Queen.Hindi Bollywood film Movie Review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * 1/2

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Queen(Hindi) Rating: *  * ½ Elevating but not meaty enough. Kangana is heart-touchingly sincere and earnest in her performance!

Hindi Film Review
Johnson Thomas
Film Review: Queen:
Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Rajkumar Rao, Lisa Hayden
Director: Vikas Bahl

Rating: *  * ½

Kangana Ranaut is the main lead of this film, one, beside a better known but less saleable actor Rajkumar Rao, so not much may be expected from this small budget enterprise which appears to have  Godfathers in Anuraag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane. But Director Vikas Bahl’s film about a small-town girl who gets stood-up on the eve of her wedding day and decides to go it alone on her honeymoon,  is surprisingly lucid and certainly likeable.
The film is neither feisty, flaming or radically feminist in it’s engagement. It’s merely a cleverly defined unraveling of a timid, docile yes woman who in the course of the film manages to get in touch with her much more assertive self.
The wedding cards, the marriage mandap, the mithais, the guests, the families and the bride, Rani(Kangana Ranaut) were all ready but the groom, 
Vijay(Rajkumar Rao) decides to call it off-citing valid differences. Forget that he is the one who pursued her over the years. He is now an NRI who has seen the world while she is a timid dehati from Rajori, without a worldview. After a few days of anguish, the bride decides to take the honeymoon trip herself. It’s obviously a fanciful rendering because the one who paid for the honeymoon is left a mystery.  “ I want to go on my honeymoon” she tells her parents who are not the least bit shocked. After all she always wanted to go to Paris- the most romantic city in the world(she dutifully mouths). And most incredible, her small-town parents don’t raise an objection. The Nani even encourages her to get out of the Paris hotel and find a life on her own. Luckily for Rani, she finds a guardian angel in Vijaylakshmi(Lisa Hayden), a hotel maid who seems to have all the time in the world to cart the desi damsel to all the hotspots around the city. After a few typical fish-out-of-water incidents Rani starts to become confident and more assured. The true test comes when she has to share a small dorm with three other men from different continents. She even receives an accolade and a hint of romance from an ‘English Vinglish’ sort of challenge. And finally returns back to Rajori, a far more assured and confident in her own skin, Queen.
In terms of character definition, the narrative goes through all the regular motions  to make the cut viable but set0up and exposition do appear doubtful. The dialogues go from silly to ridiculous to some really deep character defining moments. The music by Amit Trivedi, especially the retro-remix version of ‘Hungama’ is an elevating factor in the story-telling. Kangana’s sincere and earnest performance does the rest. This film has it’s defnitive moments but there’s not enough depth or meat in the script to warrant even a three star rating!

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