Gully Boy Review: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt and Zoya Akhtar's film is 'ek number'

Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt’s Gully Boy is watched and loved. Read inside to know if it is worth your time.

By Bhavna Agarwal

Updated on Feb 14, 2019 | 06:39 PM IST | 819K

Gully Boy Review: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt and Zoya Akhtar's film is 'ek number'

Gully Boy
Gully Boy director: Zoya Akhtar
Gully Boy cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Kalki Koechlin
Gully Boy Movie Stars: 4/5

Bole toh bohat hard, kyunki apne bhai jaisa koi hardich nahi hai! Kyun? Gully Boy makes you believe in dreams and how!

Zoya Akhtar’s movie chronicles the life of Murad aka Gully Boy (Ranveer Singh) who dreams of the stars whilst residing in Mumbai square box house. Born and brought up in his gully, the young lad is righteous in many ways who finds an escapade in words. He smokes weed but doesn’t drink, is innocent yet admirable, aims for the stars but doesn’t want to leave his roots. That’s Murad, who feels bondaged by his own thoughts and an added family tension which ceases to go away.

Saifeena (Alia Bhatt), with whom he has what seems to be a secret relationship, is the only respite for him in this troubled daily chores. But, unlike Murad, Saifeena is fierce and violently so. Amidst this blooming secret romance, time changes for Murad when he meets Emcee Sher (Siddhant Chaturvedi) who pushes him to explore the ‘cheer padh’ rapper in him and of course, Sky (Kalki Koechlin).

Ranveer, literally makes you invest in Murad from the very beginning. You will be surprised to see his nuanced yet controlled performance. Alia adds the right amount of madness to the rather contained Ranveer and their camaraderie surely lights up the screen. Siddhant Chaturvedi too stands out in each scene as the local rap star.

Zoya Akhtar along with Reema Kagti has presented a script which shines and stays true to the streets. There are many familiar elements picked up from real life instances (Eminem’s 8 Mile!) but the scripts holds its own. The well written script was backed by clap worthy dialogues by Vijay Maurya. Zoya does what many in the industry wouldn’t dare to. Her movie is a social commentary on the class difference, political facade, and the minorities. Topics which Bollywood has for years underplayed in mainstream commercial cinema.

Special mention to Jay Oza who has done an amazing job with cinematography. However, the movie did feel a bit stretched in parts but honestly, I didn’t mind it.

The review would definitely be incomplete without the mention of all the contributions by outstanding music artists and rappers who made the battle rap look so lively and fierce making us root and hoot for them.

Go and watch Ranveer ‘Murad’ Singh give one of his best performances yet again with Alia standing tall. Because Ranveer and Alia ka ‘Time Aa Gaya’