A Film For The Underdog In Each Of Us

An empathetic, feel-good tale about turning imperfect reality into an impossible fantasy

- Namrata Joshi

There is something incredibly nuanced about Ranveer Singh in Gully Boy. He is Murad Sheikh, trapped in a limited and limiting world. There is the physical space itself—a narrow lane leading in to a sprawling basti that ironically for him is like "andha kuan" (a slum cluster akin to a bottomless pit). There is his own hemmed-in persona, reconciled to the circumstances and restricted by a dysfunctional family and lack of choices. Singh does a powerful turn in conveying the persistent hurt and humiliation, the lack of confidence and the contained rebellion; all through his vacant and pained eyes, the restive body language and the words that well up from within, to become purveyors of his concealed angst and simmering rage. Singh's is an internalised act, like a monologue or Murad's soliloquy.