SIMRAN   --  a review



Here is a movie that began with a bang and ended leaving us with a sour taste in our mouth.

I love Kangana Ranaut. Her “Queen” was adorable. “Tannu weds Mannu” left us asking for more. But “Simran” was a letdown. A bubble that stretched as far as the sky and exploded into acid rain. Something went wrong somewhere. And what was that? That is the question.

Modeled on innumerable American stories of desperate and decadent teens messing up their lives, Simran was more an irritant than a balm to the eyes. I left the theatre wondering did I or did I not enjoy the film!

Briefly, Simran is the story of a young working-woman, a thirty-year old, divorced  'Gujju-ben' with flawed English, born to a small business family in Atlanta, U.S.A. She is in the house-keeping department in a hotel but indulges and excels in weaving big dreams for herself. Since dreams are often intangible fantasies that come with an expiry date, she is caught in the web of her own making.

Fully shot in the USA, the story shunts between the glitzy world of Las Vegas and some dreary suburbia in Atlanta crammed full with a large congregation of Indian immigrants. Evidently, Simran whose real name is Praful Patel, does not want to yield to a mundane suburban existence.

Fast paced and intense, what was irking about the movie was the jarring music and the face of Kangana Ranaut as Praful in every frame on the screen. Bad songs breaking out at every bend of the movie failed to please me and so did the high voltage, hysterical melodrama between the father and daughter. Even the goons seemed most unconvincing and plastic -- played,perhaps, by amateurs. What was a surprise and a pleasant relief was the low-key performance by Praful's soft-spoken suitor, Sameer, played by Sohum Shah.

The story-line, the character flaws, the stilted script -- all kind of messed up the movie for me. There was too much packed in together to punch and please the viewers all at the same time. After all, Indian moviegoers love to be charmed by their female leads. Indeed,there were moments when I disengaged myself from what was happening on the screen. It was too long winded and overpowering a melodrama that came to an inconclusive conclusion.

A bold attempt by Hansal Mehta and Kangana Ranaut stealing the show, the movie failed to appear palatable enough  and that is what I could say in the final analysis.

Dola Dutta Roy © Kolkata. September 2017


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