Film review 'Rangoon': Epic in ambition, fragmented in delivery

Rangoon explores multiple threads and traverses many genres but finally leaves you a trifle less impressed, writes Deepa Gauri

Rangoon does what you do not want to be associated with a Vishal Bhardwaj film: suspend your disbelief. But isn't that what you reserve for the rest of Bollywood?
As a modern master in Indian cinema, Vishal's films have an inimitable craft - be it in frame composition or in the narrative style. Tales of treachery, betrayal and love in troubled times dominate his oeuvre, and his films pull you into a whirlpool of emotions without manipulating you in melodrama.
In Rangoon, arguably his most ambitious canvas to date, the adventure is almost Mani Ratnam-esque, if you may.
But for a film that transcends genres - it is a war movie, it is a musical, it is a love story - Rangoon finally comes through as filmmaker indulgence, where you see Vishal placing the setting above characters, and struggling to end the piece in a manner that appeals to 'fans.'
While still several notches above contemporary Bollywood, Rangoon is not the master at his best. And that is not just because he tends to spoon feed you with all the trivial details of character journeys (something he has resisted) but also because while the mise en scène is grand and impactful (with breathtaking locales of Arunachal Pradesh), the characters stand at arm's length.
The confusions as well as the genius of Vishal are pretty evident from the start: Setting the scene with a voice over of the Indian independence struggle, it quickly cuts with a fleeting shot of Nawab Mallik (Shahid Kapoor) in a grainy black and white photograph, a rebel fighter of Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army.
Cut then into the lives of Miss Julie (Kangana Ranaut), an actress who puts folks into frenzy, and her mentor Rusi Billimoria (Saif Ali Khan), an actor turned studio-owner who lost an arm in a shooting incident. These are fine moments, as Kangana goes all out proving she is on her own league that can be untouched by any of her peers even by a mile.
She is assigned to entertain Indian soldiers fighting along the Indo-Burma border by Major General Harding (Richard McCabe) - a finely fleshed out character, as a Hindustani music lover, speaking good Hindi, which shows the genius of Vishal.
Mallik, now a Prisoner of War serving the army, is assigned to protect Miss Julie. Through ambushes and miraculous escapes they bond - which is the high-point of Rangoon. Love is dissected, debated and as every character realises sooner or later, love isn't planned. It just happens.
Vishal is in full form as he introduces a Japanese prisoner of war, and quickly cutting from a faded photograph he carries of his family. These moments, a strong anti-war statement, also bring out the futility of strangers killing strangers in the battlefield.   Rangoon then gets into prepping the love triangle and unlocking the tangle, which is where Vishal, the master, falters. You feel the stretch and you lose audience empathy for the characters, and Vishal gets into a rather predicable Bollywood groove to wrap it all.
Exceptional performances by Kangana and Shahid Kapoor, and marvellous support by Saif Ali Khan and Richard McCabe; splendid camera by Pankaj Kumar, and Vishal's own mesmerising music should have made Rangoon a classic.
But with a shaky screenplay, it ends up leaving you a trifle less impressed.
Rangoon
Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj
Starring: Kangana Ranaut, Shahid Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan
Now playing at theatres in the UAE
Rating: 3/5