Gangubai Kathiawadi is loosely inspired by the life of Gangubai Kothewali, whose story was explored in Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges’ book “Mafia Queens of Mumbai,” which serves as the basis for the new film from Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and his co-writers, Prakash Kapadia and Utkarshini Vashishtha. Taking place in the mid-20th century, the film follows our titular heroine, played by Alia Bhatt, and we’re introduced to her before she claims the “Gangubai” title, back when she was a doe-eyed young woman named Ganga who is head-over-heels in love with a bad boy that she intends on eloping with from their village to Bombay where she dreams of being an actress, starring alongside movie stars like Dev Anand.
Unfortunately, he had no intentions of creating a life with her. He steals her possessions, and sells her to a brothel in the Bombay neighborhood called Kamathipura, essentially the red light district. While the sudden left turn that her life has taken is certainly a shock to the system, she adapts. She becomes popular among the clientele, and that popularity turns to leverage, and that leverage allows her to reclaim her power and autonomy from the detestable madam, Sheila Masi (Seema Bhargava). And as she gains power, she decides to put her energy towards the women she has worked alongside with, and fighting for the rights of sex workers throughout the neighborhood.
Bhansali has made a name for himself through a filmography defined by operatic sensibilities and vibrant epics. However, this one stands out for a couple reasons. We are not following royal families, there are no exuberant mansions, instead we’re in lower class neighborhoods, cramped alleyways, and exploring the lives of sex workers. The extravagance normally associated with Bhansali’s work is not present, but that doesn’t mean it is any less beautiful. The sets are full of detail, the costumes immaculate, and it somehow manages to make its otherwise desaturated palette feel so colorful and lively.
It’s also a surprisingly progressive film, not to imply that it is inherently surprising, Bhansali has made many films that tend to explore characters clashing with traditions. But Gangubai Kathiawadi is so overtly forward with its thoughtful takes on sex work, consent, and the rights of women that I was surprised to see how far the film was willing to go in order to get its point across, sometimes taking the form of literal speeches from Gangubai. Still, it works because it’s fully rooted in story and character.
Speaking of character, while Alia Bhatt has a youthful face that would hardly suggest a grizzled sex worker, a combination of a lowered, husky voice, and what I can only refer to as incredible top energy, allows her to really own the role. She has been steadily proving to be a fairly formidable performer over the past several years, and she has never been better. She is totally on Bhansali’s wavelength here, taking the poetic dialogue and melodramatic posturing to heart, and breathing so much life to the material. The film would not work if the performance had faltered in any way. It also helps that supporting players like Vijay Raaz, Shantanu Maheshwari, Ajay Devgn, Jim Sarbh, and Indira Tiwari are all doing solid work around her as well.
Any issues the film has are largely few and far between, though the big constant is the narrative and plotting being a bit choppy, jumping from one point in Gangubai’s life to another, with the passage of time sometimes not being immediately clear, which can lead to a couple dragging moments. The film mostly relies on subtle changes in Bhatt’s performance to showcase a progression of time, which does hit more than miss. And since the film is adapting from a short section of a book, it does allow for some compelling dramatic embellishments to cover areas of Gangubai’s life that we just don’t know much about, though it does result in the film ending a bit abruptly, finishing off with a dreamy and celebratory send-off and a voice over narration to sum up everything we learned.
Ultimately, the flaws of Gangubai Kathiawadi are profoundly outshined by all the elements that do work. Sanjay Leela Bhansali continues to prove himself to be one of cinema’s greatest visual stylists. The “Meri Jaan” sequence stands out as it offers an exploration of consent, female bodily autonomy, sexuality, along with providing character insight, all while having zero dialogue, relying only on body language (and the song, I suppose), and capturing it in a single unbroken take. It’s the kind of scene that would be considered an achievement for any filmmaker, and yet it’s only one of many great scenes in a film that I wouldn’t even say is Bhansali’s best. It’s a rich film not just through its visual tapestry, but also through its emotions and its lead performance. Alia Bhatt exceeds every expectation I had, tapping into the humanity behind the character, indulging in that vulnerability, while still balancing the off-the-charts charisma she has to portray on the surface. The film is firing on practically all cylinders, and it’s one that really caught me by surprise.
Gangubai Kathiawadi is now playing in theaters.