Rangoon Review: War films will continue to be made, but there will be only one Rangoon!

Film – Rangoon

Cast – Kangana Ranaut, Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Kapoor

Director – Vishal Bhardwaj

Production house – Viacom 18

Writers – Vishal Bhardwaj, Matthew Robbins, Basharat Peer

Rangoon is a love story based in the World War 2 Era, somewhere just a few years before Adolf Hitler shooting himself and Germany’s defeat. The backdrop is constantly the war between the British-led Indian army and foes at the time, Japan.

Here’s the story line:

Miss Julia(Kangana Ranaut) is a successful actress in the 1940’s era. She is well known for her stunts and is the most desirable artist in the country. She is in love with her producer Russi Billimoria (Saif Ali Khan) whose name is adapted from the famous cinematographer of the 90’s. Miss Julia and her team, on her route to one of her performances at the border of Burma, a war zone territory at the time, gets caught up in an unprecedented attack and her fate has her deserted on a remote island accompanied by her caretaker Captain Nawab Malik (Shahid Kapoor). The two end up falling in love on their safe return. Soon, Miss Julia is unintentionally roped in to be a part of a high-stakes mission. Will she be able to complete it? Go watch the film for that.

Movie review:

The story line is a perfectly tied, and hats off to Mr. Bhardwaj for paying attention to history in great detail. Every single element on the sets is relevant to India in the World War 2 era. Kangana does justice to her role as the fierce stuntwoman turned actress with a dark past. A misunderstood conversation due to language barriers in the first half serves as the perfect and practical anecdote in a rather serious situation. The pace was perfect in the first half. It keeps the audience guessing as to what will happen next. The movie doesn’t lose its momentum in the second half, although the end is rather predictable. It’s just Bollywood being Bollywood, and that’s how we like it.

As of Saif’s character, he portrays an action hero turned film producer due to unavoidable circumstances. He really surprises us with the natural shrewdness of a business person trying to thrive even in turbulent times. He perfectly grasps the possible prevalent motivations. Shahid Kapoor, the moment he steps in, you know he’s in the movie to be something more than a pawn in the British-led Indian army. You always get the feeling that he’s in the movie with a much larger agenda. This movie will surely go down as a priceless gem in his treasure box.

Our Verdict: War films have been made in the past and they will continue to be made, but there will be only one Rangoon. Vishal Bhardwaj and team, take a bow!

Our Rating: 4/5