#GunsNGulaabs on #Netflix is a tribute to Hindi cinema of the pre-mobile era. The characters, props, dialogues, scenes are all a throwback and an ode to Bollywood. #GulshanDeviah struts around in a haircut reminiscent of #SanjayDutt in #KhalNayak, making threatening calls from the stupid looking STD booths where you pay per minute. #DulquerSalmaan throws away a cassette that plays the ‘Jhankar Beats’ version of his fav song and waits for another normal version of his song to finish. The radio announces a hatrick by #KapilDev and the debut of #SachinTendulkar. #Campacola and #GoldSpot are the heroes in many a scene. #The36thChamberofShaolin is playing in the theaters and KungFu is what all east asian looking people indulge in. The 82 minute final episode even has an exaggerated intermission and the dialogues are satirical of the ways of the Bollywood villains. The title is a take on #GunsNRoses and the new series is a comic-crime thriller; a clear fanboy tribute from Raj and DK.
This is the fourth long form series from #RajNidimoru and #KrishnaDK after two seasons of #TheFamilyMan and #Farzi. Two drug lords are at loggerheads in Gulaabganj - there is Gaanchi (played by the late #SatishKaushik) and Nabeed managing the opium business. Ganchi’s son Jugnu (#AdarshGourav) seeks to find his place under the sun. Then there is Paana Tipu (#RajkummarRao), son of a criminal who wants to reform his ways and is a bit of Romeo, falling for the english teacher at the school Chandralekha (#TJBhanu). Two adolescent boys Lalkrishna and Gangaram complete the ensemble cast. Enter Sukanto and the goons from Bengal and the stakes become bigger. The new narcotics office Arjun Varma (#DulquerSalmaan) is another actor in the black comedy laced crime thriller and the stage is set for a Pulp Fiction-esque beginning leading up to a Tarantino like ending.
The series starts off on a sluggish note with a lot of sub tracks and stories to keep track of. #TJBhanu does salvage what she can of a role without depth ; all the women in the series have nothing really in it for them. #RajkummaRao shows why he is so talented as he demonstrates his inner struggle to break free from the criminal legacy of his father Babu Tiger. Ironically, his love interest’s admiration piques when he inadvertently kills two goons with his spanner! #Arjun is also struggling to be a good father and a husband ; there is not enough about the backstory with #ShreyDhanwatary’s character to sustain our interest. #SatishKaushik in one of his last roles shows us what we will miss as he mixes his comic timing laced menace. The Easter Egg with his name on the final credits showing up on a calendar is a touch of brilliance ! #VipinSharma, #PoojaGor, #VarunBadola and #ManujSharma bring up the rear quite well. #GulshanDevaiah is full of aplomb as ‘Char Cut Atmaram’ and revels in the quirky avatar that he gets to play. #AdarshGourov is my favorite though as he mixes his menace brilliantly with his sexuality. The teen boys, especially #TanishqChaudhary as Gangaram pull off a decent act as well.
Raj and DK have now got a working formula that we are quite familiar with. In #Farzi, they brought in #VijaySethupati to star with #ShahidKapoor. Here they again have a pan-Indian cast with #Dulquer being roped in . The colour palette and the humour is very vintage Bollywood. The final episode is treated differently and the cuts with “30 mins ago”, “5 mins ago” work very well as they deal with the arc of each character and bring it all together. Some of the dialogues are interesting - One of the goons asks “Tum Sab Ek Jaisa Sochte Ho Kya?” as the meeting is set up at an abandoned ruins location. The spoofs, satire and humor elements in the humdrum of daily life shine brightly. The scene where a boy lights a cigarette for a dying gangster is vintage classic stuff and the one where Tipu drives up to his girl on a motorbike and the client who owns the bike spots him is hilarious. The idiosyncratic characters and the over-stylized palette work to an extent but the narrative does not rise above the sum of its parts. Temper your expectations on this one - a lot of emphasis on the style but not enough on the content!
