Photo Courtesy of blog.reuters.com || ‘Queen’ has a repetitive and hackneyed storyline, Marissa Hank ’20 writes.
“Queen” is a bittersweet Bollywood comedy about self-discovery. Directed by Vikas Bahl in 2014, “Queen” was made for just under $2 million; yet, the film earned the equivalent of $8 million in its first two weeks. From day two onward, it was the No. 1 film in India.
“Queen” tells the story of Rani (which translates to “queen” in Hindi), a naïve young bride from Delhi, who is devastated when her fiance ends their engagement days before their wedding. Although angry and upset, she decides to travel on her European honeymoon trip anyways, but on her own.
Rani Mehra is an under-confident, demure young Punjabi woman from Delhi. One day prior to her wedding, her fiancé Vijay tells her that he no longer wishes to marry her. He explains that his lifestyle has changed after living abroad, and her conservative habits would be a wrong match for him.
Stunned at his change of character, Rani shuts herself in her room for a day. Wanting to take control of the situation, she asks her parents permission to go alone on her pre-booked honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam. After initially hesitating, her parents agree, thinking that a vacation might cheer her up.
In Paris, Rani meets Vijayalakshmi, a free-spirited woman of French-Spanish-Indian descent, who works at the French hotel in which Rani stays. Overwhelmed by the new city and scared after getting into trouble twice, once with the local police and once with a robber, Rani intends to return to India. However, Vijayalakshmi decides to help her and eventually becomes Rani’s close friend as well Parisian tour guide.
Eventually, the time comes for Rani to bid an emotional farewell to Vijayalakshmi and board the train for Amsterdam. When she arrives in Amsterdam, Rani finds, to her horror, that her hostel room is being shared with three guys: Taka from Japan, Tim from France and Oleksander from Russia.
Despite being skeptical of the boys, she soon becomes close friends with them. They help her break from her conservative nature by bringing her to a sex shop, meeting pole dancers in a club and taking her to a rock concert. However, she still finds time to bring them to church.
As the plot unfolds, Rani slowly begins to gain confidence by taking control of her decisions. In Paris, she begins drinking alcohol and dancing without worrying how others will judge her. In Amsterdam, she discovers her cooking potential by selling out of gol gappas at a food stand. As she learns more about her new friends’ backgrounds, she begins to understand how different life is for people in other parts of the world.
Since Rani has been so overprotected at home, her European adventures begin with her feeling helpless; yet, her progress through the film is marked by her gradual shedding of this fearfulness, as well as a blossoming of self-confidence.
The clothing, the behavior and the props shown in some scenes are startling, especially for a film created by Bollywood. However, none of this really touches Rani, in part because she is presented as so innocent that she barely understands the obscenity. As an audience member, it is hard to determine if the viewer should be laughing with Rani or at her.
Unfortunately, the same lesson of “horizon broadening” is learned by Rani again and again, in scenes with an exuberant single mother, at a rock club, at a pole-dancing club, at a sex shop and at a storefront brothel.
The film could easily be a half-hour shorter; shot in a loose, handheld style that involves some improvisation. Due to a dragged out theme of shedding one’s innocence, the film feels unfocused and repetitive at times, almost to the point of aimlessness.
The most significant misfortune is the lack of suspense in Rani’s relationship with Vijay. He is such an obvious selfish and arrogant person, while she is so consistently observant and level-headed, even with her initial fears, that the outcome of their relationship is practically preordained.
Viewers would have been throwing things at the screen if she had agreed to take him back. Ending the film with Rani walking off on her own empowers women everywhere to live life for themselves, not to uphold society’s standards.
Rani’s journey of self-empowerment and independence is available on both Netflix and Amazon Video for streaming.
