‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ Review: Alia Bhatt Is The Most Potent Colour In Bhansali’s Heartbreaking But Poetic Portrait Of A Sex Worker, Feminist, Heroine
As a journalist (or a ‘jeneralist’, as Gangu pronounces it), the highest compliment I can accord to any piece of content is my undivided attention, without worrying about what’s happening outside. And during the 2 hours and 30 minutes runtime of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi, I didn’t look at my phone. I didn’t want to. I would hate to miss a single stunning frame, a flicker of expression on Alia Bhatt’s face, a single one of those emotions that the film so generously evokes. If you find this too hyperbolic a beginning for a review, well, get with the programme. It’s a Bhansali film. Grandeur is a requisite. And what are Bhansali films if not poetry persevering on screen? Gangubai Kathiawadi is not a happy story to tell; it’s a tragedy, it ends bittersweet. And the filmmaker paints it all as heartbreaking poetry with many colours, the most potent of them all being Alia Bhatt. The film also stars Indira Tiwari, Seema Pahwa, Vijay Raaz, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jim Sarbh, and Ajay Devgn in a guest appearance.
Gangubai Kathiawadi is produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Dr. Jayantilal Gada (Pen Studios). The screenplay is by SLB and Utkarshini Vashishtha, with the latter also writing the dialogues along with Prakash Kapadia. Bhansali has also edited the film and composed the music, with lyrics by A M Turaz and Kumaar. The original background score is by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara. The production design is by Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray. The director of photography is Sudeep Chatterjee.
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The film is loosely based on a chapter from the book Mafia Queens Of Mumbai by S. Hussain Zaidi with Jane Borges, on the life of a sex worker called Gangubai Kothewali from Kamathipura (red light area) in Mumbai. Now the court cases have challenged this characterisation so we don’t know what’s what. But in the film, Ganga is a young girl from the Kathiawad area of Gujarat, the daughter of a barrister, and from a happy, well-to-do household. Harbouring dreams of becoming a heroine in Mumbai, she elopes with her lover Ramnik, who sells her off one Sheela Mausi, a madam of a brothel in Mumbai’s red light district, Kamathipura. Her spirit broken, Ganga is forced into prostitution, but like the flip of a switch, she decides to make her own destiny and not become its puppet. The film chronicles her ascension to power, what she chose to do with that power for the sex workers in her own brothel and eventually the 4000-other sex workers in the district she became a messiah for, and how she pulled it off with sheer gumption, a shrewd sense of business and politics, the support of this new family she built around herself, and a smile on her face.
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From the very first frame itself, Bhansali manages to evoke this sadness that is at the same time inexplicably captivating and beautiful. The awe-inducing set pieces that make Gangu’s Kamathipura or her childhood home, or even the rooftop where Gangu floors mafia don Rahim Lala with her sharp tongue, are all so visually dynamic that you feel instantly dwarfed by the sheer imagination of the director. Something entirely painful and terrible could be happening on screen to one of the characters, and you’d want to look away, and yet it has you arrested in its grip. I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy watch, but I’ll be damned if I said I expected this. And mind you, there are some triggering disturbing visuals here, which depict the horrors of this
The colour palette is breathtaking in shades of greys, blues, mauves, maroons, greens, browns and white, as if they were once brighter and more vibrant versions of themselves but are now mired in sadness and neglect. Every home, every room, every costume feels lived in and yet, everything is so darn beautiful. It made me ask, can terrible pain and sadness ever look this beautiful?
Of course, there’s no denying that some of this opulence might feel over the top to someone, who might brush aside the explanation that Bhansali films always feel like paintings that evoke a feeling of beauty and melancholy. That last time I felt these strongly—and I can’t believe the odds of this—was during the Sonam Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor debut Saawariya, which also featured a storyline that led Ranbir to a ‘badnaam gali‘. I vividly remember the Diwali of 2007 when I walked out of the theatre feeling blown away by the film but eventually found out the opinions of the public. 15 years later, you can see the maturity in both the visual and story depiction of sex workers. It’s all still unbelievable grand and surreal, like a different world altogether, but to tell the story of a larger-than-life character, itna toh banta hai.
