Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre : Drama
Year : 2023
Season: 1, Episodes: 7
Directors : Raj & DK
Cast : Rajkummar Rao, Dulquer Salman, Adarsh Gourav, Gulshan Devaiah, Satish Kaushik, Vipin Sharma, T.J. Bhanu
Kid rating : PG-15
Tipu (Rajkumar Rao) is a mechanic in the small town of GulaabGunj. The town is special because farmers of the area grow poppy, and the opium is sold to the government for medicinal uses. However a lot of it is also bought up by two local mafia gangs – one led by the ruthless Ganchi (Satish Kaushik) and the other headed by Nabeed (Nilesh Divekar).
Tipu’s father, Babu Tiger works for Ganchi. He is killed in one the many skirmishes between the gangs. Soon after, Tipu’s best friend Suneel (Goutam Sharma) is also murdered in cold blood, almost in front of Tipu’s eyes. Tipu vows revenge and joins the Ganchi gang. But the Ganchi gang is in upheaval with its leader out of commission. Plus the new honest Narcotics officer who’s been posted to GulaabGanj promises to make life difficult for the opium mafia.
Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. direct Guns and Gulabs. They’ve also directed the fabulous series Family Man, the very recent Farzi and one of my favorite movies – Shor in the City. Their work is always innovative and often unconventional. And Guns and Gulabs is no different. It is a fast-paced, quirky drama with lots of interesting characters, a great plot, and some dark humor to boot.
What’s great about G&G is that despite the numerous characters and the many-threaded plot-line, there is coherence and a beauty to the way the directors bring everything to a climax. The characters are well-defined, often with amusing details added into their characteristics. Like how the killer Chaar-Cut Atmaram always calls from a pay phone where he does not talk for more than a minute. Ever. We see him reply in monosyllables and keep an eye on the pay-phone clock, itching to shut down the conversation. Any time we see him walk into a phone booth, we know what’s coming.
I really like that the plot-points have a side of dark humor to them. We don’t for example, get the importance of the woodwork being done at the Ganchi home until later. When the miserly Ganchi carps at the carpenter about the cost of the wood, we think nothing of it – just Ganchi being himself. Little do we know!
Similarly, the affection Jugnu Ganchi has for his friend’s wife seems odd, until things click into place. Then, as the layers are peeled back, one joins the dots, and smirks a little. A-ha moments! Many of them. Sprinkled throughout the 7 episodes.
Of course, a lot of the credit does go to the excellent star cast. Rajkummar Rao as Tipu is a marvel. He exudes haplessness as a stuck-in-the-mud mechanic, and goofiness when faced with his reluctant lady-love. No one pays poor Tipu much mind, until they need him. Poor schmuck, you think. He will never get what he wants. You feel for the guy.
And then there is Adarsh Gaurav who plays Jugnu “Chotu” Ganchi, who must run the business in his father’s absence. We saw him in The White Tiger as the simple Balram, but here he plays the wily Jugnu with ease and insouciance. Dulquer Salman is Arjun Verma, the narcotics officer with secrets of his own. Gulshan Devaiah, another actor who makes everything better by just being in it, plays the eccentric killer-for-hire Atmaram. T.J. Bhanu as the schoolteacher Chandralekha also makes an impression.
Guns and Gulabs starts off with an introduction to GulaabGunj and it’s inhabitants (and this could very well have been the town of Chaman Bahar). It trots along nicely feeding us lots of red herrings, and finally culminates in a fabulous climax.
Really quite lovely, and a pleasure to watch.
Kidwise: Violence, often bloody. Colorful language.
