Gulaal

Gulaal (2009) is one of Anurag Kashyap's least known films and one of the most loved among people who follow him. It took eight years to reach a screen. Shooting began in 2001, the money ran out, the film sat on a shelf, and it was finally released in 2009. That delay is visible in the film itself. Between some scenes the actors have visibly aged. It is set in Rajasthan, in an invented town called Rajpur. Dilip arrives as a law student and finds himself inside a movement to establish an independent Rajputana. The movement is fictional, but the caste and land politics behind it are not. The film's real fame is its music. Piyush Mishra composed it, wrote the lyrics, sang it, and appears in the film as an actor. Aarambh and O Ri Duniya are as well known as the film, arguably better known. The brothers played by Kay Kay Menon and Abhimanyu Singh are its dark centre. It runs 147 minutes and the edit is uneven, which eight years of production explains. Good for: Indian independent cinema, political drama, and Kashyap's work. Less good for: the violence and sex are explicit, and the treatment of the female characters is contested. Anyone wanting a clean plot will struggle.