Simran review: When Kangana Ranaut couldn’t save a film!

Movie: Simran

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Sohum Shah, Rupinder Nagra, James Cole, Jason Louder

Director: Hansal Mehta

Producer: T-Series, Fortune Films (USA) and Adarsh Telemedia

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Hansal Mehta’s Simran introduces us to Praful Patel (Kangana Ranaut), a big-dreaming woman who aspires to have a house of her own and works in the house keeping department of a prestigious hotel under a supervisor who has a thing for her. Kangana’s Praful gets a home through minority housing. But then she loses a big amount in Las Vegas. In an attempt to win her money back, she ends up owing 50,000 USD to a deadly money lender Bugs. Her parents want her married, but the money is her main concern. She has 10 days to give back the money. She takes to robbery and recovers the amount. But then, Bugs makes matters worse. One thing leads to the other, and then she’s up to bigger crimes and in bigger troubles since by now, she’s known as Simran the lipstick bandit, because of a DDLJ angle. How will Praful a.k.a Simran get her out of this? We recommend that you DON’T watch the movie and read the review instead.

Kangana is instantly likable. The director gives enough breaks and pauses so that we can get into her mind and feel what she feels. She gets into a little bit of acceptable overacting. We got genuinely happy or sad, depending on Kangana’s situation. Ranaut’s national award-winning acting and Hansal’s direction had us interested till the first half. Conversations with parents are relevant. Gujarati community and marriage meet-ups out there is exactly like how we have seen in the past.  Here, we have some guy (Sohum Shah) who’s come to Kangana’s City to do MBA but also wants to settle down. Basically, someone wants to live the American dream with a companion. We stay nicely invested in the first half, but the second half is where we begin to pull our hair.

By the midway of the second half, Kangana is on a stealing spree for the 50 thousand USD that she owes Bugs and she’s doing it like it’s a joke. For once, KRK was right about the super easy bank robberies. Apart from that, a LOT has gone wrong in the second half, which leads to a terrible end. Other characters have no importance at all by this point. As a result, the film begins to sink like the Titanic. The film promises redemption for Kangana’s Praful, of which there is NONE.

Overall, Kangana’s performance is one thing to watch. But, you can let this one pass if you are looking for a whole package.