Queen: Hindi Film, Not "Roman" Enough

I went to watch “Queen” with the Queen’s  of our Home, my aunt visiting us from Bengaluru and my mother. While I quite enjoyed watching “Queen”, at the end of the film, I asked my aunt and  mom, whether they liked it. My Mom retorted back that she had a feeling of having seen several parts of the film in several films. And then she made one singular point, which transformed the happiness to feeling a bit cheated.  

While I did immediately see the point, I went back to check if the other reviewers had ever noticed this observation in their reviews, none had even a passing reference to it.

Strangely it did not strike me either that “Queen” was a clever adaptation of ‘Roman Holiday”.  On the hindsight, Audrey Hepburn is the Princess in The Roman Holiday, Kanagana is the Queen, in The” French and Dutch Holiday”. With Audrey in the background,  Kangana’s casting seems to be a no brainer, by far the only choice, who else in Bollywood could be petite, charming, an old world charm and oodles of innocence(Alia could have been, more experience would have been needed to carry the role)

Once, you were convinced that “Queen” was an adaptation, then you could feel the various modules that have been put in place. The mandatory love story track must have been developed as an important commercial element leading to the holiday. The exceptionally well crafted opening segment is an illustration of  capability, but to fall back on adaptation of earlier works is reflection of the lack of imagination and self belief in one’s ability.

I feel all the more saddened since Anurag Kashyap is the producer and he is one genuine guy who experiments, loves the craft and enjoys the film making process.

An inspiration of a sequence is different. Aparna Sen in Mrs. And Mr. Iyer borrows the last sequence of Roman Holiday, when Rahul Bose distances himself from Konkana Sen Sharma and hands her over to her husband. That is a poetic license that can be admired.

Not an entire chunk of the movie, and then convert it to an adult comedy, and get UA certification and while the heroine is all innocence, not understanding her visits to the Red Light District in Amsterdam, or sex shops, we can introduce the kids into the a voyage of self discovery, get them introduced to smoking, drinking, safe sex….Wonder why drugs were not included in the voyage of self discovery.

Well, instead of Red Light District in Netherlands and non-descript areas in and around Netherlands, wonder why it did not occur to include  visits to Vincent Van Gogh’s musem, Keukonoff garden, the Ryke’s museum or the canals in Netherlands !!!! And Paris, except for Eiffel tower, nothing seems to have caught the imagination of the team.

Capability and Craft needs to backed by fertile imagination. For the man who created a gem like Dev D, to produce Queen, may be clever Commerce, but this is certainly is a big disappointment for fans of Anurag Kashyap like me. Anurag has to think like “Lunch Box” and nothing less.

For readers of the post, if you have not seen Roman Holiday, do catch up. You will be doing your soul’s a great justice. And if you have watched it, go gain and watch it again.