A to Z Challenge: Q

I honestly did not have much choice for the letter Q.

 

I am really not that open minded regarding movies. Unless it is something I mindlessly watch on weekends on some random TV Channel

The only movie I have under Q is Queen starring Kangana Ranaut. And I apparently have a full length review I had written for a e-magazine when it was released. I still don’t remember how I managed to write such a nice review. Here it is:

 

A traditional Rajouri girl gets heart broken a day before her wedding and decides to go on her honeymoon all by herself. And what does she get from that honeymoon period? Well that is what you find in the second half of the movie.

Sounds familiar right?

The story is something we have been seeing from time to time. But what makes this movie a good one is that, there aren’t any unnecessary scenes, there isn’t any sentimental this-part-will-make-you-cry scene.

The whole movie is a fun filled adventure of Rani who finally tries and goes out to have fun in this harsh world all alone. With her innocence she manages to make a lot of mistakes and at the same time make a lot of friends.

Plot:

Rani (Kangana) is all glorified and ready to marry the love of her life, Vijay only to get depressed as he breaks off the marriage a day before. So she decides she needs a break and uses her honeymoon ticket as an excuse. And thus our ever so shy Rani goes to Paris and Amsterdam all alone.
There she meets up with Vijayalakshmi aka vijay who happens to be half Spanish/French and half Indian. She freaks out with the said hotel staff, goes clubbing, dances, drinks alcohol and starts loosening up from her broken marriage. She starts viewing life in a new way. Like this part where she says that one of her neighbors (or relatives not sure) died of cancer without ever touching a cigarette or trying alcohol, so I might as well try both. She tries and changes her perspective of life now that her only major goal of marrying her lover got spoiled. Being the obedient daughter who says “han, ok mummyji, daddyji” she learns that having your reason to live is more important by seeing that the hotel staff lives for herself and her son. But she still needs to find her own reason right? So she decides that she will go to Amsterdam after all in search of more answers.
Bidding farewell to Vijayalakshmi (and getting a bit of fashion sense) she goes to Amsterdam only to find that her friend has booked her a sharing basis room and unfortunately (I would have felt ecstatic) her room mates are all guys (one of the guys is absolutely cute)
She learns to live with them and enjoy their company as well. Oleksander (she starts calling him Sikinder) is the cutie Spanish artist guy while Taka is the Japanese joker who is shorter than Rani is and Tim is the African looking French guy who sadly says “I am from France” when Rani presents them her great Indiansed French toast.
And in the end she does something I had wanted her to do in the very beginning of the movie… Give back her engagement ring to Vijay, thank him and walk away!

 

My view:

The movie presents you with a lot of moments you would enjoy, some moments you will just laugh like anything and some moments when you go “Awwww”  But all of them reminded me of this blog article I read long back whose title goes something like this “Things a 20+ lady should do” and it consists of going to foreign country where you did not know the language, be roomies with the opposite gender, dance like you got no worries, drive without a care, kiss a complete stranger…

Everything was shown in this movie and I was starting to wonder may be that was the inspiration for this whole script! Vikas Bahl had created this entire script keeping Kangana in mind and well that is one heck of a decision because she has done an awesome job by living as Rani. Showing out her innocence while shopping at a sex toys shop, trying to give her first kiss, screaming her lungs out when a guy tries to rob her and with her “non veg” jokes that no one understood but she pats herself about her sense of humor.
I did enjoy the movie. It was entertaining. Nothing exceptional. Rani takes her own sweet time and pace to understand life and the world out there! She just needed a lame reason of honeymoon tickets to take a break from her monotonous yes ma’am life! I am just saying you don’t have to go to a foreign country to gain confidence! You just have to do what you feel like and be happy that you did it! I am saying you don’t have to fight off a robber to feel strong. For me, an act of bravado is when I cross a busy main road making none of the vehicles honk at me.

The director did a good thing by not making Rani makes some foreign guy fall for her in that short span of time (although with her character that might have been possible) That would have just spoiled the whole fun of making a woman independent. By the end of the movie not only does Rani gain a sense of dressing better, wearing light make up but she also gains the strength to throw away the marriage and walk away with her head held up high.

Lisa Haydon might have very less on screen appearance, but she left with audience wanting more from her. (That may or may not be related to her revealing clothes.)
Rajkumar had done a good job in making almost everyone hate him to the core. I guess that is his success. Portraying Vijay as the character who breaks off the marriage for a lame reason and finds his lost passion for Rani when she accidentally sends him a picture of her wearing a spaghetti strap dress just explains so much about many guys these days.

Is this a life changing movie? No! But will this movie make Rani-like girls think a little? Yes! Maybe! Depends on their attitudes again. But yes, this movie is something you can probably enjoy with your family and definitely enjoy with your friends.