"Gunday" is a movie which celebrates the nostalgia of old 70's and 80's movies where there were childhood buddies , friendship , betrayal , love , song, dance, action, emotion, drama dialoguebaazi all these packed in one movie. It never tries to make mockery of the old 70's formula rather it showcased the trademark 70's story telling style with confidence.
The story is about two friends Bikram ( Ranveer Singh) and Bala (Arjun Kapoor) , the two friends united by fate at a refugee camp in Bangladesh. Their fight for survival forced them to move to Calcutta where they started their life as small time coal thieves and later became the coal mafia and uncrowned king of Calcutta's black market industry. Then enters a sexy cabaret dancer Nandita (Priyanka Chopra) with whom both of them fall in love. At the same time another person makes entry to their life to make it more complicated and he is ACP Satyajit Sarkar (Irrfan Khan) who has been assigned the responsibility to nab them and clean up Calcutta. Stayajit knows the strategy to control Bikram and Bala by attacking on their biggest strength,their friendship.But the two are not bothered about the strategy of Satyajit rather they are more interested about the response from Nandita about their romantic proposal to her. But all of a sudden something unwanted happened with their life which makes them each other's biggest enemies. Will they reunite again ? Who will get the love of Nandita? Will Satyajit become successful to make them surrender? that questions have been answered through the rest of story.
The screenplay never tries to be too smart rather it blindly follows the tested and tried old formulas to proceed with the almost predictable story. There are so many visible references from 70's blockbusters like "Deewar" and "Kaala Patthar". But still it is engaging for the masala movie viewers. The romantic track between the three leads has been handled too well with appropriate fun. The gent's toilet sequence where Bikram and Bala watch Nandita for the first time is very humorous. There is a twist in the tale towards the climax but it is very much predictable from much earlier. The only problem with the screenplay is its pace. Its true that the movies used to be much longer in the 70's but considering the fact that the film has been made for the audiences in 2014 its length could have been reduced specially when after a point nothing much is happening in the story in the second half. There is one song "Jiya" featuring Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra which could have been easily edited out.
As a director Ali Abbas Zafar has made a good movie for his target audiences. After making a rom-com in his directorial debut Ali Abbas has taken complete 360 degree turn and made a truly masala movie on a really large scale. He should be given credit for the realistic presentation of the refugee camps and the aftermath of Indo-Pak war in the opening few minutes of the movie. Ali Abbas is good at masala movies but he has the potential to make realistic movie too.
The leading pair of Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor have shown perfect bromance as the childhood buddies who can die for each other. Their real life chemistry has been translated on screen very well. The way both of them have portrayed their characters it shows how much they have enjoyed the 70's and 80's movies through their growing up age. Both of them have done the action sequences with ease but when it comes to emote Ranveer Singh leads by an edge over Arjun Kapoor. Arjun does well in the serious sequences but he needs to be more comfortable with comedy. On the other hand Ranveer shines well to show all his emotions whether it is comedy or romance or emotion.
Irrfan Khan's role has been mentioned as special appearance in the opening credits. Truly his appearance is always special no matter how much screen time he has. It may not be considered as one of his career best performance but he is good as usual. His dialogues will surely get applaud.
Saurabh Shukla is a very fine actor but he has been wasted in a non significant role. Pankaj Tripathi and Manu Rishi makes there presence felt with their superb performances in their two scene appearances as Lateef and Usmaan who appears in the beginning sequence where Bikram and Bala were kids.
The technical team has done a commendable job to give the film a periodic look and feel. But here it needs to be mentioned the periodic aura has been created considering it as a commercial film only don't try to look for 100% perfection like a realistic periodic film. The sets have been created by Rajat Poddar and it looks authentic. The costumes designed by Subarna Roy Choudhury may not have perfect detailing but it will grab attention and looks nice. The action sequences are very well choreographed by Sham Kaushal and the hand to hand combats have a mass appeal. The action sequences which truly stands out are the introductory sequence of the two leading men where they rob a train loaded with coal, the chase sequence during a Durga Puja festival just after the interval and of course the final shootout sequence at a coal mine.The choreography done by Bosco-Ceaser is excellent in two songs "Assalaam E Ishqum" and "Tune Maari Entriyaan". The dialogues written by Ali Abbas Zafar and Sanjay Masoom could have been better as there are not much punchlines which will be with you even after the movie ends ,like the 70's movies. Cinematographer Aseem Mishra has given us visual treat with colors. His camerawork is very eye catching. The blackness of the coal mines and the multi colored Durga puja festivals have been shot very well. Only the problem with his cinematography is too much use of slow motion sequences which looks repetitive after a point.The editing by Rameshwar S Bhagat is good. The background score by Julius Packiam is very effective and creates the dramatic mood for the film.
Music director Sohail Sen has composed very nice songs which goes well with the mood of the film. Surely "Tune Maari Entriyaan" is the winner among all the songs. It has already became a major hit and surely have an impact on the pre-release buzz created for the movie. Among the rest of the songs "Assalaam - E - Ishqum", "Jashn - E - Ishka" and "Saiyaan" have been used appropriately. The rest of the songs are okay.
Overall "Gunday" is a kind of movie which provides nothing new in terms of story and screenplay. It has tried to recreate the 70's formula and almost succeeded too in this task. If you are a fan of those old 70's formula films then you will definitely like it. When maximum of the film makers are trying to make money at box office making dumb south Indian remakes, Director Ali Abbas Zafar and producer Aditya Chopra has reminded that masala films were much better and more intelligent in the 70's so its better to remake them than the current south Indian films.
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