In the fictional town of Rajpur, a student of law, Dileep [Raj Singh Chaudhary] who is a Rajput from Bikaner and his faithful servant, Bhanwar [Mukesh Bhatt], secure a accommodation in an old, run-down British-era pub. Here Dileep meets Rananjay Singh "Ransa" [Abhimanyu Singh], a prince, who despises the ideologies of his father and the aristocracy. Ransas straight forward and fearless personality has quite an effect on the mild-mannered Dileep. Shortly, Dileep visits the university hostel where he is ragged by a gang of university thugs, led by Jadwal [Pankaj Jha]. They strip him and lock him in a room with Anuja [Jesse Randhawa], a young lecturer in the same university. Both Dileep and Anuja are released naked. Dileeps brother tells him to ignore the event and that things were the same in his days, effectively stating that the society as a whole hasn''t changed that much since his time. But Ransa disagrees and tells Dileep that they should avenge this act. Initially, Dileep is reluctant but finally gives in and goes along with Ransa, after Ransa provokes him to give the thugs a taste of their own medicine. But the tables are turned and both Dileep and Ransa are beaten and are ragged & thrown out of the hostel. Ransa meets Dukey Bana [a local figure who is trying to gather support for the Rajputana separatist movement, unbeknownst to either Ransa or Dileep] who allows them to proceed with the plan to injure Jadwal. Ransa and Dileep ambush Jadwal, but the other thugs corner them in a cinema hall. Dukey Bana interferes and rescues them. Dukey Bana [Kay Kay Menon] then convinces Ransa to contest for the General Secretary Elections at the university. Contesting against Ransa is his fathers illegitimate daughter, Kiran [Ayesha Mohan]. Ransa is kidnapped by his fathers illegitimate son Karan [Aditya Srivastava] who asks him to withdraw from the elections. But Ransa mocks him and is in turn killed by Karan. Taking advantage of the situation, Dukey Bana makes Dileep contest the election in Ransas place. The chances of Dileep winning are minimal, so Dukey Bana bribes the electoral panel to rig the count in Dileeps favour. Dileep wins the election to become the GS. Kiran then seduces Dileep and convinces him to allow her to become the cultural secretary. Dukey Bana then starts using the funds for the Rajputana movement. When Dileep finds out about this he goes to confront Dukey Bana about the funds. Bana lets Dileep know about the Separatist movement, and tells him that the funds are being used for it. Dileep is not convinced, and tries to reason with Bana. A frustrated Bana takes him to his country estate where his thugs have killed Jadwal and shows him the body to intimidate him. Anuja, is thrown out of the hostel and moves in with Dileep. Kiran gets pregnant and is angry with Dileep for being careless about it. She gets an abortion and leaves Dileep. Anuja tries to make Dileep understand that Kiran has no interest in leading a married life and leaves him. A frustrated Dileep resigns from his post and Kiran steps in. She then tries to seduce Dukey Bana, but is unsuccessful when Bhati [Deepak Dobriyal, Dukeys second-in-command] comes looking for Dukey. In a private meeting, an irate Dukey threatens Karan and Kiran by telling them that the only reason theyre alive is because of their links to the local king. Dileep blinded by his love for Kiran, becomes violent and aggressive. Anuja too decides to leave him. Meanwhile Dileep finds out about Kiran from Bana s mistress Madhuri [Mahi Gill]. He grabs a gun, goes to Banas house and shoots him. While dying, Bana tells him that Kiran just used Dileep to get to him. At the same time, Karan unveils his plan to his group of thugs that once Dukey Bana is out of the way, the Rajputana movement will have no choice but to choose Karan as the new leader and therefore legitimize his royal status. They conclude that in order to get rid of Dukey, they must first eliminate Bhati. Dileep wants to hear the truth from Kiran, so he threatens Bhati to get her on the phone. Kiran refuses to answer, so Bhati goes off to find her and is killed by Karans thugs. Dileep comes to meet Kiran who tells him that all she wanted to was use him to become GS. Dileep is unable to take the truth and almost shoots her but gets shot by thugs. Despite Dileeps injuries , he walks back to his house and dies there. The film ends with Karan being made the head of the Rajputana movement, while Kiran sheds a tear as one of the loyal faithful.

