Simran movie review: Kangana Ranaut is the hero in this less heroic Hansal Mehta tale
Fiesty and badass—these two adjectives are used to describe Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut these days—thanks to a lot of controversies burgeoning about her personal life. But let’s talk about ‘Simran’ and NOT Kangana.
When a National Award winning director collaborates with a three-time National Award winning actress, the audience expects class cinema. Unfortunately, in this case, expectations take a free fall only due to a loose script.
‘Simran’ is a story of Praful Patel, a typical Gujarati girl living with her family in Atlanta, USA and works in the housekeeping department of a plush 5-star hotel. The problem is that she is not what you think.
Kangana plays Praful with so much conviction that you get lost in understanding the nuances of her character as she displays a gamut of emotions. Yes, she is the hero of the film who pulls of a brilliant act. But Apurva Asrani’s script could have been etched out better.
There are times when you can’t really connect with her at all. The switch in her moods and state of mind is beyond a 2 hour few minutes of reel time. The screenplay moves from Praful, who is also a divorcee (which btw is seen as a sham in the society as per her father) tries hard to make her own life. She saves her money to buy a house in the minority community but loses it all once gambling comes into play.
Her Las Vegas bachelorette trip with cousin turns her life upside down and that’s where she gets introduced to the big bad world of crime. She robs several banks in order to repay her credit to the mafia and that’s when the screenplay grips you. The direction is point on and we know that a master storyteller is at the helm of the affairs.
The supporting characters have done a great job, especially her on-screen father, who was convincing as a strict Guju daddy. Praful’s love interest was played by Soham Shah, who had a limited screen space yet restrained in his part.
However, I do feel the romantic angle looked forced in Simran’s story as the chemistry was lacking.
Kangana is funny, fiesty and full of life. The audience will surely be amazed at the kind of versatility the actress has shown. There are a few songs but not the ones which you will take home after the film gets over. The title track ‘Simran’ by Sachin-Jigar is nice and breezy.
You must watch ‘Simran’ only for appreciating the brilliance of ‘Queen’ Kangana Ranaut.
