Rating: Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Kalki Koechlin, Vijay Raaz, Vijay Varma, Amruta Subhash, Sheeba Chaddha Director: Zoya Akhtar Sometimes, angst has swag. And when it does, it often decides to make a song and dance about itself in prose, poetry, painting or just by sitting at a bar and blowing smoke rings. Invariably, it draws a crowd eager to exorcise their demons, empty their innards. Every generation gets a cool film that speaks of and to their angst. And our desi millennials have been gifted theirs by Zoya Akhtar. Gully Boy wears a hoodie and spits emotions angrily into the mic while flailing its arms and drawing fingers to make gang-style gestures, at times at the immediate opponent, but mostly at the world at large. Gully Boy, based on the real life story of Mumbai-based rap stars Naezy and Divine, and written by Reema Kagti and Zoya, is pivoted on the angst and dreams of the dispossessed, and it spins on the power of their sweaty resolve Apna time ayega! The film inhabits a world of tiny homes jostling for space in Mumbai’s Dharavi, where the frustrations, joys and irritation of one rub against another. For most part Gully Boy as directed by Zoya and inhabited and performed by Ranveer Singh is compelling. It’s got the groove. It also has the furious tempo and foot-tapping high energy of a generation just coming to terms with life’s gazillion options, and their frustratingly meagre choices. Gully Boy keeps taking flight, to the world outside Dharavi, to show us class divide and the inhumanity it breeds. And then, when it finds its moxie and a mic, it decides to say its piece. Here, its energy, its guttural rebuttal to life, seeps in, and it stirs. We are hooked, almost as if the film were an impetuous jet ski being manoeuvred by an eager, excited novice, and we, perched on a surfboard, were at the other end of a rope tied to it. We rise when it rises, we sway along when it careens about, and we slump down when it feels beaten. The film’s end, a kinetic, climatic sequence that jumps and stomps its feet with Ranveer Singh’s infectious high jinx is stunning, moving. But it is also a moment — mic drop by director Zoya Akhtar. I simultaneously broke into tears and a heart-felt applause. And I wanted to say, in rap parlance, “Your movie’s so dope, girrrl! !” Gully Boy establishes how it will tell its story right at the beginning. In a succinct, beautifully choreographed scene in a bus, using just an empty seat and a set of earphones, and without uttering a single dialogue, it lays bare not just the relationship between Safeena Ali (Alia Bhatt) and Murad Sheikh (Ranveer Singh), but also the hurdles they negotiate. Safeena is a badass in a headscarf and is studying to be a doctor. Murad is a student too, and he wears kurtas, short or long, a green-beige cloth backpack, and chappals. His personality is laced with diffidence and vulnerability. Safeena is slightly satkeli, hateli and comes unhinged at the slightest provocation. Murad mostly sits inside in his head. On the outside his body is stiff, alert to the weariness he carries. His backpack, at times, is symbolic of the burden that’s strapped on to his being. Murad smiles, but the brows remain furrowed. Inside, there’s a junoon, a desire to do something, to matter, to be someone. Murad’s ears are often plugged with earphones. Sometimes because he wants to drown out the world around him and get in sync with the beats of his heart. At other times, especially at home, to give a different narrative, a spin to the reality, because the chatter in his house bogs him down. In these instances we hear what he hears his commentary on stuff happening around him, accompanied by his rant about how it should be. Stuff happens. To his ammi, Razia (Amruta Subhash), because of his father, Aftab Sheikh (Vijay Raaz), a chauffeur. Murad watches, does what he can, and then sits on his bed and writes, pouring his heart out in rap verse. But he doesn’t rap. Not till he meets the local rap star, MC Sher (Siddhant Chaturvedi). In this scene and others that follow, the film conveys the joy of a lost, listless stray on finding its group, and a mentor. MC Sher adds rhythm to Murad’s poetry, turning his inner rant into a powerful chant. As rappers gather, for rap battles or just for fun, the temperature rises. These scenes are heady, intense. A different kind of sufiyana more a stormy, bouncy trance than a whirling, meditative one. Before it ventures out, Gully Boy briefly invites the outside to visit Murad, and his world decides to demand a price for a dekho, some photos. And when it finally steps out of Dharavi, the price Murad has to pay is quite devastating. Murad meets posh angst from Berkeley. It arrives in a Merc. Sky (Kalki Koechlin), who can best be described as that stock female character who must a) be bohemian; b) flit around an underdog, male, with her heart thrust out; and, c) offer her tan, mann, dhan in return for, well, unrequited love. These dear ladies make regular appearances in certain Bollywood films made by certain babalog directors and repeatedly drag them down. Thankfully, Sky serves some purpose here. She wants to produce a track, and has the means to do it in style. As a result, Murad finds acceptance, fame and a gentle swag and his smile finally travels up, from his mouth to his eyes. Gully Boy’s power, its mojo lies in the clashes it shows and articulates — between two worlds, two friends, two lovers, two rappers, between dreams and reality, between two worldviews. The film is mostly written very intelligently, especially when it draws vignettes from real life, and not other films. Its dialogue pack in street slang, especially in the rap battles where contestants quite literally get into each other’s face, showering insults and spit on each other. The film uses songs, like Meri Gully Mein, originally sung by Divine and Naezy. These are choreographed, shot and edited in a way that captures and conveys the zeitgeist of the time, while adding intensity and a sting to it. Oh! The joy of a director on finding a team that doesn’t just deliver, but makes the project their own. Everyone in Gully Boy crew and cast has given their best. The cinematography, choreography, the writing, editing, costumes, and the entire ensemble of actors are quite fabulous. Vijay Raaz is especially good, as is Vijay Varma. Kalki is a fine actress, but here she’s playing a character quite annoying and clichéd. Alia and Ranveer have both got loveable characters — sweet, non-challenging strugglers trying to grab a small piece of life for themselves. And they both inhabit their characters with a possessive, warm embrace. Alia’s easy charm and cute petulance encases Ranveer’s Murad, and roots him. Like Ranveer’s character says, “Murad without Safeena is as if woh bina bachpan ke hi bada ho gaya”.<doc-sep>Zoya Akhtar’s hip hop-themed Gully Boy makes some vital rewrites to the average coming-of-age story. The February 14 release features a working-class Muslim hero who is equally comfortable with rapping and praying. Murad (Ranveer Singh) channels his ambitions and energies into his rap, but is a gentle soul otherwise who enjoys his cannabis joints and the tough-love support of his girlfriend Safeena (Alia Bhatt). In a movie that is mostly about Murad’s journey, Safeena emerges as a full-blown dreamer in her own right. Murad’s introduction to Mumbai’s hip-hop community that follows an encounter with rapper MC Sher (Siddhant Chaturvedi) helps him give full expression to his privately mumbled verses. The movie picks up its energy and rhythms from its characters and by using real locations around Mumbai, including the Dharavi slum, overhead shots of the Byculla-Lalbaug flyover, and posh housing complexes in central Mumbai. Cinematographer Jay Oza and production designer Suzanne Caplan Merwanji vividly capture parts of Mumbai that are often missing in mainstream Hindi cinema. Zoya Akhtar has previously made Luck By Chance (2009), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and Dil Dhadakne Do and contributed to the Bombay Talkies anthology films. Gully Boy was written by Akhtar and frequent collaborator Reema Kagti, and has dialogue by Vijay Maurya and a music score produced by Ankur Tewari. Akhtar spoke to Scroll.in about her vision for Gully Boy, which began when she watched the video Aafat featuring the Mumbai rapper Naezy, who, along with peer Divine, inspired Murad’s character. Was ‘Gully Boy’ a film that you had always been wanting to make, or did it have a specific starting point? I have a bank of ideas at all times, and I have plans, but I never make the film. I think you are always there in some story or the other. I have realised that the story that keeps me sustained is the one I am going to make. I had no idea of the underground hip-hop scene [in Mumbai] until I saw a video of Naezy. I couldn’t get it out of my head. I kept digging on YouTube, and my interest kept going on. A film is about what turns you on, about what you get excited about. Your head space changes. What was it about Naezy’s ‘Aafat’ video that kept you hooked? That these guys exist, they are legit, they have a voice and they are going to raise this voice. They are talented and have a crazy flow. They are amazing writers, they have so many people watching them, and they are all 20 years old. It is ridiculous. Play Gully Boy (2019). When did you set out to make the film? We started the process at the end of 2014, and started working on the script in 2015 soon after Dil Dhadakne Do. We were supposed to shoot earlier, and the film should have come out at this time last year. But we lost a year – the Padmaavat shoot got extended. Plus, Ranveer needed to lose weight for the part of Murad, and that took two-three months. While Ranveer was losing weight, other things were going on – he was getting into the music, we were preparing for the shoot, and the music was being recorded. The hip-hop scene with artists like Divine had started coming up last year. It wasn’t alien any more, but I also cannot say whether the film would have had the same impact if it had come out last year itself. How much of ‘Gully Boy’ was improvised? I write everything down. My blueprints for my films are solid, with dialogue and everything. Then I get the actors together and start workshopping. Some improvisations happen during the workshops. A random example is Moeen [played by Vijay Varma] going wow wow, vade vade in the scene in the Benetton showroom. That happened during the workshop, and we kept it. It was insane, the boys collapsed laughing. Or the scene in which Murad folds a napkin in the bathroom of Sky’s house [Kalki Koechlin plays Sky, who produces Murad’s music]. We were shooting in an apartment that didn’t actually have any water. That moment was improvised, and it became a layer. But the bit where Murad measures the area of the bathroom with his feet was written. Everything was written, but then there were so many variables. If you are well-prepared, everything falls into place. Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt in Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy. Courtesy Excel Entertainment/Tiger Baby. How much needed to be explained about the Indian rap scene, which is not as familiar as other music scenes? Many people know the genre in India. Within the genre, there are various types of forms and artists. There are guys who represent the street – they write conscious rap, about things that affect their lives. They have distinctive voices, and each of their songs has a very different attitude. Take Kaam Bhari, for instance – his language is very different. We had to make sure that each of the artists had their own voice. We also had to explain the ethos of the music without making it boring as hell. For instance, MC Sher describes rap as rhythm and poetry. You had to get into the scene without it becoming preachy or giving the audience a class. Play Door, Gully Boy (2019). Murad’s characterisation challenges the traditional depiction of the Hindi film hero. Did he evolve too during the shoot? Murad’s character was there right from the beginning. He was no different. And whatever was written was for Ranveer. Murad has a different flow, and Ranveer didn’t influence the gentleness or depth or sadness of the character. I wanted Murad to be the kind of man I want to see in the world. I am just putting it out there – you can be this guy too. You don’t have to represent the masculinity that you are always told about. It is brave to be sensitive. I like creating male characters whom I would like to see in the world. Murad is also a rare Muslim lead in a mainstream movie. Lots of people have been asking me about Murad’s faith. It is interesting that Divine and Naezy are both from minority communities. We did want a Muslim character, but then I have always had Muslim characters in my films – Zafar in Luck by Chance [played by Hrithik Roshan], Imran in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara [played by Farhan Akhtar] and Farah in Dil Dhadakne Do [played by Anushka Sharma]. So in that sense, this wasn’t new for me. Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy. Courtesy Excel Entertainment/Tiger Baby. The spitfire Safeena, who is played by Alia Bhatt, is quite the audience favourite. The germ of Safeena came from Reema [Kagti, the film’s co-writer]. It was nice to have this kind of character. We don’t like to write people who are either black or white. Safeena has to deal with her own share of oppression. She is incredibly intelligent and ambitious and has to curtail her personality because of her gender, and that can be angry-making. She has a violent mother, and violence is sometimes communicated through language. But Safeena is also loving, and she loves Murad deeply. They have a lived-in, comfortable relationship, and they are also friends. The film has been shot on mostly real locations. What was your brief to the production designer? You had to be on the streets for this kind of a film – you couldn’t be anywhere else. The locations dictated the camera movements, the lensing, the use of space, how the characters and their worlds were shot. I had worked with production designer Suzanne Caplan Merwanji before. We found a spot in Dharavi and constructed a fixed set within it, which we used for Murad’s house and the street on which he lives. Everything around is Dharavi. We were constricted within that space. All the houses were fixed, and, you couldn’t move them. These constraints led to a certain kind of language. It made you feel like you were there. If I had built the set at Film City, you wouldn’t have bought it.<doc-sep>Director Zoya Akhtar’s latest film Gully Boy is making all the right kind of noise before its release. From being called one of the ‘best Hindi films ever made’ to getting critical acclaim from a few of the biggest publications in the world, Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt’s film is well on its way to become a superhit. Based on the life of a rapper born in the slums of Mumbai’ Dharavi, the film tells his journey through music. He fights the world with poetic words and tunes born out of his own life experiences. However, to bring the character to screen, Zoya found inspiration in several talented artists who are trying to (or already have) make it big on the Indian hip-hop circuit. From Divine to Naezy, the singers and their lives heavily influenced the story that Zoya has ultimately told to the world. Rapper MC Altaf with his family. Before Gully Boy’s release, the makers have shared videos of seven rappers from all around India. The shorts videos introduce the world once again to their talents, their lives, their families, their cities and everything that they sing about. There is Naezy, Spitfire, MC Altaf, KR$NA, Dub Sharma, Kaam Bhari, and Dee MC. These rappers are from Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Kandivali, Dharavi, Chhatarpur and Kalyan. The videos are all stunningly shot and show the rapper in their home towns and their own gullies. From the sky-high towers and the Metro trains of cyber city Gurgaon, to the calm, narrow lanes of Chhatarpur, the videos take the