The outlandish Ranveer Singh, known for his look-at-me persona seems to have found his groove as the angst-ridden Murad who tries not to be weighed down by the grim reality around him.
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00:00There's so much to love about this film directed by Zoya Akhtar.
00:09It's a rousing rap to riches underdog tale which has Singh playing the role of Murad.
00:16He's a 22-year-old Muslim boy from the slums of Mumbai.
00:19The reality around him is grim but he dreams of becoming a musician and rap becomes his outlet.
00:25Director Zoya Akhtar has this amazing knack of extracting the subtle best from all of her actors.
00:32You have Ranveer Singh who's usually very outlandish
00:35and attention-seeking in his films play a very subtle role.
00:40He plays Murad with such a quiet ferociousness and ferocity that it's impossible not to like him.
00:48It's really impressive that a Bollywood film
00:51manages to drive home its point of religious and class divides
00:56without making it too didactic or preachy.
00:59Regarding the acting, I think Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt have outshone themselves.
01:05This is one of the movies where you can just watch them act.
01:09There's Alia Bhatt who plays a Muslim medical student who's in love with Murad played by Singh.
01:14And here's what I loved about them.
01:16Theirs is a very tenuous complicated relationship and Alia is quite feisty.
01:21I mean she's got anger management problems other than just studying for her medical degree.
01:26What she needs is an anger management course rather than a medical degree to be a surgeon.
01:32But what we like about it is she manages to inject a bit of adorability into her character
01:37and that's not easy because her character is flawed yet you feel for her.
01:41So that's one of the best parts about Gully Boy.
01:46All the characters of this film are really earnest and they're also honest in some way.
01:51In fact it's also big on wit.
01:53For instance, Murad lives in the slums of Mumbai and there is a scene in which his grandmother
02:00haggles with a tour operator who brings a bunch of foreigners for slum tourism.
02:05Basically you have a bunch of tourists who are actually going around the slums
02:10taking Instagram worthy pictures.
02:12It's laughable but it's also a very brave gamble.
02:15Here's a director who does not shy away from taking a swipe at poverty
02:20and showing and highlighting white privilege in the most subtlest manner.
02:24So all in all there's so much to love about this movie.
02:27The plot is very predictable.
02:29You know who's going to be the winner of a contest,
02:32you know who's going to win, who's going to have the last word.
02:35But yet you're invested in every frame.
02:38And then there are also the other supporting characters.
02:41Rarely has a movie come in Bollywood where all the characters
02:44other than just A-listers Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt who have such important roles.
02:50For instance actor Vijay Raz who plays Ranveer's troubled, violent, sprone, abusive father.
02:59His character is also well etched out.
03:02I mean there's a lot to learn from his flaws as well as his strength.
03:06There's a quite strength about all the supporting characters.
03:10In fact there's also debutant Siddhant Chaturvedi.
03:13He plays Murad's mentor.
03:15And just to watch this newcomer display such assured confidence
03:19while playing the role of MC Sher, another rapper who mentors Murad is also very thrilling.
03:27Out of all the characters if I were to nitpick the one that is not so developed
03:31is Kalki Kaikalan's character.
03:34She plays Murad's friend from an American university
03:37who comes down to India to shoot and film a video.
03:40Their graph is not very believable.
03:42If there's one film that you watch this weekend make it Gully Boy starring Ranveer Singh.
03:47You'll see him as this subdued, shy best.
03:50I've given it 3.5 out of 5.
03:53For my full review go to gulfnews.com slash tabloid.