At times there are movies which can't be categorized as good or bad but they leave some strong impact on you. Something in them makes your pulse race faster than itself every next second. And then something in them makes your heart go for a toss and at the end it leaves a void, a small ache in your heart.
Ranjhana is one such movie.
Plot is set in two cities i.e. Banaras and Delhi.
There's an average looking but super confident Kundan (Dhanush) who is son of a tamizh priest in Banaras. He falls in love with a local muslim girl, Zoya (Sonam) and falls real deep. In fact his love gets reciprocated through real dramatic-small-town-school-days'-wala love affair within 20 minutes from start of the movie. He got slapped numerous times, he cuts his wrist veins, jumps into auto, cycles on railway platform ... with his looks and actions, surprisingly, his love looks real ... this would indeed be a difficult feat for any six-pack-abs hero in bollywood ... But sadly, post this beautiful start, the movie takes various twists and turns. Countless twists. Movie moves ahead into real-life-problems ... In parallel, the love traverses it's journey through years...long years. If you see, the Ranjhana love starts with a line-segment, turns into a triangle, then a quadrilateral, then again a triangle and then again a line-segment. You keep getting colors of politics, murders, social-movements in the background too. Incidentally the Love-line-segment at the start and climax of the movie has same two end points but these two end points are real extreme and crazy souls.
Let me not tell you entire story for two simple reasons: a. It'd kill the fun; b. It'd be difficult to narrate
Strengths: Dhanush, Sonam, Dialogues, Swara Bhaskar (Tanu weds Manu fame), Zeeshan Ayyub (No one killed Jessica, Jannat-2 and Mere Bro ki dulhan fame) , AR Rahman's Music.
Weaknesses: the way story moves into weird unnecessary twists and for the climax.
Abhay Deol is an over-kill. Director should not have hired a pro like him for a small role like this one.
Must watch for small-town-guys-once-been-obsessive-impulsive-one-sided-lovers-during-school-fraternity ..... !! Yours truly couldn't have missed it ;-)
Stars: 3.5*
