The internet, reviews have been flooded with the positive reviews about this recent Bollywood hit QUEEN. After reading the reviews I was sure that I wanna watch it and Kangana is one my favourite actors. It was on Saturday after putting our little princess to sleep we decided to watch it…had to convince Kamendra that it is a good movie as per the reviews…he is a big NO for Bollywood movies. Out of his love and consideration for me he finally agreed to give it a go. With Aadhya it is just not possible to hit the theatres and hence we had to settle for a mediocre picture quality movie available on the internet….I was also baking a cake in the background. So we had cake instead of popcorn and it went well with the movie.
With London thumakda the movie starts and being in the UK I felt a very strong closeness to the song. A typical Indian wedding getto, simple Kangana as a bride and all the hungama around her, the oldies learning a dance to be performed for the sangeet…recalled every moment of my Brother’s wedding. I must confess that I enjoyed my brother’s wedding more than mine. A clip in the song where Kangana’s mom looks at her with teary eyes dancing and then Kangana reciprocates was so touching. I remembered my little princess once day would be a beautiful bride and with a heavy heart I will have to let her go with her Prince…almost felt that knot in my stomach…Ouch! Cake in the background smelt good and the movie too by now was well received by both of us. Right from the first scene I could sense or probably I agreed that how vulnerable a woman is in our society. Leave aside the upper class but it is all about the mediocre thinking our society has for woman. So many written/unwritten rules for her! A guy who once was crazy for this simpleton Rani promotes her to Queen and then on the day of marriage calls it off…why? Only coz he has seen London and feels that his once called ‘Queen’ is unfit for this ‘so fake lifestyle’…god save this guy…such a pity.
Our Queen on the other hand takes it positively and decides to go on her honeymoon which I felt was crazy…but later loved to see the transformation in her. I accept that Indian girls are way too protected since childhood as compared the girls in western world. It definitely is a challenge for us to cope up with this boldness, freedom, individuality. We always think about our parents, family before taking a decision unlike the girls here. I remember how nervous I was when I travelled for my job interview from Bristol to Bath Spa…though I was a bindaas lad in Pune. I have overcome that nervousness but I still can’t cope with the ease these girls have when they do anything. Slowly and gradually I was correlating myself to Kangana as Queen. The way she was shocked when she meets Vijayalaxmi…absolutely admired the intricacy for a girl who has never stepped out of her house without having Chintu besides her to see a bold, loud Lisa Haydon. Queen finally accepts that though she is loud, outrageously outgoing with men, a single mother – she is a WOMAN and has every right to live a life of her own with no set rules. With Indian upbringing she innocently advises Lisa to stop boozing and limit herself from being overfriendly with almost all men..there comes the confusion. How should a woman behave? Does she have a character if she has a child out of wedlock? Is she good enough if she boozes, smokes, is bold, is loud, and goes out with every single man? In reality I too am searching an answer for this but I accept one fact instead of all this she still is a good human being and that counts.
A striking incident when Queen visits an Indian family in Paris. They are so exaggerative and try to soothe her for her broken marriage. Could correlate how they try to be Indians in a hopeless way even though they have been staying in Paris for many years. We almost couldn’t stop laughing loud with the way they cried fake beating their chests and then giving her 11 euros and an Eiffel tower momento. The MIL and DIL discuss if 100 euros or 11 euros and daughter-in-law says that 11 is OK as it is 750 rupees in India. We could not agree more that we are a breed of plastic people with no consideration for a broken heart! Anyway let us move ahead….
After sensing that there is a lot of worth being a woman Queen decides to go to Netherlands and she meets a bunch of men with whom she shares her room! So very unconventional for an Indian woman to even think something like this. She beautifully makes friends with them and not to forget the men of different nationalities are so considerate about her fear and inhibitions…some laughing moments like the Indian French toast in not a French toast. She is amazed to know that she made some lovely friends from different cultures. She meets another woman - Rukhsar- a legal hooker! Beautifully she accepts that a hooker too is a woman and it is not out of passion but need that she becomes a hooker. Earning bread for your family is a top priority. Well how can one be Indian without knowing Indian cooking? Finally Queen ends up making famous gol-guppa/pani-puri/puchkas and does some justice to her home-science degree. Her pani-puris are a hit and win her more accolades. At his point she meets her fiancé who wants her back and probably is sure what to do - dump him. A way to kind gesture of her’s touched me when she thanks him..definitely for the change in her.
At last, she is all smiles with oozing confidence when she walks out of his house. A true Q.U.E.E.N – transforme. She realizes that: It is not impossible to travel if you don’t know good English; there are no rules for being a woman; nothing good or bad defines a woman. A woman has every right to be happy, live freely with no burden and with no ‘tags’. She can have her own opinion. She is ready to live her own life in her own way! Finally nobody helps but it is only you who can help yourself. Shed off your inhibitions and set a goal for yourself - there is no stopping for you.
With the lovely cake and such a feel good movie I slept feeling almost like a Queen there is a Q.U.E.E.N in every W.O.M.A.N
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