Gully Boy - Impressive
Quick Thoughts: Gully Boy (2019)
A poor student about to graduate from university develops a dream to become a rapper.
Gully Boy is an inspirational, socio-politically conscious, realist(ish) drama from the same vein as the likes of Dangal. Where Dangal deals with female wrestlers, Gully Boy deals with small town rappers. If one were to crudely simplify Gully Boy, you'd call this Bollywood's 8 Mile. And whilst such a comparison is not incredibly necessary, it is pretty much inevitable. The structure, character arcs and spectacle of Gully Boy is reminiscent of Eminem's rap battle picture. Alas, it is given a more expansive run time, more musical sequences, more spectacle and is quite a bit more lighter. Moreover, the social commentary present in Gully Boy is more pertinent and less subtle than that featured in what you might call the prototype film.
With that said, Gully Boy is never weighed down by its high concept construction. There is certainly some novelty in seeing such a niche milieu put onto the big screen, but the film's dramaturgy is not reliant on it. That is to say that the thematic and characterlogical concerns of Gully Boy are balanced with (arguably outweigh) the focus on cutting lyrics, humorous rap battling and innocuous 'gangster' posturing. At the heart of Gully Boy is a familiar discourse on the rigid social structures that entrap and limit Indian youth. Replacing the cliched route to a commentary on caste divides (she's rich and he's poor/he's rich and she's poor, yet their in love--someone has an evil step-mother or uncle that will split them apart, but their love will be vindicated and accepted by all eventually), Gully Boy injects humour and tenacity into a more realistic relationships between girl- and boy-friends and parents and offspring. There is then a brilliant scene early on in the narrative that entirely subverts the conventional construction. A young man sees a young girl on a bus; their eyes keep locking, but her mother is nearby; the mother gets off the bus; the girl approaches the boy; they sit together and listen to music; they've not just laid eyes on one another for the first time, they've been going out for 9 years. Here we see verisimilitude conjured with a hint of humour and such is carried through the whole film rather well. Sometimes I believe the drama that is developed between the two lovers is unnecessary and cavalier, but the relationship portrayed in Gully Boy is sometimes endearing (though not unproblematic or entirely un-irritating) and a strong element of the narrative. Most importantly, however, this gives Gully Boy the mentioned thematic focus and allows it to be more than a string of rap battles and hip-hop dance sequences. The relationship rendered between our main character, his dreams and his parents is also very well managed. In such, Gully Boy manages to highlight and emphasise the bond between one's social standing and their dreams in an affecting and direct manner with appropriate degrees of melodrama. The most ingenious element of the social commentary may in fact be the portrayed conflagration of problems belonging our main character. His life is not simple; he hasn't got one problem; he has many and they're stacked before him. Such facilitates coherent and cogent social commentary that does not feel banal in juxtaposition to spectacle, humour and escapism.
It is the management of realism and spectacle that must be praised most about Gully Boy. The songs are catchy (mere gully, mere gully, gully, gully mein [my street; in my street, street, street] got me pulled over by the police as I absently mindedly cycled home from the cinema - true story) and sometimes impactful, the humour rolls from the screen in abundance, the cinematography is strong and the script is sharp, but it is the coming together of the serious and playful elements of this film that make this so worthwhile. Ranveer Singh's performance can also be made mention of here. It is quite impressive to see him move from last year's Padmaavat, in which he plays a psychotic, ruthless king, to this, what is supposed to be Bollywood's first hip-hop movie. He is almost unrecognisable in both films and so showcases a true ability to become lost behind a character's facade. Again: impressive. And such is my final word on Gully Boy. This is not a masterwork, but it impresses much. Recommended.
Previous post:
End Of The Week Shorts #98
Next post:
Border - In Human
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
A poor student about to graduate from university develops a dream to become a rapper.
Gully Boy is an inspirational, socio-politically conscious, realist(ish) drama from the same vein as the likes of Dangal. Where Dangal deals with female wrestlers, Gully Boy deals with small town rappers. If one were to crudely simplify Gully Boy, you'd call this Bollywood's 8 Mile. And whilst such a comparison is not incredibly necessary, it is pretty much inevitable. The structure, character arcs and spectacle of Gully Boy is reminiscent of Eminem's rap battle picture. Alas, it is given a more expansive run time, more musical sequences, more spectacle and is quite a bit more lighter. Moreover, the social commentary present in Gully Boy is more pertinent and less subtle than that featured in what you might call the prototype film.
With that said, Gully Boy is never weighed down by its high concept construction. There is certainly some novelty in seeing such a niche milieu put onto the big screen, but the film's dramaturgy is not reliant on it. That is to say that the thematic and characterlogical concerns of Gully Boy are balanced with (arguably outweigh) the focus on cutting lyrics, humorous rap battling and innocuous 'gangster' posturing. At the heart of Gully Boy is a familiar discourse on the rigid social structures that entrap and limit Indian youth. Replacing the cliched route to a commentary on caste divides (she's rich and he's poor/he's rich and she's poor, yet their in love--someone has an evil step-mother or uncle that will split them apart, but their love will be vindicated and accepted by all eventually), Gully Boy injects humour and tenacity into a more realistic relationships between girl- and boy-friends and parents and offspring. There is then a brilliant scene early on in the narrative that entirely subverts the conventional construction. A young man sees a young girl on a bus; their eyes keep locking, but her mother is nearby; the mother gets off the bus; the girl approaches the boy; they sit together and listen to music; they've not just laid eyes on one another for the first time, they've been going out for 9 years. Here we see verisimilitude conjured with a hint of humour and such is carried through the whole film rather well. Sometimes I believe the drama that is developed between the two lovers is unnecessary and cavalier, but the relationship portrayed in Gully Boy is sometimes endearing (though not unproblematic or entirely un-irritating) and a strong element of the narrative. Most importantly, however, this gives Gully Boy the mentioned thematic focus and allows it to be more than a string of rap battles and hip-hop dance sequences. The relationship rendered between our main character, his dreams and his parents is also very well managed. In such, Gully Boy manages to highlight and emphasise the bond between one's social standing and their dreams in an affecting and direct manner with appropriate degrees of melodrama. The most ingenious element of the social commentary may in fact be the portrayed conflagration of problems belonging our main character. His life is not simple; he hasn't got one problem; he has many and they're stacked before him. Such facilitates coherent and cogent social commentary that does not feel banal in juxtaposition to spectacle, humour and escapism.
It is the management of realism and spectacle that must be praised most about Gully Boy. The songs are catchy (mere gully, mere gully, gully, gully mein [my street; in my street, street, street] got me pulled over by the police as I absently mindedly cycled home from the cinema - true story) and sometimes impactful, the humour rolls from the screen in abundance, the cinematography is strong and the script is sharp, but it is the coming together of the serious and playful elements of this film that make this so worthwhile. Ranveer Singh's performance can also be made mention of here. It is quite impressive to see him move from last year's Padmaavat, in which he plays a psychotic, ruthless king, to this, what is supposed to be Bollywood's first hip-hop movie. He is almost unrecognisable in both films and so showcases a true ability to become lost behind a character's facade. Again: impressive. And such is my final word on Gully Boy. This is not a masterwork, but it impresses much. Recommended.
Previous post:
End Of The Week Shorts #98
Next post:
Border - In Human
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
