T-Series, Karma Features Pvt. Ltd. and Paramhans Creations’ Simran (UA) is the story of a bold and spoilt Gujarati girl living in Atlanta with her parents, and her misadventures.
Praful Patel (Kangana Ranaut) is a divorcee whom her parents (Hiten Kumar and Kishori Shahane Vij) are trying to get remarried to a decent man from their own Gujarati community. But Simran is not at all keen on marriage. Working in the housekeeping department in a hotel, she has plans to buy a house of her own, for which she has applied to the bank for a loan. She has finalised the property which she wants to buy and is only waiting for the bank loan to be sanctioned. Her conservative father, with middle-class values, is totally against Praful’s plans, and the two of them often end up fighting with one another.
Praful’s loan application is rejected by the bank. Driven to her wits’ end, she tries her luck in a casino but loses all her money. A private money-lender in the casino lends her money which also she loses then and there. For Praful, consuming alcohol, gambling, and sleeping around with boys are all a part of life.
She tries to seek financial assistance from her dad but fails in her endeavour. Distraught that she wouldn’t be able to buy a house, she agrees to meet a prospective Gujarati groom as her father has promised to help her if she meets the guy. The prospective groom, Sameer (Sohum Shah), is a decent man who wants to study further. While he approves of Praful, she doesn’t take him too seriously. The two, nevertheless, keep meeting and so do their families. Praful’s father does not give her any money for buying her house even though she meets Sameer and spends time with him.
Meanwhile, Praful has now started looting banks by threatening the cashiers and making away with the dollars they give her, fearing for their lives. Her immediate aim is to collect $50,000 which is what the moneylender is demanding by way of repayment of the principal amount plus interest charged at an exorbitant rate. She manages to conceal her identity in each of the bank robberies but soon comes to be referred to by the media as the ‘lipstick bandit’ because of the threatening notes scribbled with lipstick on pieces of paper which she pushes into the hands of the trembling cashiers.
The police, clueless about her identity, is hot on the trail of the lipstick bandit for the various bank robberies. In the meantime, Praful realises that all her stolen money, stacked by her in the locker at her workplace, is stolen by her manager, Mike (Rupinder Nagra). She revolts and even beats him up but to no avail.
What happens thereafter? Does Praful get her money back? Does the law catch up with her? Does she marry Sameer? Does Sameer get to know of her unclean habits?
Apurva Asrani has written a story, based on true incidents, with additional story by Kangana Ranaut. To say that the story is weak would be an understatement. First and foremost, this kind of a story, in which the main protagonist is a female who has all the bad habits one can think of, was not meant for a Hindi film as the audience’s thinking is, even today, quite traditional. Yes, a thin section of the audience would like such a bold screenplay and such a bold female protagonist but the majority of the audience would not even be able to identify with the character. Praful Patel is shown to be defiant for no apparent reason and that’s why she doesn’t get the viewers’ sympathy. There is also no consistency in her characterisation. She is shown to be smart enough to loot banks but dumb enough to keep the stolen currency notes in the locker at her workplace rather than in a more secure place like her home or in her bank.
Apurva Asrani’s screenplay is as poor as the story. For one, the entire screenplay revolves around a single character – Praful Patel – which makes the drama boring and monotonous. The Indian audience is not used to watching films where one character monopolises the screen time. Praful’s parents and the prospective groom are like mere props in the drama in which she is at the centrestage all through. Since Praful is so non-conformist, the audience simply does not empathise with her. Obviously, the viewer is not going to feel sorry for a woman who loots banks to repay the moneylender from whom she borrowed money to gamble. Her attitude towards her father in particular is reprehensible and too shocking for the audience to digest. Besides, the story is depressing because it is totally and completely about a dysfunctional family.
Why Praful keeps meeting Sameer, when she is not at all keen on marriage, is not clear. In fact, for a non-conformist like Praful to conform to tradition and ‘date’ an arranged match doesn’t ring true. The police in the USA is shown to be useless because they take so long to crack the bank robbery case. The climax is weak and makes little sense.
Apurva Asrani’s dialogues, with additional dialogues by Kangana Ranaut, are alright. They don’t really add much to the unconvincing drama. That many of the dialogues are in English doesn’t help, considering that the film caters to the Hindi-speaking audience too.
Kangana Ranaut plays Praful Patel with conviction and gives her all to the character. But her excellent acting doesn’t make half the impact it should, because of the weak script. This drama underlines the fact that a script – and not performance of an actor – is the backbone of any film. Sohum Shah is natural in his performance but he definitely doesn’t fit into the mould of the traditional hero of a Hindi film. Hiten Kumar does a fair job as Praful’s father. Kishori Shahane Vij is average as Praful’s mother, probably confusing frowning for acting. Aneesha Joshi (as Amber), Nikhil Dhawan (as Nikhil), Kavi Shastri (as Hitesh), Esha Tewari (as Salma), Rupinder Nagra (as Mike), Timothy Ryan Hickernell (as Joe, the casino bartender), Jason Londer (as Bugs) and Albert Roberts (as Jerry) lend decent support. Rajiv Nema (as Mr. Parekh), Monica Chitkara (as Mrs. Parekh), Usha Jarajani (as Praful’s maternal grandmother), Govind Chaudhary (as Amber’s husband), Parimal Desai (as Amber’s father), Geeta Thakker (as Amber’s mother) and the others are more functional than anything else.
Hansal Mehta’s direction is dull. For one, he has not been able to camouflage the many defects in the script. Secondly, he has failed to make Praful’s character endearing, and the film, engaging. Sachin-Jigar’s music is fair. A couple of songs are reasonably appealing but not a single song is hit. Lyrics (Priya Saraiya and Vayu) are okay. Song picturisations (Remo D’Souza and Rajeev Surti) are alright. Sachin-Jigar’s background music is fair. Anuj Rakesh Dhawan’s camerawork is quite nice. Parvez Fazal Khan’s action and stunts are okay. Tiya Tejpal’s production designing is good. Antara Lahiri’s editing could have been tighter.
On the whole, Simran is a poor show and will be rejected by the majority. A tiny section of the class audience in the high-end multiplexes of the big cities would find the film interesting because it is so different from the usual Hindi films, but that would not bring the numbers.