In a Bhansali film, everything from the set pieces to the costumes, hair and makeup are characters telling their own story. But also, music, which he composes himself. I couldn’t get enough of both ‘Jab Saiyaan’ and ‘Meri Jaan’, but I think the reason for that is better attributed to Alia Bhatt and Shantanu Maheshwari, who have such innocent yet sensuous chemistry. ‘Meri Jaan’ in particular, which has been filmed entirely in the backseat of a car, is such a ride through emotions as if you’re watching them fleeting by through the window of the car: teasing, love, attraction, consent, touch, shame! The lyrics, all laden with meaning, and in the case of ‘Dholida’, with memory and mourning, leave an impact. And even when there are so many incredulous things to absorb during these songs, Alia Bhatt as Gangubai commands every ounce of your attention. She isn’t poised and graceful like Deepika Padukone in Ram Leela, or playful like Aishwarya Rai in ‘Dholi Taro’ from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Her Ganga and Gangu, when dancing, are in a trance-like energy, and there’s a bit of aggression there too. There’s another song in there, a surprise I’d love for you to discover on your watch, but I must mention that, once again, it is visually so, so good.
Also Read: Sanjay Leela Bhansali Says Alia Bhatt Picked Her Bag And Ran Out Of His Office After ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ Narration
In fact, let’s talk about just how Gangubai Kathiawadi has a female protagonist that channels the quintessential Bollywood hero in her every mannerism and action and yet is so profoundly female because it all originates from her pain, which is profoundly a woman’s. Gangubai sits and struts with the swagger of a Bollywood hero, chews paan with a smirk on her face, speaks harsh truths unabashedly, is clearly dominant in her every relationship, and is a fierce protector of those she loves. She provides for them. She hides her tears from them, and never lets that armour down, no matter how big the attack on her. She isn’t “a lady” as society would call it. We’ve often associated these attributes to male heroes in Bollywood, but clearly, Gangubai is a feminist heroine.
Another coming-of-age element in Gangubai, and one of my favourite things about the film, is the dark, incisive humour channelled chiefly by our protagonist, Gangu, and also by her coworkers. The treatment and judgement of sex workers have been one of the biggest hypocrisies that our society continues to avoid addressing, and the film holds up a mirror to it, with Gangubai inflicting sharp rhetoric right back at the audience watching her with her speeches and dialogues. There’s a bare nakedness to the conversations and comebacks of the sex workers, because what have they got to hide from this world? It makes for some mawkish but effective dialogues that both elicit applause and cut through you like an unsheathed sword or the edge of a broken mirror. Yes, I think I like the latter analogy better. There’s one particular scene where Gangubai introduces herself to Jim Sarbh’s journalist, and wow! I wouldn’t spoil it for you, but it’s a moment that’ll make you snort in laughter at the clever joke, as it takes you back to the disturbing reality for why that dark humour was needed in the first place. And this holds true for most of the hard-hitting dialogues.
In fact, it made me realise a very pertinent little difference in films on male and female protagonists. When a hero says a dialogue that is worth applause in our movies, he’s usually talking about his own greatness or how he is going to ruin his enemies. But in a film like Gangubai, the applause came when Gangu took a jibe at the patriarchy, the stark reality of the society that oppresses them and shuns them, and the hypocrisy of their fellow women who should’ve better understood them.
Gangubai Kathiawadi also attempts to address issues like the fight for the rights of sex workers, the politics that they, unfortunately, become a pawn in, and even the sexual abuse and violence that many of them undergo at the hands of their customers, with no legal protection accorded to them to keep them safe. There’s also the stigma attached to being the children of sex workers and how it’s a constant struggle for these women to protect their children and give them a better life. All of it boils down, in the final moments of the film, to the very burning appeal for the legalisation of prostitution so that sex workers are not treated as second and third rate citizens in their own countries. It’s something that has often divided the people, and yet, we’ve seen examples of how countries that legalised prostitution benefitted from its fallout in the society—sexual and violent crimes against women went down, sex workers could earn and live with dignity, and instead of asking for a bribe or a cut, the state could legally earn revenue from the industry via the workers who would then become taxpaying citizens. Gangubai highlights these very obvious truths to a crowd full of people in the film, and it is easily a goosebump-inducing moment.
