Marking the International Women’s Day, Madhuri and Juhi starrer Gulaab Gang was released all over India yesterday.
The film is loosely based on a real group of activists — known as the Gulabi gang because of their pink (gulabi) sarees — in North India who fight violence against women, notably by beating abusive husbands with bamboo sticks. And the villain is Madam ji, a politician of supreme ambition and total crassness, played with aplomb by Juhi Chawla.
The film’s central protagonist is rural Rajjo (Madhuri), who runs an academy where women wield weapons and weave pink saris. Rajjo’s Gulaab Gang takes on oppressive elements - dowry-demanding husbands, bribe-demanding babus, grain-hoarding traders, the rapist son of the local neta (local leader).
In an industry where female actors tend to disappear after age 30 or marriage, Gulaab Gang stars two 46-year-old icons of the ‘90s who have fought that pressure. Madhuri Dixit plays Rajjo, the gang’s good leader (distanced from Sampat Pal, leader of the real-life movement), and Juhi Chawla plays Sumitra Devi, a corrupt politician who would stand in her way to maintain the status quo.
However, most of the critics are not very happy with the film which couldn’t stand beyond Bollywood’s clichés while dealing with a serious subject.
Times of India writes: “ But the dramatic tension simply doesn’t hold. Every time there’s a face-off between Rajjo and Madam ji, a diversion - a song, a character cracking a joke, guns fired - occurs, breaking the build-up. There are too many tangents, navels and nose-rings, diverting focus from Rajjo, the story’s driving force. Instead of knowing how and why she becomes the tigress of Madhavpur, we’re given mellifluous songs, intercut with soon-repetitive scenes of exploitation.”
Bollywood 24/7 criticises: “Sen’s efforts, however, would have been far more rewarding if he had stopped indulging his Madhuri fixation. Making her dance in synchronized poetic moves, and even giggle when her student blurts out a reference to her iconic Ek,Do,Teen dance number, ruins the impact of the person she’s portraying.”
The critics also says that the film has a fake label of realism and feminism attached to it.