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It’s the 90s, and Gulaabganj, a fictional rural outpost somewhere in North India, is a place full of lush opium fields, warring ganglords, corrupt cops, katta-wielding goons, teenage school kids, and ordinary citizens caught in the crossfire. The mix looks as if it will be a complete banger, but as the seven-episode web series ‘Guns & Gulaabs’ putters along, you find that you have to keep digging out its goodies from its placid pace. The result is a low-stakes comic thriller which springs to life only intermittently.
There’s a lot going on under Gulaabganj’s’ bucolic exterior. Tipu (Rajkummar Rao) is a lovelorn mechanic who has feelings for the sweet Chandralekha (T J Bhanu), who teaches English at the only big school in the area. Things start pumping up when Tipu, quite by accident, finds an unconventional use for his ‘paana’, leaving a couple of bloody stiffs on the roadside. Will he become like his late unlamented father, a gunman in the employ of local biggie Ganchi (Satish Kaushik, in his last performance), who controls all illegal opium trade in the region, with the help of his close associate Mahinder (Vipin Sharma) and learning-the-ropes son Jugnu (Adarsh Gourav). Or will true love rescue him?
Meanwhile, a huge illicit deal with a Bengal-based cartel is about to go down. Ganchi’s bitter rival is vying for the top slot. For-hire killer Atmaram (Gushan Devaiah) is on a rampage, slicing through his victims. In the middle of all this, there arrives Arjun Varma (Dulquer Salmaan), a policeman with a guilty conscience, struggling between being a good father and husband to faithful wife Madhu (Pooja Gor), and figuring out how to have a bit on the side.
We know it is the pre-liberalised 90s because of the markers. Audio cassettes, pop songs of the time, love letters sprayed with cheap Pink Mamba perfume, Campa Cola served in eateries, STD booths for baddies to make one-minute calls, portly Ambassador cars carrying suitcases full of cash. And, of course, the title, a riff on hard rock band ‘Guns N Roses’.
The signature humour that directors Raj and DK use is also evident it some of the drollery on display: a sassy schoolboy daring our ‘Paanadhaari’ Tipu to come near his beloved ‘ma’am’ is a hoot; a vertically challenged seller of lucky charms manages to stay funny. But the problem of overusing quirk is also clear. Not all of those jokes land. Some situations, including those featuring the slasher, lose their sting because of repetition. The constant use of all those half-sweaters is self-conscious, calling-attention-to-itself costume detail; the endless ‘gaalis’ become just plain tiresome.
The primary cast — bookended by the much-missed veteran Kaushik, and the always solid Rao — is stuffed with good actors, but not everyone is written interestingly. Dulquer’s conflicted cop character comes off particularly dull, even though an edge is infused into it after a while. Some of the ancillary actors leave more of an impact. The one who kept me watching all through was Adarsh Gourav, who is given the most detailed arc, and who leaves you wanting more.
Guns and Gulaabs cast: Rajkummar Rao, Dulquer Salmaan, TJ Bhanu, Satish Kaushik, Vipin Sharma, Gushan Devaiah, Adarsh Gourav, Pooja Gor
Guns and Gulaabs directors: Raj and DK
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