Queen

Directed by: Vikas Bahl

Starring: Kangana Ranaut, Rajkumar Rao, Lisa Haydon

Released: 2014

My rating: destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

„Queen“ has ruled supreme at box office and sky-high ratings as well as amazing word-of-mouth were all around. In such enviroment it is difficult not to get curious. In the end Queen was what I expected and yet it was not. I found it a nice, likeable film, but the 10/10 and 5 stars reviews were, in my view at least, quite off. If I still used the number rating system, I would probably settle on 6,5/10 for Queen.

The premise is simple and believable. Young girl gets ditched by her fiancé, just one day before wedding. It leaves her devastated, but she decides to follow her honeymoon plans without marriage and without him. It is obstinacy more than anything, because Rani doesn´t really want to „get even“ with her former beau, neither she is set on liberating herself – that all happens in course of time, bit by bit. The journey Rani undertakes does not have much of a story as such, it is minor things that she encounters as if by the way that help her realize she is worthy – of everything she might want.

There is lot to be liked about Queen. Honest performances for starters. Kangana has been awful since Fashion, unbearable even, but as Rani she manages to charm. She doesn´t over-act, yet she is not too subtle either. Her dialogue delivery will be poor forever – but well, in this film she gets to talk less. Lisa Haydon is good and believable, so are Rani´s male friends from Amsterdam. And Rajkumar Rao is perfect as a chauvinist, selfish pig of a fiancé. (In fact he was probably the best). Music is appropriately chosen and used, visuals of Paris and Amsterdam enchanting. Kangana´s styling was wonderful. And rarely you see a movie that is so wonderfully non-judgemental. In many ways it reminds one of English Vinglish, but yet Queen is different, not only because it focuses on a different situation and a young bride instead of mature woman, but because unlike English Vinglish it doesn´t ride on stereotypes. There are parts of the film which are just too endearing and touching. Personally I enjoyed the Amsterdam part of the film and Rani´s bonding with the guys more. The beauty of the film also lies in the character of Rani, who is wonderfully innocent, but not stupid – and in her innocence and with all her good manners she never judges anyone.

But Queen is not as flawless as I was led to believe. The pace is very uneven and many scenes could have been avoided, thus making the product tighter and more enjoyable. The whole Italian cheff thing was not needed and the story could have done very well without it. There are also several moments that I would not classify as „family friendly“. True enough, nobody promoted Queen as a clean family film, but I did not think those moments fitted with the overal tone of the film. Finally, I had to stop the movie several times. It was just not engaging enough to hold my attention for over two hours without breaks.

Queen is one of those films that should be made, need to be made. Female centric – and about normal women. With people you meet every day. Inspirational, but not preachy. It is not a perfect film, it is not the best film of the year even. It is so simple it almost gets boring in many parts. But it is also very human and if you are a sucker for simplicity this is a movie for you. Something to unwind with. Not sure I will be watching it again (it really did not effect me that much), but in the end I do not regret the time I spent on it. In the end, isn´t that one of the most important things about films?