Rajjo Hindi Movie
There can only be two reasons for Kangana Ranaut to have taken up a film like Rajjo:
1 - She was drugged while signing it.
2 - The producers were happy to offer her heaps of money that too during her lean phase in which this desperate-for-work-actress took up films like Rascals, Double Dhamaal etc.
There can be no other reason why an actress who has immense potential and acting talent would take up a film which has no script, skewed thought and tattered execution.
Rajjo takes off with the introduction of Mumbai's infamous seedy lanes of dance bars and bar girls. With a garish introduction on equally jarring background score, clearly making you brace yourselves over what's to follow throughout the film, comes the dramatic entry of Hande Sahab (Prakash Raj - who repeats his creepy-cum-funny act for the zillionth time). He wants Rajjo (Kangana Ranaut) at any cost and hence comes to the doorsteps of Begum (Mahesh Manjrekar) to take her away. However, we are told that Rajjo had eloped with her lover. What follows is a predictable flashback of how a curious 21 year old young boy Chandu (Paras Arora) lands into a brothel in a bid to 'turn into a man' but falls in love instead with the most popular courtesan. How the two unite through marriage but yet face societal rejection is the rest of the plot which tries to find its way whilst getting squashed into multiple pointless sub-plots.
IAS Officer cum collector turned filmmaker Vishwas Patil may have intended to pass a social message with his film hence the gritty subject, however, the film instead of doing any good only makes matters worse for the audience is sure to come out angry at the poor representation of events.
The main plot, though highly predictable, is a simple one liner where a young boy falls in love with a star courtesan and wants to rescue her from the ruthless world by marrying her. However, it's the disjointed sub-plots throughout the film that makes a mess of a predictable storyline too.
There are characters in the film and their back-stories, for example, the suspended inspector and his encounter tales, which have no relevance to the main story but yet takes up ample screen time. Half way into the film it appears the filmmaker doubted he'd get another chance to make a movie hence stuffed everything into one film without doing justice to any plot.
Kangana Ranaut, who just won ample appreciation for her performance and dialogue delivery in Krrish 3, is at back to her faulty self again in this film. It's partly her character sketch and the flawed director and partly her imperfect dialogue delivery that makes one hate her throughout the film but rest assured she is still the best thing in the film. Her efforts in gyrating to the mujra beats can be seen.
Patil tries to make a hero out of his male lead Paras Arora and it's the inexperience of the newcomer that makes his performance over the top.
The production quality of the film may be the worst this year. The sets throughout the film appear garish and gaudy. Some parts literally remind you of low budget regional films.
Music and background score is hackneyed and horrible. The songs which are in plenty sound very old and dated while the background score highly melodramatic. Even the '60s phase sounds new-age compared to this trite album.
Rajjo has many shortcomings making is an easy skip. Filmmaker Vishwas Patil not only fails to extract performance from an actress like Kangana but also fails miserably in putting together a film which can be watched.