Production

Gulaal took shape in 2001, when Anurag Kashyap was listening to songs from Pyaasa and his film Paanch was struggling with censors. Inspired by Mohammad Rafi songs from Pyaasa ["Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai"] and Zeenat, ["Haye re duniya"] the film is a dedication to Sahir Ludhianvi, the lyricist of the song and all other poets who had a vision of India. The film was also partially based on a story idea by Raj Singh Chaudhary who eventually played the role of Dileep Singh in the film. It was delayed for three years for various reasons, but was released finally in March 2009. The first teaser trailer of the movie was released with the directors other movie Dev D.

Soundtrack

# "Ranaji" [Rekha Bhardwaj] - 5:50 # "Yaara Maula" [Rahul Ram, Asheem Chakravarty] - 3:09 # "Aarambh" [Piyush Mishra] - 4:59 # "Aisi Sazaa" [Shilpa Rao] - 4:53 # "Sheher" [Swanand Kirkire, Piyush Mishra] - 7:34 # "Beedo" [Rekha Bhardwaj] - 5:03 # "Duniya" [Piyush Mishra] - 6:49 # "Raat Ke Musafir" [Rahul Ram] - 4:29

Reception

After its release Gulaal received positive reviews from critics. Rajeev Masand of CNN IBN rated it 3/5, saying "Anurag Kashyap is one of the most exciting voices in Hindi cinema today." Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave 3 stars and referred to Anurag Kashyap as Anti-Yash Chopra. Raja Sen of Rediff.com rated it 3/5, saying that "fantastically watchable film that scores high on moments." Nikhat Kazmi gave the film 3/5 stars, stating that, "the film scores in having taut performances and a gritty screenplay as well." Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL.in rated it 3.5 out of 5 and said, "Anurag scripts every character cleverly providing an identity to even the smallest characters and also a contrast in form of another character - true playwright style. He even has the jesters coming in to bring some comic relief but also more importantly they bring in a message." Tamil writer Charu Nivedita said this film is the "best political film" ever in Hindi and a document of current political history. Although the critics reviews were favorable, the movie opened to only 30% occupancy during its first week in theaters across India. In addition, word of mouth has been poor for this film, which could lead to slowdown at the box office for its subsequent runs in the weeks that followed. Box Office India stated that Gulaal only netted in its first week and was below the mark it was expected to generate. The film was screened at the 2009 The Times BFI London Film Festival.

Trivia

* Prithvi bana [Piyush Mishra] wears a locket of John Lennon. * Director Anurag Kashyap makes a one scene special appearance in Gulaal * The censor board deleted two dialogues from the movie - one referring to Gandhi, Ambedkar and a discussion about the origin of Indias National Anthem. * The tune played by Kiran on guitar in the meeting room is Goodbye Blue Sky from Pink Floyd''s legendary album The Wall. * The black and white still to show as Prithvi Bana''s childhood, shows a poster of Jim Morrison, though he carried John Lennon''s picture on his locket. * Drinks named as Democracy and Republic Beer are shown, to suit the political theme of the movie. * Various references have been made to Tabu in the film in the form of a poster, a song [Ruk Ruk Ruk from Vijaypath] and a dialogue [where Mahie Gills character asks Deepak Dobriyals character if she resembles Tabu] as Kashyap had been a big fan of her. * Many of the actors are also part of the creative team. Raj Singh Chaudhary is the script writer, Piyush Mishra has scored the music and Ayesha Mohan is an Assistant Director * When Anurag Kashyap got to know that Ayesha played the guitar and sang he made the character Kiran sing and play the guitar in Gulaal * Has rendition of Dinkars poem "Ye dekh gagan mujh mein lay hai" from Rashmirathi, Chapter 3, performed by Piyush Mishra. * The place where Ransa and Dilip stay has a picture of Che Guevara on one of the walls. * A neon light outside Ransas house blinks between "Hello There" and "Hell here".

Source : Gulaal Wiki Page