Ghulam on the map. I’m sure their new discovery Kangana Ranaut will prove to be a winning choice as well!