Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela

Bhansali’s Gujarati Romeo & Juliet is beautiful but unmemorable

Bhansali’s Gujarati Romeo & Juliet is beautiful but unmemorable

Shakespeare was not original with his plots and nor is Sanjay Leela Bhansali. If Romeo and Juliet can be traced, among several other texts, to Giulietta e Romeo by Matteo Bandello, then Bhansali’s earlier films too have The Miracle Worker and The Sea Inside as their distinguished uncredited sources. Here, however, in GKRR-L, Bhansali has turned over a new leaf and given the ‘Bard of Avon’ credit.

Frankly, it was not really necessary. The film has a vague and elliptical connection with the Shakespearean tragedy and seems influenced by only one sequence—and that too from Baz Luhrmann’s cinematic adaptation of the balcony scene. In other respects, the film is a colourful Gujarati folk tale set in modern times to music and dance. It is like temple architecture—with erotic sculpture frozen in time—suddenly turning to life, into the sculpted bodies of Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone.

The claustrophobic ambience in the sculpture turns to life as well, and what we get in the movie is a medieval setting with new age lovers—the old eroticism replaced with the pornographic CD collection of the hero; his love messages, then sent by courier, now by cellphone.

You have to acknowledge a certain originality in Bhansali’s use of the cinematic form, even as you regret the convolution of content.The story is formulaic: ‘Rajadi’ and ‘Sanera’ are two warring clans in a small desert town in Gujarat and the love across the divide, between Ram (Ranveer) and Leela (Deepika), opens old wounds and leads to fresh blood letting. Later, of course, love conquers all and heals ancient enmity, but before that happens, we have the festivals of Holi and Dussehra; we have raunchy conversation; we have the flexing of muscles and the gyrating of hips.

In the end, GKRR-L is a beautifully illustrated comic book, lovely to look at but with little to remember it by.

Baz LuhrmannSanjay Leela BhansaliShakespeare