`Rajjo` Review: The movie falls flat
Last Updated: Saturday, November 16, 2013, 20:56
'Rajjo' Review: The movie falls flat
Pic Courtesy: - Movie Still

Films about prostitutes, with or without a heart of gold, have fascinated filmmakers and viewers from the time Nargis and Meena Kumari did `Adalat` and `Pakeezah`, respectively.

Then there was Sharmila Tagore carrying the concept of the pristine prostitute to the peaks of sublimity in Shakti Samanta`s `Amar Prem`.


`Rajjo` tries hard to create empathy - or is it sympathy - for the prostitute on the path of rehabilitation. Years ago, we had Anil Dhawan trying to give a home and a sense of security to call girl Rehana Sultan in `Chetna`. In `Rajjo`, we have a newcomer Paras Arora trying very hard to look like the guy that the distressed prostitute can depend on. The older woman`s sexual seduction was far more sincerely done recently in `B.A. Pass`.

`Rajjo` is a losing battle all the way. Not only does the callow youngster (said to be 21 in the script but looks 16) seem ill-equipped to give `Rajjo` a new life, the script itself seems in desperate search of a life. It meanders from an intended plot of self-righteous nobility to a domain of absolute absurdity and crudity.


Writer-director Vishwas Patil means well. Maybe just as well as B.R. Chopra when he cast Vyjayanthimala as the rehabilitated nautch girl in `Sadhna`. But Vyjayanthimala could dance. Kangana can`t.

Lamentably, good intentions don`t translate into good cinema. Dialogues comparing women to commodities that are meant to be scathing attacks on the position accorded to women in our society, come out sounding cheesy. The editing and choreography don`t support Kangana`s character in any way.



The only technician who seems to take his job seriously is cinematographer Binod Pradhan, who shoots the messy material with sincerity. But what can a world class cinematographer shoot in a film that`s hellbent on shooting itself in its leg?





First Published: Saturday, November 16, 2013, 20:42

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