Gully Boy reviewed.

The subject of informal rap/music in India has always been a sought after subject. The reason why not many movies are made in the genré is because filmmakers play safe and venture into popcorn cinema rather than arthouse.

Zoya Akhtar and company isn't a part of those filmmakers. She always explores vivid and troubled waters and delivers a stupendous movie which is almost always character driven. And character driven movies never ever fail. Take ZNMD, LUCK by Chance or Dil Dhadakne Do to name a few.

Gully Boy is a simple story of a young Muslim boy cramping his way through the idea of life in Dharavi; Mumbai's underbelly where you can have infinite Ripley's believe it or not moments. Murad, the GULLY ka chhokra, is living life on the edge of chaos in a small room in Dharavi along with his ABBA and AMMI and DADI and a brother. Things are not good and Murad gets into the habit of penning down his feelings on paper. Murad's girlfriend, Safeena is an ambitous fireball who has 2 missions in life : To become a surgeon and to get married to Murad.

Murad comes across MC SHER at a college event and is soon introduced to rapping. Him and Sher form an unusual bond and the rest is destiny as Murad is truly gifted.

The fuselage of this film is how Murad conquers all odds and goes onto win a Rap competition having a juicy cash prize and recognition.

As i earlier said, Zoya Akhtar's body of work relies heavily on her characters. Shades of the Mumbai from Talaash are evident because Reema Kagti is onboard as a screenwriter as well. The film is exceptionally shot on real locations by Jay Oza and the bylanes of Mumbai and the way of life of the poor is beautifully created and captured on celluloid.

Talking about the quintessential of the movie, the characters; the actors who play these characters breathe fire into this simple story. Murad, apna GULLY KA CHHOKRA (GULLY BOY) is played by Ranveer Singh. And boy oh boy, he has delivered a powerhouse of a performance. His eyes say so so much. It is most difficult to emote on screen without too many dialogues and Ranveer has done a fantastic job. Hats off to the writers to create such a character. Murad's life is a living hell. He has to deal with a selfish conservative father, a troubled mother, a possessive girlfriend, borderline wicked friends and a plethora of other issues a poor man faces in Mumbai. Ranveer nails it. The diction, the body language, the potrayal of emotional agony and the RAPPING. He nails it. Respect. Alia is Alia, the small wonder who for me is already in the league of Meryl Streep. She is a genius.

What really blew me away was the character of MC SHER, played exceptionally by the very talented Siddhant Chaturvedi; His big screen debut. (He was earlier seen in Inside Edge as a cricket player from rural India) Siddhant has killed this one and he is a sure contender for juicy roles in the future.

All the other actors play their part well and the characters are so well written, they fit in perfectly. Vijay Raaz as the rude father. Kalki as Sky and Vijay Maurya( who has also penned the dialogues for this one) as Murad's righteous Mamu and the innocuous Vijay Varma as the delicate hearted foolhardy loudmouth Moeen. The story is very simple played brilliantly by incredible actors. Gully Boy shines because of tremendous team work. The makers, actors, the hard hitting poems by Javed Akhtar, the music (Contributions from the original GULLY BOYS; DIVINE AND NAEZY) and ofcourse the edit and camera team. It is another one hell of a production from team EXCEL.

ALL HAIL RANVEER. I'd watch it again for him.

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