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Join UsStar Cast: Reem Shaikh, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Om Puri, Mukesh Rishi
Director: H.E. Amjad Khan
What’s Good: Real Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Prize speech in the end & that’s natural.
What’s Bad: It attempts to mould a mainstream film out of an inspiring story but fails at every basic level & they’ve criminally wasted Om Puri.
Loo Break: Not a chance, because I know most of you will not even bother to watch this film in the theatres.
Watch or Not?: Even if you’re interested in Malala’s story, opt for the books or documentary.
User Rating:
It starts in the year 2012 when Malala Yousafzai was shot down with multiple bullets in her school bus in Mingora, Pakistan. We’re taken back to 2007 when Malala was just in the process of becoming what she is today. Amidst the chaos and terror created by the extremists’ group Taliban, Malala grows up with a sense of fear in her mind.
She suffers from various nightmares in which she sees nothing but losing her close ones to the Taliban. With the help of her father Ziauddin Yousafzai (Atul Kulkarni), she starts writing a column on BBC under the name of Gul Makai. She invites many readers and decides to speak publicly about the issues happening in Mingora. Trust me, the story they’ve shown in the film is not even half as interesting as I’ve described above.
Gul Makai Movie Review: Script Analysis
Makers end the film where it should’ve started. A major issue with the story is how despite being around Malala Yousafzai’s life, we never get into the details about how she was. There’s more than enough material to show the Taliban’s terror but I went in to know Malala’s story and all I got spoof pretending to be a mainstream educating film.
Bhaswati Chakrabarty who has researched and written this film should’ve focused on the quote which is literally on the top of Malala’s website. It reads, “I tell my story not because it is unique, but because it is the story of many girls.” Forget about the detailing, the script lacks to connect us even with the major motto for which it’s being made.
Gul Makai Movie Review: Star Performance
Reem Shaikh doesn’t fit well for the titular role of Malala Yousafzai. She tries to mimic and it really falls in the ‘pretending to her’ zone rather than actually trying to be her. She hams more than acting & fails to carry the emotions well.
Atul Kulkarni is there just to narrate his dialogues and stays pretty uni-dimensional with the approach to his character. He gets the accent well but lacks the zing to develop a connection and that’s also partly a fault of weak writing.
Divya Dutta gets very little screen-space and she’s just the usual her in the film. She’s natural as she always is but gets a very limited scope to leave a mark. God knows what the hell Mukesh Rishi was even doing in the film.
Gul Makai Movie Review: Direction, Music
H.E. Amjad Khan manages to bring out the worst possible execution to a story that’s out there to inspire millions around. Khan never gets out of the problems of the film failing to give rise to the emotional stir it should’ve in the first place. He just evokes apathy in order to gain sympathy from the subject.
Yes, there were songs in the film and I don’t even remember a single line from them already. They’ve roped in singers like Kailash Kher & I guess Piyush Mishra and still not deliver a single good song. More than the background score, I was hearing the yawns people took around me.
Gul Makai Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, Gul Makai is a perfect example of how every inspirational story couldn’t turn out to be a good film. I wouldn’t recommend this even on television & it’s better to watch a documentary around her life or we’ve enough books for that.
One star!
Gul Makai Movie Trailer
Gul Makai releases on 31st January, 2020.
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