Beginning with praises, GURGAON is a rare, small-budget film that simply excels in its craft and can easily be quoted as an evident example of how a visually and technically impressive film can also be made in a limited budget. It particularly delivers much more than expected in its cinematography and background score department brilliantly supporting the dark and intense theme using slow musical tracks in the backdrop.
Secondly the film scores for bringing forward actual ground realities of our society such as transforming rural or green land into a concrete jungle, farmers unwillingly selling their farms to the authorities, the issues of gender inequality and sons still considered as successors instead of daughters even by the women (mothers) themselves. The writers incorporate such issues along with presenting the real life scenario in Delhi-NCR where Cricket betting, pubs, discos and night culture has become an integral part of youngsters’ life in the last decade.
Further, GURGAON largely works because of its intense performances led by Pankaj Tripathi delivering a subtle, classy performance with a voice modulation (straight away reminding you of THE GODFATHER), Ragini Khanna as the suffering daughter, Aamir Bashir as the partner-in-crime, Akshay Oberoi as an insecure, impatient son and Shalini Vatsa as the mother along with a strong supporting cast playing the crucial roles. The film has some well-shot and brilliantly performed sequences and the one which deserves a special mention here is the flashback sequence with the killing of an infant child.
However the above praises still do not result in a highly engaging or entertaining gangster drama due to an extremely slow pace and absence of a crescendo building story progression ending without any explosion as such. And that seriously takes away the thrill from the film that surely could have been a gripping crime thriller having an authentic local feel and the language too.
Overall, GURGAON surely proves the directorial skills of debutant Shanker Raman in terms of style, technique and performances. And he successfully delivers a far superior film, different from the routine gangster dramas repeating the same format. However what seriously hampers the project is its snail pace, lack of promised entertainment and absence of an explosive climax moving above the predictable conclusion.
Personally, I truly loved the way the film begins without any spoon feeding breaking the set routine and then builds up an impressive dark atmosphere in the first few minutes itself. However, really wish it had a much better second half and an unpredictable exploding climax pulling the viewer in. Would certainly love to see Raman’s next choice of project, post the appreciation received by GURGAON.
Therefore, do watch the film but with controlled expectations, especially for its noteable lead performances enjoying the technical excellence.
Ratings : 3 / 5
(Note : GURGAON could be seen on Netflix at the time of writing this review.)
