Story:
Rani (Kangana Ranaut) is a small town girl with simple lifestyle and wishes. All she dreams of is of her marriage and excited about is her honeymoon. Just days before marriage, the bride calls off the marriage breaking her heart. She then goes on a world trip to places where she had planned her honeymoon and how in the journey she discovers herself and grows into a confident woman is the basic storyline of Queen.
Performances:
Right from the first frame to the last its Kangana Ranaut show. Her transformation from sweet, docile girl to a confident woman without losing her innocence and simple mindedness in the process is just fantastic. It is clearly her career best performance which so far has been highlighted by her spectacular psychotic acts.
Lisa Hayden is a revelation for the brief part she is in the film, so much so that you end up asking more of her. Rajkumar Rao as the fiancé who broke the heart of the girl is perfectly fine as usual. He pitches the character and performance to perfection. The four multinational people cast in the film were all good although they all represented a certain stereotypes.
Finally, big thumbs up to the casting team for all the local characters present in the film. All the family members of Kangana, her friends and her relatives are all superb lending lot believability to the whole setting.
Positives:
Kangana Ranaut
Screenplay
Music & BGM
Perfect casting
Negatives:
Few stereotyped characters
Drags occasionally
Analysis:
The basic story of the film is very thin and it needed an extraordinary performance from the lead actors to pull it though and Kangana provides that performance of a lifetime to pull it. Also the screenplay needed to be very tight to make the performance effective which is where the director and his team scores as well. Barring few sequences which looks like a stretch and may be unnecessary in the larger scheme of themes, nothing else feels unwanted or forced. Everything flows so naturally and makes one feel for the main character and gives them a feeling of being in the moment with them.
Both the halves are fine overall. The second half courtesy of few scenes feels stretched but the climax and scenes preceding it more than makes up for the lag, giving the film a perfect finish. In the end when Rani feels liberated and happy for herself, we too get a similar high albeit for watching such a wonderful engaging film. Great debut by Vikas Bahl as director.
Technically the film is very strong and helps a lot in giving the achieving the right effect. Music by Amit Trivedi fits the mood of the film to the tee and elevates the mood at the right times. Cinematography is fine, it helps in accentuate the overall mood of the film along with the background score. Editing is another strong plus for the film and so are the dialogues which have been also been credited to Kangana Ranaut as well.
Bottom-line: Best film of year thus far.
Rating: 4/5
