Gully Boy Critics’ Verdict: Zoya’s Vision & Ranveer’s Energy a Hit

Here’s how critics are reacting to Zoya Akhtar’s new film, ‘Gully Boy’.

Film: Gully Boy

Director: Zoya Akhtar

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt

Excerpts from film reviews of Gully Boy:

“Featuring Ranveer Singh as Murad, a lower-class Muslim boy who lives in a rickety room in an overcrowded slum, Akhtar creates a haunting portrait of an underdog who must narrativise his difficult life experiences as a means to escape that very reality. Inspired by the real-life success stories of Dharavi rappers Naezy, Divine and a whole bunch of others who ushered the underground hip-hop scene in Mumbai, Gully Boy is a triumph, a film so relentlessly pulsating, a film so wildly alive, it’s hard not to get swayed by the sheer force of its thumping energy.”

Ankur Pathak (Huffingtonpost.in)

“Gully Boy jumps from friend to girlfriend to family to abrasive open mics to problem after problem after conflict, essentially reflecting the frenzied small-worldness of its environment only so that the explosion – the “performance” – feels worth the journey. So that the jack-in-the-box energy feels charted and earned. For a film with Ranveer Singh as a show-stopper, this is important. No other director earns his persona. He can bounce off the walls as Gully Boy with gusto, because the walls of those gullies are always closing in. The actor is mostly superb, not just because he goes from meek to enthusiastic on a scale of 1 to Ranveer Singh, but also because he plays Murad like a writer that discovers he can (and must) sing, instead of the other way around.”

Rahul Desai (Filmcompanion.in)

“Dreams and reality fuse seamlessly in Gully Boy, Zoya Akhtar’s most heartfelt and accomplished movie yet. Akhtar’s fourth feature is headlined by an outstanding Ranveer Singh, packed with well-picked actors and neatly-etched characters, and filmed with infectious passion. The film has a single-thread premise: a rapper from the Dharavi slum in Mumbai overcomes hardscrabble circumstances, a dysfunctional family, and self-doubt to become a star in his firmament. But it has enough texture to to make it all worthwhile.”

Nandini Ramnath (Scroll.in)

“Gully Boy is inspired by the lives of rappers Naezy and Divine, but is not a biopic. Like Murad’s being, every cell of this film beats with and for the art form to which it pays tribute. The music by multiple artists is so powerful that it has the strength to make a committed rap fan out of a rap virgin.The writing by Akhtar and Reema Kagti rarely misses a beat, completely immersed as the screenplay is in the socio-economic realities of its crowded, filthy slum setting and the present-day socio-political reality of the India in which that slum is set.”

Anna MM Vetticad (Firstpost.com)

“In an era of which Bollywood is increasingly passing off pulpy apologies for demagoguery for cinema, Gully Boy could have been a fitting riposte. It just doesn’t go far enough to pose discomfiting questions in keeping with the art of the street rapper. But all said and done, Gully Boy can be whole-heartedly commended for its craft, fascinating characters and Ranveer Singh. He absolutely kills the slow-burning rapper act. What’s more, he does with a lot of energy to spare.”

Saibal Chatterjee (NDTV.com)