viewers to the world the rappers live in and create their art. Also read: Deepika Padukone tries weightlifting at an award event. See pics The rappers’ age ranges from 19 to 30 and they are lyricists, producers, dialogue writers, singers and so much more. They introduce us to their families and friends as they give the viewers a short teaser of their talents. Watch the videos here: KR$NA, Naezy and all the other rappers have been brought into the limelight with the film release. It has given them a platform to talk about their craft and also the hip-hop scene in India. Asked if rap is misunderstood in the country, KR$NA told IANS: “Hip-hop and rap as a genre is diverse and continuously changing. People tend to pick on the worst parts to stereotype it and that is why it’s misunderstood.” The Delhi-born rapper of Kashmiri descent believes the film can, in a way, give people an insight on how tough it really is to be considered a good rapper. Naezy whose real name is Naved Sheikh said, “We have a limited audience (for hip-hop). I hope that through the film, our audience gets expanded and the whole of India gets to see the real hard work of the underground rappers.” The film will release on February 14. Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10<doc-sep>
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Vijay Raaz, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Vijay Varma, Sheeba Chaddha Director: Zoya Akhtar Rating: 4/5 Five minutes into the movie Ranveer Singh's Murad and his friends are shown driving on the streets of Mumbai. The scene in itself is eventless but the shot is precise, clinical and expressive of Mumbai's beauty. It is perhaps in that scene one realises that they are now witnessing a Zoya Akhtar creation. Akhtar repeats the same shot later in the movie. The scene remains same while most things in the movie changes by then. In a nutshell, Gully Boy is nothing different from that shot. It is beautiful, precise, clinical, and expressive and accentuates the pulse of the city of dreams. Throughout the movie, there is a running conversation about dreams. The setting is the perfect backdrop for this conversation, even though the dreams in discussion are markedly different from each other. Every character in the movie fights in its own way to achieve those dreams and the two pivotal characters that do not are steeped in their own bitterness and anger. Talking about characters, Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar etch out the contours of each individual in such a complex - albeit human - and fine manner that the viewer is served with a metaphorical box of chocolates with uniquely different flavours. The best of that lot is Murad, who dreams of rapping. He has the words but needs a bit of polishing when it comes to the rhythm. A sensitive person, Murad juggles a lot of things at the same time - his passion, an abusive father, an unhappy mother, a feisty but needy girlfriend, his new mentor and his best friend who, he fears, is up to no good as well as his studies. However, Murad is not frustrated with the hand he has been dealt. He is sad, definitely, and sometimes fearful, but always fighting to get what he wants. Ranveer Singh is a sight to behold as Murad. He eases into the central character's innocence, happiness, grief, discomfort, disappointment without a flinch and then at the next moment he is pumping in energy only he can muster in his raps. Alia Bhatt's Safeena is perhaps the freshest character in recent times. She dreams of becoming a surgeon and is head over heels with her boyfriend. Her possessiveness - something not readily available in Bollywood - over Murad leads her into the murkiest of scenes. Bhatt plays Safeena to perfection by delivering the sweetest of smiles right after she tries to gouge someone's eyes out. The chemistry between the lead actors is palpable. Murad and Safeena are not only partners but also the best of friends. Theirs is a childhood romance, which as Safeena yells at a potential threat, is thirteen years old. Singh and Bhatt look every bit like that - in love and at ease. Vijay Raaz as the father, Aftab Sheikh, is as fine as ever. The bitterest of characters, he hates everything in this life, often lashing out at his first wife and son. He is so loathing to his family that he likens his son, Murad, to a 'saand' or a bull who eats a lot. He is a terror that nobody wants to face, yet, when he breaks down, one can feel his pain. The rest of the cast too fits the bill to the T. Standing out in the ensemble is newcomer Siddhant Chaturvedi who plays MC Sher, Murad's mentor. He has the confidence that Murad lacks and knows the ways of the world. Sher is the anchor to Murad's rather lost ship. This brings us to the core of the movie - hip hop. Rap in itself is not everyone's cup of tea but the makers made it not only palatable but highly enjoyable. The soundtrack is the vein of Gully Boy. Perhaps there is no medium better suited to emote a life replete with hardships and challenges. As a resident of Dharavi, living with a dysfunctional family and no proper room to call his own, Murad takes the same medium and transforms it into art, or as he says, his voice. Akhtar and Kagti have made a film for years to come. It does not only shed light on the underground rap scene, but also highlights the stark difference in lifestyle of the rich, middle class and the poor.