Rangoon Movie Review

Kangana Ranaut is the real Hero of this movie with her perfect blend of action and emotions. She nails the scene where she animatedly tries to strike a conversation with a Japanese soldier despite the language barrier.

The film is set in the year 1943, the Brits are fighting Hitler and dealing with India's freedom struggle too. Amidst this war, we have Julia (Kangana), who has been picked off the street by Parsi man Russi Billimoria (Saif Ali Khan), who dictates her every move and treats her as his pedigreed pet.

When a British office David Harding (Overacting Specialist Richard McCabe) requests that Ms. Julia be sent to Burma, where the World War II Conflict is on, to entertain the British & Indian Troops fighting the Japanese Army, Russi readily agrees.

British soldier Nawab Malik (Shahid Kapur) is assigned to keep an eye on Julia in Rangoon (Burma). Julia and Nawab fall in love (very predictable).

A love triangle emerges, involving pro-British Russi, the patriotic Nawab, and Julia.

Kangana Ranaut powers through this tale of Love & War. Rangoon scores high on the visual quotient and Kangana Ranaut’s Julia powers through the film like a true hero. The romantic angle between Julia and Nawab seems extremely forced under their trying circumstances and comes across more like a lustful encounter than love. Kangana Ranaut does a brilliant great job as Julia. Saif Ali Khan brings nothing new to the role, he is as usual just about average in his performance.  Shahid Kapoor does an excellent job as Nawab Mallik.

One of the major misfits of Rangoon appeared to be the zero chemistry between Kangana Ranaut and Shahid Kapoor. So the rumours about them not getting along well on sets must be true as it showed in their on screen performance as well. There’s little passion in their aesthetically shot love making scenes.

Overall the film is a good one time watch, but poor vfx and long duration makes it a little boring. The film progresses at a slow pace all through and a painfully long climax is another setback.  The music blends well. Rangoon has a total run time of 167 minutes. Kangana and Shahid excel in their role but the film does not rise above its inconsistencies.