Rangreza almost rang out of screens willing to showcase it within the first two weeks. In fact, even the week it got released, the film was relegated to the periphery, with four-month-old Punjab Nahi Jaungi – the biggest hit of the year – still being given space.
These facts alone should be enough to sufficiently describe the film itself. But of course, whenever that is the case, a more detailed look makes things even worse.
Rangreza narrates a classic love triangle between Reshmi (Urwa Hocane), Ali (Bilal Ashraf) and Waseem (Gohar Rasheed).
Reshmi and Waseem are cousins, children of two brothers from a Qawwal family and they were engaged in their childhood as per the wishes of their grandfather.
Meanwhile, Ali is a renowned pop-star who falls in love with Reshmi when they meet through a common friend (Ghana Ali).
The film narrates the fight to win over Reshmi, amidst the many challenges for Ali and indeed Waseem as well.
The storyline depicts conflict between the traditional and progressive worldviews and how love stories are shaped up when the two collide. In this regard, the film is clearly old school, and with the perfect setting to conjure up a traditional love story.
Also, the fact that all concerned parties are involved in music gives the ideal atmosphere to play that tale out.
None of this actually happens, of course, as Rangreza throws all of its promising ingredients out of the ticket window.
The absolute bare minimum that any love story needs is for there to be palpable, and believable, love. Not believable in terms of how realistic it is – one can even digest the most outrageous of storylines if the two leads can depict the fact that, for whatever reason, they are sufficiently in love with each other.
One can overlook a terrible script – which we have in the movie – and one can ignore substandard acting – which is present in abundance – but if one can’t quite see where the love is in the love story, the entire exercise of watching the entire film unroll in front of your eyes becomes excruciatingly masochistic.
That, in a nutshell, is how Rangreza plays out.
Reshmi does not seem to love anyone, let alone Ali, and least of all herself. One could even have interpreted the complete lack of emotion in the character that was supposed to be the centre of a multipronged tug of war, as Urwa Hocane’s rendition, but Reshmi’s similarities to the characters that she has played in the very recent past underline that this is only due to the limitations of the actor.
Bilal Ashraf is probably worse when it comes to the overall acting ability, as played out in the movie. But even he could demonstrate some semblance of love for Reshmi.
This is not even counting the fact that it made absolutely no sense for Reshmi to fall in love with Ali to begin with.
As far as the performances go, of the three main characters Gohar Rasheed probably comes out the strongest. But even he needs to be given the benefit of the doubt in many scenes where the acting is clearly over the top.
Despite having a peripheral role, it is actually Ghana Ali who showed the most promise in the movie.
Furthermore, yet another film unnecessarily bringing in the political angle to the script ends up further tarnishing whatever little remained of the storyline.
The only positive out of the movie is its music. And if that hadn’t been the case, considering that the storyline revolves around musicians and the film self-identifies as a musical, Rangreza could’ve been a front-runner for the worst film amongst recent releases.
But the baggage that comes with the music is tough to cope with for the audience – and evidently the filmmakers as well.
These facts alone should be enough to sufficiently describe the film itself. But of course, whenever that is the case, a more detailed look makes things even worse.
Rangreza narrates a classic love triangle between Reshmi (Urwa Hocane), Ali (Bilal Ashraf) and Waseem (Gohar Rasheed).
Reshmi and Waseem are cousins, children of two brothers from a Qawwal family and they were engaged in their childhood as per the wishes of their grandfather.
Meanwhile, Ali is a renowned pop-star who falls in love with Reshmi when they meet through a common friend (Ghana Ali).
The film narrates the fight to win over Reshmi, amidst the many challenges for Ali and indeed Waseem as well.
The storyline depicts conflict between the traditional and progressive worldviews and how love stories are shaped up when the two collide. In this regard, the film is clearly old school, and with the perfect setting to conjure up a traditional love story.
Also, the fact that all concerned parties are involved in music gives the ideal atmosphere to play that tale out.
None of this actually happens, of course, as Rangreza throws all of its promising ingredients out of the ticket window.
The absolute bare minimum that any love story needs is for there to be palpable, and believable, love. Not believable in terms of how realistic it is – one can even digest the most outrageous of storylines if the two leads can depict the fact that, for whatever reason, they are sufficiently in love with each other.
One can overlook a terrible script – which we have in the movie – and one can ignore substandard acting – which is present in abundance – but if one can’t quite see where the love is in the love story, the entire exercise of watching the entire film unroll in front of your eyes becomes excruciatingly masochistic.
That, in a nutshell, is how Rangreza plays out.
Reshmi does not seem to love anyone, let alone Ali, and least of all herself. One could even have interpreted the complete lack of emotion in the character that was supposed to be the centre of a multipronged tug of war, as Urwa Hocane’s rendition, but Reshmi’s similarities to the characters that she has played in the very recent past underline that this is only due to the limitations of the actor.
Bilal Ashraf is probably worse when it comes to the overall acting ability, as played out in the movie. But even he could demonstrate some semblance of love for Reshmi.
This is not even counting the fact that it made absolutely no sense for Reshmi to fall in love with Ali to begin with.
As far as the performances go, of the three main characters Gohar Rasheed probably comes out the strongest. But even he needs to be given the benefit of the doubt in many scenes where the acting is clearly over the top.
Despite having a peripheral role, it is actually Ghana Ali who showed the most promise in the movie.
Furthermore, yet another film unnecessarily bringing in the political angle to the script ends up further tarnishing whatever little remained of the storyline.
The only positive out of the movie is its music. And if that hadn’t been the case, considering that the storyline revolves around musicians and the film self-identifies as a musical, Rangreza could’ve been a front-runner for the worst film amongst recent releases.
But the baggage that comes with the music is tough to cope with for the audience – and evidently the filmmakers as well.