Simran Review: Kangana Ranaut

Director: Hansal Mehta

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Hiten Kumar, Kishore Shahane, Sohum Shah

Rating: (2/5)

There is something about Praful that makes her stand apart from the plethora of heroines seen on screen this year. She is overtly confident in her abilities, damaged and not easy to root for. She makes ample mistakes which add to her troubles and her honesty jeopardises her relationships both personal and skilled. She is the master and commander of her fraught destiny. Having Kangana Ranaut play Praful is a masterstroke and the actress doesn't let go off the opening to demonstrate her thespian talent. Alas it is wasted on an uneven film which struggles to navigate the different genres of offbeat comedy, family drama and a half-baked romance.

Praful is a 30-year-old housekeeper at a hotel and divorcee living with her parents in Atlanta. Her meticulous father thinks she is useless, and her mother while sympathetic towards her thinks it is best that her daughter get married again. But Praful has another plan which is to escape them by getting her own apartment. That daydream is busted when she heads to Las Vegas for a bachelorette with a cousin. There Praful loses all her savings and subsequently borrows thousands of dollars from two dangerous loan sharks. In debt, penniless, her advance rejected and her life under threat, Praful is driven to rob from banks. So begin the journey of the lipstick bandit whose wrong misdemeanours gradually end up wreaking havoc.

of course Ranaut is the centrepiece present in every frame to demonstrate Praful's many frailties and charms. Her Gujarati accent is far more credible than the one heard from an actress in a Europe-set romance. Ranaut is entirely invested in the character, often at the cost of laughing loudly and alone at some poorly constructed jokes. Ranaut brings flippancy to the temperament that often feels misplaced given Praful's circumstances. The remains of Queen's Rani are evident throughout, be it in the breakdown that Praful has in a free space (casino), dancing like nobody's watching at a wedding or her willingness to make a fool of herself, but the result is not as engaging or charming.

A chunk of the problem can be traced to the disagreement over writing credits that first brought Simran into headlines earlier this year. Written by Apurva Asrani with Ranaut getting additional story and dialogues credit, the film struggles with the continuity of a mood or tone. The comedy approach here doesn't pay dividend, with many of the punchlines missing the mark and most having been exhausted in the trailer itself. The performance comes from the conflict between Praful and her raging father (Hiten Kumar) who constantly demeans her and from whom she has inherited her own volatile temper. But these living room showdowns feel laboured with Praful's criminal ways, selfishness and skewed moral compass not winning her any compassion points.  When Praful's downward spiral begins, audiences know that she has dug up a hole too deep. Action isn't Hansal Mehta's specialty with the bank robberies feeling all too easy and accidentally hilarious and the climax lacking thrill. The two loan sharks are brought in sporadically to bring a sense of dread but it's a device that never works.  Oddly placed songs further hurt the pace and logic of the film. Mehta, Asrani and Ranaut start off in trying to imprison the hard immigrant experience in America but it is forgotten as Praful becomes Simran, a moniker she adopts as a bank chor.

Simran surrenders itself to the all-encompassing star power of Ranaut who is at peak when handling moments of silence and isolation. Whether it is breaking down in the car after her first robbery or just raising a toast to the world on a rooftop, she beautifully shows that Praful is an enigma, a young woman who thinks from her heart than her head. She is convinced she deserve better. After all the hoopla the audiences deserve a better movie too.