Rangoon: All’s fair in love & war

Cast:  Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut

Rated: 6/10

Rangoon, the name itself conjures up a compelling nostalgia that director Vishal Bhardwaj has worked hard, apparently for more than a decade, to portray in this war-romance.

The canvas is big and the intentions honest but Rangoon unfortunately gets too caught up in the razzle-dazzle of looking and sounding much too grand and thereby walking away from both the war at hand and the romance brewing around the uniform, at a time when India was in the midst of many battles.

But there’s no denying the fact that this film is a visual, musical treat as is expected from the haunting strains of Bhardwaj, which suddenly peak in the film and catch you unawares when the director passionately sings the INA version of the rashtra gaan.

It is a musicless, deep-voiced rendition that compels you to stand up in ovation and while you are paying your respect to the nation, you do spare a nod for the film’s lead character Miss Julia aka Kangana Ranaut.

Though we all know there’s no stopping Ranaut in her pursuit of ultimate glory on the screen, in Vishal’s deft hands, she is stunning both in appearance and demeanour, leaving all other well-fleshed out characters around her far behind.

In a Fearless Nadia type of persona, she is spontaneous, wanton and completely at ease with the energy that was needed to be unleashed to be that kind of action superstar of the 1940s.

Not to say that Bhardwaj’s acumen in enrolling Saif Ali Khan as the shaded Bollywood money bag with an upturned moustache and a thing for goras, and an upright soldier in Shahid Kapoor was any less. Saif is a perfect fit as an unscrupulous, obsessive stuntman-turned-producer and Shahid wins the battle with himself by merely looking old enough to be on screen as a grown man and not a youngster too young for either romance or war. Between these three and, of course, the Hindi-obsessed Lt General David Harding played to perfection by Richard McCabe, the film flits between the compulsions of the Indian National Army of Subhash Chandra Bose, the swish corridors of well-heeled tinsel town Mumbai and the war unfolding at two levels — Indians in the Brit Army and the guerrilla soldiers of Bose wanting to free India with an un-Gandhian force.

The film could have been so much more than just a picture perfect visual delight. It could have had more moments of love and battle. It would then have been more of a movie and less of a soiree of cinematic excellence. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 26 February, 2017