ATRANGI RE (2021)
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| Critic No. 254 |
Director: Anand L.Rai
Written by: Himanshu Sharma
Produced by: T-Series, Colour Yellow Productions, Cape of Good Films
Casts: Dhanush, Sara Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar
Music: A.R.Rahman
Language: Hindi
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
SYNOPSIS:
Rinku (Sara Ali Khan) who attempts to run away with her lover multiple times gets caught and forcefully married to Vishnu (Dhanush) who has been already engaged back in his hometown. The love triangle intensifies when Rinku’s lover Sajjad (Akshay Kumar) shows up.
REVIEW:
From the day go, Atrangi Re has been on the news with great hype especially with a winning combo Dhanush-Anand L Rai-A.R.Rahman behind the blockbuster Raanjhanaa (2013) returning back again for film. The album of Atrangi Re has become a chartbuster and the interesting cast ensemble has also garnered lots of interest in the film. Will the magic og Raanjhanaa repeat again?
The film takes off with a quick start with the feisty, bold Rinku on the run to elope with her lover, being chased by the men sent by her dictatorial grandmother. While Rinku's dictatorial grandmother and uncles demand to know the name of the guy she’s been planning to elope with for years, she’s not willing to reveal his name just yet. Fed up with her attitude, the grandmother decides to get any unknown guy from outside their town and get Rinku married off to him right away, so that she ceases to be a burden to the family. They kidnap a Tamil guy Vishu who is soon to be engaged to his girlfriend Mandy and forcefully marries him off to Rinku. To add on to the tangled situation, Rinku’s magician lover, Sajjad arrives to shake the hidden feelings that Rinku and Vishu start to develop.
What sounds like a typical love triangle, gets more deeper towards the midpoint and drifts off to an unconventional route. Director Aanand L Rai and his writer Himanshu Sharma have yet again come up with a sincere, soulful love story that has nicely staged romantic sequences and a decently crafted emotional spine. I am not going to throw any spark of a spoiler but the conflicts dealt here are quite unique and also addresses an important societal problem. The first half offers us a Raanjhanaa kind of breezy flavour only to fall a little in the second half. Once the concept is revealed in the pre-interval scene, there are not many high points in the film unfortunately and it travels in a rather predictable route. The attempts of Vishu and his friend to change Rinku’s mind starts off interestingly but doesn’t really sustain our interest after a while and the narrative gets repetitive and a tad tedious in the latter half, making you wonder where it is all heading. Since the final twist is also mildly given away during the midpoint the surprise that Anand tries to hide under his sleeve till climax (though terrifically performed by Sara and Akshay) doesn’t punch our gut as hard as it should have.
On the performance front, Dhanush looks even more seasoned and matured than he was in his other Hindi films. His character is not a complex one but he definitely steals the screen whenever his sober or romantic moments come in. Sara Ali Khan is the surprise package here with such a dedicated performance handling a rather complicated role. Akshay Kumar comes in as an extended cameo and moves us in an emotional sequence at the end.
Technically, Atrangi Re does stand tall, looking rich and colourful at each frame. Cinematographer’s Pankaj Kumar’s arresting visuals elevates the film’s vibrancy. A.R.Rahman’s music is one of the strongest aspects of the film and as all Anand’s previous films, the music gels really well with the narrative lifting each emotional beat of the story. Be it the songs or score, the Academy award winner injects his musical poetry, elevating the cinematic experience we get from the film.
While you might have mixed feelings with the concept and scenarios the film presents, the film is quite entertaining to a certain extent. Despite the middling screenplay, director Anand should definitely be commended for trying something out of the box. If you can forgive some surface level characters and predictability, you can definitely settle in for this fun musical romance flick for this Christmas weekend.
VERDICT:
‘Atrangi Re’ is another unconventional concept delivered by director Anand that gets heavy lifted by Dhanush-Sara Ali Khan’s magnetic performances and A.R.Rahman’s ever dependable, soul stirring music.
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