The boy is on his first date. He is
leaving after dropping the girl at her hostel. He recalls something, returns to
her and hands over a greeting card written ‘I Love You’ in blood all over it.
The girl loses her calm, “Where have you cut yourself?” The boy throws a swayed
smile, “Don’t worry, I haven’t.”Syed Ahmad Afzal’s crime-thriller LAAL
RANG in the very same way has blood all over it in almost every frame; either
they talk about it or they play with it but still, it never gets bloody except
for one particular slackly done scene. In fact, LAAL RANG turns out to be a serenely
invested, edgily engaging thriller with a good set of dark humor and at least
one towering performance under the name, Randeep Hooda.
Syed Ahmad Afzal throws us in Haryana of a fascinating era where Yamaha
RX100 used to be the class not many can afford. There rises Shankar (Randeep
Hooda), an over-aged diploma student in local medical college of Karnal! He’s
the kind every girl disgusts and every boy admires. The son of a government
peon, Rajesh (Akshay Oberoi) too has no immunity to fall for swaggy
Shankar’s persuasive power-display. Shankar
is a pro in the illegal blood-selling racket. His supplies come from the Bihar
migrants in Karnal working as the rickshaw-pullers. A small token of money and
they will lie down for you to suck the blood out. Considering Shankar’s influential
connections in the system, it is nothing but an easy money territory Rajesh
starts building his own mansion of dreams upon it, with Poonam (Piaa Bajpai).
Things derail when one of the donors dies after excessive blood loss.
LAAL RANG has an interesting plot most of today’s Hindi
films lack at the first place to start with. Syed Ahmad Afzal
makes sure it takes its own course of time to grow on the viewers. He never
looks in hurry when establishing scenes or while making the shift from one to
another. Not many filmmakers believe in doing so when Syed actually does
it, you feel more relaxed but evenly more anxious about the part of plot yet to
be revealed. Another big merit film possesses is its lingo. Be it the
conversational dialogues between its real-looking characters or the lyrics of
the album used all of it as background songs; LAAL RANG entices you with its unapologetically
raw, rusty, ruthless yet delicious Haryanvi language.
Film also carries a brigade of fascinating characters on
screen. There is a fakir interestingly talking in a women’s voice. A subordinate
of Shankar is fondly named as ‘Dracula’ as he deals in maximum transfer
of blood. In the chart of performances, LAAL RANG solely belongs to the devoted
portrayal of Shankar by Randeep Hooda. Being a Haryanvi himself,
he fabulously adopts the lingo and the attitude in its right place. See him
flaunting his powers in sunny days or trashing it all when his girlfriend
breaks up with him; and you’ll see the range he is capable of pulling it off as
a confident actor. This could be a plate of starters before you’ll enjoy and
respect him more in SARBJIT in coming few weeks. Akshay Oberoi
acts well but his all chalky appearance often creates a sense of disbelief in
his performance.
Overall,
LAAL RANG is a good thriller that may not pump your heartbeat up in the usual
way most of bollywood thrillers do. It also might not give you much of a pulsating
action to cheer, and it definitely would not pitch obligatory twists &
turns in the plot but even then, the firm writing has enough to make it an
enjoyably unlike experience. [3/5]
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