Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster Returns - Movie Review

I did not see the prequel to this. But one can soon assume that it is a story of intrigue, love, passion, power and money. Saheb (Jimmy Shergill) is wheel chair bound but is as arrogant as ever. His begum Madhavi (Mahie Gill) is forever drunk and does not give a damn about the saheb. Indrajit Singh (Irrfan Khan) is in love with another feudal's daughter Ranjana (Soha Ali Khan) and is an ambitious gangster who wants to get into the power circles one way or another. That's the set up.

Indrajit has a motive. He wants revenge on Saheb;s family which has wiped out his ancestors and their past glory. All that stand of their past are the ruins of their old palaces. And revenge he wants one way or another. For some reason the invalid saheb wants to marry Ranjana and pretty much kidnaps her from under her helpless father's eyes. Why, I do not know, but he takes her home, parades her to his drunk begum and gets the begum to start thinking of her own survival. The saheb knows nothing of Ranjana's dalliance with Indrajit.

Begum Madhavi finds an ally in Indrajit. Together they plot her rise and rebellion against her husband and in the process become lovers. Ranjana comes to know of this and she betrays Indrajit and Madhavi to saheb - and this betrayal brings the two closer. So now we have all kinds of things going on until Indrajit for some reason decides to take a rather circuitous way out to get back at the saheb - by implicating him in a  murder through circumstantial evidence - one which might not work because saheb has a lot of connections. What then?

Saheb may go to jail and if at all, not for long. Begum will find a way to grow more powerful and she seems secure as she can handle her way through one way or another. The new begum Ranjana has taken to drink. Rather hopeless and bleak in the end. Entertaining but not up there for me because it is all about a bunch of losers. Irrfan Khan is brilliant, Mahie Gill is absolutely fantastic, Jimmy Shergill is as reliable and solid as ever. Worth a look if you're into palace intrigues and stuff like that and if you want to see Irrfan Khan, Mahie Gill and Jimmy Shergill.

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