Basically, everything you expected to feel in the trailer, consider it multiplied.
I’m saving the best conversation for the last. Let’s talk about the performances, shall we? Seema Pahwa, the usually loveable even if slightly orthodox bua or mother in most films she does, this time gets to unleash a vile character upon us. Her greedy Sheela Mausi makes you hate her with a vengeance, and she’s exactly the example of women-bringing-other-women-down thanks to being cogs in the vicious circle of the same patriarchy that oppresses them all. Indira Tiwari as Kamli, Gangu’s ‘jigri‘ friend and confidante, is impressive. Shantanu Maheshwari plays the innocent and besotted Afshan so very well. Vijay Raaz as a trans person and the reigning president (Badi Gharwali) of Kamathipura before Gangubao usurps her throne, is a controversial casting but leaves no doubt about his short but intense performance as Raziabai. Ajay Devgn as mafia don and big brother to Gangubai is, well, Ajay Devgn. Think Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, and him as Haji Mastaan, and his presence is just as imposing and larger-than-life here as well. And Jim Sarbh is so adorable as the ‘jenralist’!
But OH. MY. GOD. Alia Bhatt. My surname-sake really brought her A-game here.
The Gangubai trailer establishes Gangubai Kathiawadi as a sex worker and a feminist icon who fights for basic human, economic and legal rights for her fellow sex workers in a newly independent India. And they, in turn, revere her, draping her in white, the colour of so-called ‘purity’ but also of peace, respect, beauty, and perfection. Of the chaand that is the Lightbringer in her little dark world. There was no doubt that this was a heartbreaking and powerful story with epic potential that just had to be told. And yet, there were doubts afloat about the casting of Alia Bhatt in the role. Some said she was too young and innocent; some said she didn’t look the part; others (yes, you know who it was) even said that she was miscast and her accent and Garba skills weren’t up to the mark.
Also Read: Kangana Ranaut Got Bad Blood With Alia Bhatt And Mahesh Bhatt, Criticises ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ For Wrong Casting
And Alia Bhatt shuts them down with nearly the same intensity as Gangubai pushes back at her opposers…. with unmatched swag and a performance that is a revelation—even though we know she’s a good actress—an ad definite career-defining moment for her. Her Gangubai manages to bring forth multiple emotions on her face in a span of seconds! And while I want to say that her Gangu says it best when she says nothing at all and talks only through her expressions to, say, tease a lover or sass a politician, it would be a disservice to her seeti-worthy dialogues that she delivers so potently.
By the end of the film, I couldn’t imagine anyone else in the character, channelling equal amounts of petite, vulnerable innocence and then surprisingly oozing that much gravitas. I remember telling the skeptics that perhaps this was a calculated risk on Bhansali’s part; we all know a Vidya Balan, a Richa Chadha, a Huma Qureshi or a Kangana Ranaut (some of the names thrown around as ‘better casting options’ in the debate) might’ve done this role well. But to have pushed and pulled this performance out from a completely unexpected actor, with such panache, there’s no bigger flex for a director. Congratulations to them both.
Verdict
I haven’t read Hussain Zaidi’s book, which serves as source material for the film. But I can tell you this. When the credits began rolling on Gangubai Kathiawadi, I had the feeling of having finished reading an unputdownable and deeply satiating book that spanned a lifetime worth’s journey of a solid character. Like a Kane And Abel or a Love In The Time Of Cholera. Gangubai Kathiawadi is definitely an arrival moment for the feminist Bollywood heroine, and for storytelling that can be both heartbreaking but beautiful, full of harsh truths and gruesome but poetic and captivating. The film doesn’t portray sex workers as subjects of pity, and even though grandiose, doesn’t hide the dark and murky of it all; if anything, it just adds scale and gravitas to it.
Alia Bhatt deserves all the accolades that are going to be showered upon her, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali can once again be applauded for his genius and for always delivering beyond our expectations. Please go watch this film in the theatres. It is quite the experience.
Gangubai Kathiawadi is currently in cinemas.
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