Guns & Gulaabs – Rajkummar Rao, Adarsh Gourav Rev Up Riotous Retro Ride
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
When Netflix first dropped the trailer for “Gun & Gulaabs”, a 90s action-comedy which looked straight out of Bollywood’s Sholay playbook, it was hard to pin down the plot. Which is the mark of a well-crafted trailer that intrigues the viewer without giving the story away. And to keep this review spoiler-free, let’s just say the show is about how the lives of few individuals are affected as two rival gangs attempt to outwit each other and seal a massive illicit opium deal.
Created by Krishna D.K. and Raj Nidimoru, “Guns & Gulaabs” is a fun ode to the 90s, replete with pre-internet era motifs that will thrill nostalgia enthusiasts to bits. Flared pants, phone booths, handwritten letters, mixed cassette tapes, Campa Colas, Ambassador cars… this series is a throwback galore. Spread over seven episodes, the series is set in a fictional hill-town called Gulaabganj and opens with a beautiful shot of its primary character – poppy plants. The cinematography presents an interesting blend of yesteryear campy charm and artistic camerawork, incorporating a variety of angled shots and dynamic explorations of colors and tones.
The first episode does a fantastic job introducing all the main players in the story through a chain of connected events. Satish Kaushik plays Gulaabganj’s crime boss, Mr. Ganchi, who secures a significant opium deal that proves challenging to execute. Adarsh Gourav portrays his sole son, Chhota Ganchi, who is eager to earn his father’s approval by ensuring the success of the deal. Rajkummar Rao plays Tipu, a small-time mechanic and the son of Mr. Ganchi’s recently deceased right-hand man, Babu Tiger. Despite Tipu’s aspirations to establish his own repair shop and marry English teacher Lekha (T.J. Bhanu), he finds himself joining Ganchi’s gang after killing two men with a spanner. Gulshan Devaiah is a notorious contract killer known as ‘4 Cut Aatmaram’, hired by Ganchi’s rival gang to eliminate Tipu and scuttle their opium deal. Amidst the guns and goons, we have “family man” Arjun, an honest cop who is freshly transferred to Gulaabganj and he starts a crackdown on illicit opium soon after his arrival, ruffling quite a few feathers. Everybody in town has their own hidden agenda and motives, and the series follows how these individuals play their cards to get what they want.
Despite its distinctly 90s Bollywood aesthetic, “Guns & Gulaabs” lacks the song-and-dance numbers that were a hallmark of commercial Hindi hits in the past. Nonetheless, the series has a great background score and is peppered with several familiar tunes and classic hits, ranging from R.D Burman’s timeless classics like “Hoga Tumse Pyaara Kaun” to English favorites like Bryan Adams’ “Everything I do, I do it for you”. One endearing character in the series is Nannu (Krish Rao), a teenage school student who excels academically and pens love letters for those in town who are unable to write in English. However, Nannu requires music for inspiration, leading to the incorporation of some of the English hits into the storyline.
The juxtaposition of two distinct worlds, that of the adults who are encircled with opium woes against the cheekier teen students who care more about crushes and exam grades, is done brilliantly. Even though the plotlines involving the younger protagonists seems a little disconnected from the primary plot, the writers cleverly interweave all narratives as the episodes unfold. Krishna D.K. and Raj Nidimoru also strike a great balance between action, romance and comedy, rarely letting the pace slip or slack. And except for a lot of expletive cuss words, the script is surprisingly family-friendly, with no intimate scenes, which is a refreshing change for an action-comedy series laced with violence, blood, and deaths.
“Guns & Gulaabs” may have an ensemble cast of sorts, but Rajkummar Rao stands out with his riotous portrayal of Tipu, who first appears as a practical but romantic softie at first but transforms into a ruthless killer within the first episode. Rajkummar’s last film “Bheed” was a lot more serious and somber in tone, while “Guns & Gulaabs” is a lot more like his 2022 black comedy “Monica, O My Darling.” Adarsh Gourav, who co-starred with Rajkummar Rao in the critically acclaimed “White Tiger,” dons a completely different avatar for this series. He was both intimidating and vulnerable as the arrogant brattish Chhota Gaanchi, a youngster desperate to win the approval of his father. Gulshan Devaiah was very serial-killer-like in his Sanjay Dutt inspired look for his character, although he looks more like a villain from a Ramsay Brothers’ horror movie.
Amidst all these quirky characters, all portrayed with aplomb, Dulquer Salmaan gets overshadowed as the generic honest cop, even though he does have grey shades and isn’t entirely as clean and cute as he is made out to be. T.J. Bhanu is the only woman character who holds her own against the male dominated cast and leaves quite the impression as English teacher Lekha. She is independent, practical, strict and will probably remind a lot of people of their own English teachers when they watch the series.
What I loved best about “Guns and Gulaabs” is how each little twist is astutely foreshadowed by the writers. So, even though there are a lot of events that you will see coming, it’s only because the creators insert subtle scenes to set the groundwork for those surprises. Definitely watch this series if you like action-crime-comedies.
You can stream “Gun & Gulaabs” series on Netflix.
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