Gangubai Kathiawadi is a softly, quietly powerful film. It astutely ebbs and flows through the gamut of elements of Nouveau Masala, through subtlety and grandiloquence, despondency and romance, comedy and drama.
Alia Bhatt chews up the screen with a superfluous performance that is part Sixties Bollywood Feminist Avenger and part Elizabeth Holmes (she brandishes a faux baritone to command men).
The surrounding cast – especially the ever-reliable Seema Pahwa and Vijay Raaz – is just as excruciatingly perfect.
If only Bollywood could always be like this.
Gangubai Kathiawadi is now streaming on Netflix worldwide. The film was not screened in the State of Kuwait possibly due to its controversial plotline.
