Cast & Crew
Critic's Rating: 3.0
Kangana shines but Simran falters
Simran Story: Praful Patel (Kangana) is a 30-year-old divorcee living in Georgia with her middle-class parents. A housekeeper by profession, she gets drawn to a life of crime after her tryst with gambling at a Las Vegas casino. One bad turn leads to several more and before you know it, Praful is in a sordid mess.
Simran Review: The nice thing about Simran is that it ventures into an area where the Bollywood heroine offers no defence for being a badass. The protagonist, a woman with an undaunted spirit, lives and loves by her own set of rules. She refuses to have 'sex without protection' and is constantly up for adventure. She doesn’t think twice about slipping into a life of crime just to support her `character flaws’. So far so good.
Besides the premise, everything else about the film is improbable. The writing falters in parts and naturally the execution follows. The way Praful goes about robbing banks and gets away scot-free, even after leaving her finger prints all over and notes scribbled with lipstick seems unbelievable. The media brands her the 'lipstick bandit', and the Atlanta cops and the victimised bank employees seem like a bunch of jokers, who keep harping on the fearless bandit's modus operandi, and yet, they fail to foil the half-a-dozen heists! It is almost like Hansal Mehta is attempting a comic story. Nothing wrong there, but if is a tale that is being recounted in lighter vein, then it should have at least made the audience laugh some more.
The only one who is having a good time here is Kangana. Whether she’s docile or daring, the actress goes about her screen business with a flourish; getting her mannerisms pat. However, there are occasions when even she gets carried away with the constant focus. But then again, is she really to be blamed? The filmmaker doesn’t even have another noteworthy star on celluloid to share the limelight. Simran’s parents and her fiancée, Sameer (Sohum) and other actors--foreign and desi--don’t quite add up.
Frankly, you can’t emotionally invest in Simran or root for her as much as you might want to. But when you watch the film, you will find yourself warming up to her occasionally, because she’s all you've got. Let's give Kangana her due.
Also Read: Simran review in Hindi
Simran Story: Praful Patel (Kangana) is a 30-year-old divorcee living in Georgia with her middle-class parents. A housekeeper by profession, she gets drawn to a life of crime after her tryst with gambling at a Las Vegas casino. One bad turn leads to several more and before you know it, Praful is in a sordid mess.
Simran Review: The nice thing about Simran is that it ventures into an area where the Bollywood heroine offers no defence for being a badass. The protagonist, a woman with an undaunted spirit, lives and loves by her own set of rules. She refuses to have 'sex without protection' and is constantly up for adventure. She doesn’t think twice about slipping into a life of crime just to support her `character flaws’. So far so good.
movie
Besides the premise, everything else about the film is improbable. The writing falters in parts and naturally the execution follows. The way Praful goes about robbing banks and gets away scot-free, even after leaving her finger prints all over and notes scribbled with lipstick seems unbelievable. The media brands her the 'lipstick bandit', and the Atlanta cops and the victimised bank employees seem like a bunch of jokers, who keep harping on the fearless bandit's modus operandi, and yet, they fail to foil the half-a-dozen heists! It is almost like Hansal Mehta is attempting a comic story. Nothing wrong there, but if is a tale that is being recounted in lighter vein, then it should have at least made the audience laugh some more.
The only one who is having a good time here is Kangana. Whether she’s docile or daring, the actress goes about her screen business with a flourish; getting her mannerisms pat. However, there are occasions when even she gets carried away with the constant focus. But then again, is she really to be blamed? The filmmaker doesn’t even have another noteworthy star on celluloid to share the limelight. Simran’s parents and her fiancée, Sameer (Sohum) and other actors--foreign and desi--don’t quite add up.
Frankly, you can’t emotionally invest in Simran or root for her as much as you might want to. But when you watch the film, you will find yourself warming up to her occasionally, because she’s all you've got. Let's give Kangana her due.
Also Read: Simran review in Hindi
In-depth Analysis
Our overall critic’s rating is not an average of the sub scores below.
Summary / Analysis
Spoiler alert! Please do not read the following plot summary if you have not seen the film.Praful Patel(Kangana) lives in Atlanta with her middle-class parents. She is 30, a divorcee and has been worked in the housekeeping department of a hotel for 7 years. She is forward-thinking adventurous girl who is smart and always two steps ahead of most people. Her father who is a conservative savoury businessman is often at loggerhead with her.
One day Praful accompanies a close friend to Las Vegas for her bachelorette. There she takes a shine to baccarat.
Initially she wins big and so she keeps doubling her bets. However she runs out of luck and loses big too. A loan shark lends her $32000 and Praful hits the table with a vengeance. She not only loses his money, she loses some of her personal savings too. The money that she had carefully put aside to buy a house is gone.
Praful comes to Atlanta and continues with her job. However one day the loan sharks trace her and demand to be paid back. Not knowing how to raise so much money, she decides to rob a bank. She scribbles notes with lipstick and pretending that she is wired with explosives she scares the tellers. When she gets away scot-free a few times, she continues with her heists. She puts all the money in a locker at her work place. However when it comes to returning her loan, she finds someone has swiped her locker clean. She suspects it is Mike, the staff manager at the hotel, who has been trying to get even with her because she ditched him. However she is unable to prove anything.
In the meantime, her parents want her to marry Sameer(Sohum) who is pursuing higher studies. Sameer and Praful get along well but Praful is not madly drawn to him as he is to her. She even jokes with him about her character flaws-like gambling and robbery—but Sameer thinks she is joking.
However one day when the loan shark comes to her door, Sameer is there with his uncle and aunt. He discovers the sad, ugly truth about Praful. He walks out. However he is nice enough to deposit $50,000/- in Praful’s account to bail her out.
Spoiler alert:
Praful however is too self-respecting to take Sameer’s money. She attempts one more robbery. And she gets flagged down by the police. She surrenders and does jail time. When her parents visit her in jail, she is already chirpy and planning another scheme of investing their savings in the stock market.
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- What is the release date of 'Simran'?
Release date of Kangana Ranaut and Sohum Shah starrer 'Simran' is 2017-09-15. - Who are the actors in 'Simran'?
'Simran' star cast includes Kangana Ranaut, Sohum Shah, Rupinder Nagra and Catherine Dyer. - Who is the director of 'Simran'?
'Simran' is directed by Hansal Mehta. - What is Genre of 'Simran'?
'Simran' belongs to 'Comedy, Drama, Crime' genre. - In Which Languages is 'Simran' releasing?
'Simran' is releasing in Hindi.