Guddu Rangeela is a movie based in northern India’s villages; yet again a movie tries to target the Khap Panchayat. Guddu (Amit Sadh) and Rangeela (Arshad Warsi) are cousins, who are informants to the local gangsters which keeps the money coming in and also keeps their hands clean. The former is naive and young while the latter is experienced and considerate. The two decide to kidnap Baby(Aditi Rao Hydari)for a sum of 10 crores. The plot takes a twist and Billu Pahalwan (Ronit Roy) takes centre stage. What follows is an unending saga of challenges of kidnapping, falling in love and going against the Khap. The movie loses its sheen in the second half. The character sketches are painfully a reminder to earlier versions of them. Ronit Roy has now played the serious and stringent kind of character way too many times. The chemistry of Arshad Warsi and Amit Sadh will remind you of the epic Jodi for Ishquiya (Obviously not as good as it). The movie can be avoided especially since Terminator Genisys is also playing in the theatres.

Guddu Rangeela treads the same path that Ishaqzaade, Boss and NH10 took in recent times. Guddu and Rangeela characters are modeled on the lines of Jai-Veeru as the director keeps spoon-feeding his audience through phrases such as 'Loha garam hai, maar de hathoda' and 'Ab main iska badla lunga'. Guddu Rangeela attempts to build a narrative around 'passionate crimes', but fails to hit the right crescendo because of flawed writing. This is one story which has got all the basic elements, but their placement in the story is flawed. A character in the film very candidly says ‘crime me personal touch aa jaaye toh crime passionate ho jaata hai’, and this is exactly what is missing in the film: A personal touch. Guddu Rangeela takes you to the world of honour killings and ruthless patriarchy, but glides back just when you start feeling for the victims. It shows the latent potential of the theme and then hesitates in exploiting it completely. In a nutshell, Guddu Rangeela refuses to rise above the average level. If revenge motivates you, go for it!

Journalist-turned-filmmaker Subhash Kapoor interweaves snatches from reality with fiction in this tale of his. The story borrows from the 2007 Manoj-Babli honour killing case, which had shaken the country back then. The storyline is too convoluted, and it takes its own sweet time to establish the plot. The script has ample instances when one is left to laugh their lungs out. Had Arindam Ghatak been tighter with his editing, the film could have done better.  Arshad Warsi is in top form with his acting, and Amit Sadh does a damn good job of complementing him. Rajiv Gupta is a delight to watch as he is a pro in poker-faced humour. Ronit Roy is his menacing self on screen this time too, and does his bit to put his character across. Aditi's deaf-and-mute act draws the right amount of attention from viewers, but she hardly gets to be the cynosure here. Dibyendu and Brijendra Kala slip into their roles seamlessly. The climax is wearisome, thanks to its length. In trying to pack in too much of suspense and drama (melodrama, at certain points), Subhash Kapoor leaves the viewer dissatisfied. Watch it if you have to, for the chemistry between the two male leads.

It was touted to be a film which takes on the Khap Panchayat as it is inspired by the real life tragic love story of Manoj and Babli who were killed in the name of honour. So 'Guddu Rangeela' had all the potential of becoming a powerful, deeply disturbing film which shows the mirror to the archaic, barbaric ways that a particular panchayat functions in. But, alas, it is not. The scriptwriter and director (Subhash Kapoor) seemed to have gotten so carried away with the idea that he didn’t bother to scratch the surface before starting out to make a movie on it. What we are sadly meted out in this film is the general and vague idea about how the panchayat works. The story lacks consistency. Arshad Warsi puts in a decent effort, but he’s saddled with a role where he’s grossly miscast as a young bridegroom on the run. Amit Sadh is sincere. There is a spark of chemistry between Hydari and Sadh, only if it wasn’t nipped in the bud by cheesy lines. Ronit Roy is brilliant; only if he had a better character sketch he could have taken this film a notch above.

Honour killing is the film's underlying theme and the vengeance motive is its principal plot propellant. Yet, the narrative is marked for the most part by freshness and dollops of earthy wit.  Guddu Rangeela turns a comedic eye on a serious social issue via the shenanigans of two overreaching small-time criminals. In comparison with the riveting first half that is enlivened by quick twists and turns, the Guddu Rangeela denouement is a bit of a mess. There might also be reason to quibble about Guddu's propensity of to crack jokes about unmentionable body parts. One actor who steals just about every scene that he is in is the grossly underrated Rajeev Gupta, who plays bumbling Haryanvi cop Gulaab Singh, with extraordinary aplomb. A lighthearted film about a deadly serious subject could have easily gone horribly wrong. Guddu Rangeela doesn't. It is lively, droll and occasionally thought-provoking. Barring the stray rough edges, Guddu Rangeela is eminently watchable.

Guddu was a stupid Shah Rukh Khan film, Rangeela was a terrific Aamir Khan film. Subhash Kapoor’s Guddu Rangeela might have nothing to do with the Khans or their 1990s films, and yet it falls, fittingly enough, halfway between a really fun ride and a film that goes nowhere. It has an intricate, interesting plot and a set of fine actors visibly having a good time, but it lacks finesse and consistency.  The plot rolls on and quickly establishes its heroes and villains, setting us up for a fun melee, with some anti-Khap commentary thrown in. The problem can be illustrated by the fact that the girl, Baby, played by Aditi Rao Hydari, fiery-eyed and fierce, isn’t mute after all. That plot-point lasted all of two minutes. Yet Guddu Rangeela never quite soars. The ingredients are all there and there are times it’s all good and rollicking, but a lot of it seems slapped hurriedly together. The fact that Guddu and Rangeela are a couple of weary dogsbodies who, according to their theme song, 'drink down their own tears, neat' is never shown to us, only told. Still, it’s a decent ride. It’s no Ishqiya, but at least it has some heart.

The film is fashioned as a jaunty ride through Jatland, a theme currently all the rage in Bollywood. The action moves from a Haryana village to Chandigarh to Simla and back, and the first half, with its cat-and-mouse skirmishes and back-stories, passes by swiftly. While jauntiness is to the fore, the film is good fun. It’s not just the tonal shifts that confuse. The plot strands in the second half, becomes laboured and the contrivances that we were busy ignoring till then rear their heads, all the way till the clunky climax. Subhash Kapoor likes quirky crooks and good-bad guys, and his USP lies in the way he catches the ‘sur’ of the small-time ‘badmaashi’ the story is strewn with: his heroes are just people scrambling to get by in a harsh world. Kapoor demonstrates a growing assuredness, which is clear in the robust, cracking portions of the film: all he now needs is a solid hole-less plot with lines to match.

Writer-filmmaker Subhash Kapoor is one of the soundest story-tellers in Bollywood. He won notices for Phas Gaya Re Obama and Jolly LLB. Guddu Rangeela, a Haryana-based crime drama with a Sholay-like twist, helps establish his credentials further. Subhash Kapoor  uses his guile in tackling the regressive Khap issue without getting preachy; he shows us that even in Namo's Swach Bharat, we still practice barbarianism. The film works, albeit on some level, because of its gritty writing. What could have genuinely raised the bar though, is a slicker pace, additional gloss and superstar charisma.