A GOOD MOVIE, BUT OVERRATED AF !
When Gully Boy arrived, every media house was praising it as it was the best movie, to come out till date. In January, whole India was shouting only 2 phrases, “How's the Josh ! ” and “Apna time aayega”. The first one is from URI, which was bashed by some media houses for promoting “toxic hyper nationalism”. And we all know what was the result. It opened to a normal collections of 8 crores and made its lifetime at 245 crores* till date. Anyways, I don't understand why Gully Boy was so much hyped by the media house.
The story is of Murad (Ranveer Singh), an aspiring rapper, with an abusive father, Aftab (Vijay Raaz), a very obsessive girlfriend Safina (Alia Bhatt), a druggie friend, Moeen (Vijay Varma) and a weak but noble mother in Razia (Amruta Subhash). MC Sher (Siddhant Chaturvedi) inspires him to blast his inner voice and use the words in his rap. This results in Murad's rap becoming famous among the youth. But this disturbs Aftab, Safina and Moeen, in different ways. Further story deals with Murad's journey of becoming Gully Boy.
Many were comparing it with 8 Miles, but this is of no use. Except the theme of rap, both are completely different. Plus 8 Miles has a much mature content than Gully Boy. So it's obvious.
The rap battles are shot very well with well written lyrics and good gully rappers. The movie discovers talent such as Kaam Bhaari, who is a way better rapper than Emiway (just my opinion).
The cinematography is very good and the direction is also good. However, the connect is debatable to some extent. Not everyone is going to connect with Gully Boy. The screenplay is clean bland and boring. Although the target niche audience must be satisfied, your movie should appease both the mass and class, to be a perfect watch. And OK! let us assume that this was a class oriented movie, it wasn't even that good for that category. Now to many Nolans and Russos, if you think this was way beyond the reach of “typical Indian Audience”, then you should watch Udaan, that is one of the best movies, I have seen in my life, based on the same theme of underdogs (not rap). The packaging only, no more works here, we are interested, in both packaging and the product.
Ranveer Singh is not acting. He is clearly not acting here. He is Murad. Who thought the process from Murad to Simmba would be so easy for Ranveer Singh (shooting of Gully Boy was done before Simmba). He is so natural that it's difficult to figure out that is he the same man we saw as Khilji, or an actual slum boy? This is his career best performance, even better than Khilji. By the way, it was a clear slap to those who think he is an overactor (actually he had already slapped them with Lootera ;p).
Alia Bhatt is good. Nothing special in her act. For me, nothing has came better from her than her Udta Punjab act.
Vijay Raaz shows us what Raita this Kauwa Biriyani can do, if given the adequate screentime. He makes you hate him throughout the movie as the abusive father, but makes you feel empathetic in the end. This one actor never got his due for any movie (except Run), but he surely is one gem in the industry.
Siddhant Chaturvedi will make you doubt whether this really is his debut or not? He will touch you as MC sher. He has the best accent among all in the movie and is very original in his act.
Vijay Varma was last seen in Monsoon Shootout. And this man has way more potential than the kind of roles he is being given. A very gripping and touching act.
Amruta Subhash was Nawazuddin Siddique's sister in Raman Raghav 2.0 and had the screentime, near to just 15-20 minutes. Her act in Gully Boy is way more deserving. And she puts forth a memorable act.
Kalki Koechlin puts her everyday act and she also has nothing special.
Vijay Maurya is a takeaway from the movie. His act is noteworthy and he as usually brings the spark with his presence.
Nakul Sahdev as Murad's friend Salman, is another takeaway.
Everyone gives a noteworthy performance.
All in all, Gully Boy is definitely a one time watch with zero repeat value
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