'Gypsy’ review: A scattered film with forced messaging

Gypsy comes across as one-dimensional and unrealistic as it grapples with three distinct elements that don’t seamlessly blend with each other.
'Gypsy’ review: A scattered film with forced messaging
'Gypsy’ review: A scattered film with forced messaging
Written by:

Director Raju Murugan’s Gypsy released this Friday, overcoming several delays, especially since the Censor advocated quite a few cuts. These scenes that have not made it to he film, including the “Very Very Bad” song and the one with the Yogi Adityanath parallels, are available to watch on YouTube.

Gypsy starring Jiiva and Natasha Singh in lead roles is a film on music and love, as the director had already hinted in the trailer, with current day politics thrown in to reimagine this love in the times of religion based politics and political unrest.

There's a Tamil word, ‘desandhri’. It translates to ‘traveler’, a person who has many homes, who considers the entire country their home. Jiiva who plays Gypsy (an unimaginative name) is raised by a desandhri and grows up to be one. Gypsy has a back story but that is a story that does not need too much imagination.

Born in Kashmir to Hindu father and a Muslim mother, an infant Gypsy loses his parents to a conflict and is picked up by the desandhri who is called as Senior. As he is raised all around the country by his adoptive father, Gypsy becomes a man of the land, well-versed in all languages and lives without  practising any religion. Gypsy is agonistic and this is a messaging the film tries to deliver at several points.

When he’s asked his religion, he says, “Matham pudikaatha manusha jaathi” (a human who does not like religion) and in  another scene, picks up pocket versions of religious texts like Bible, Gita and the Quran and says, “They all look the same but have different names and covers.”

But even with an interesting premise, Gypsy comes across as one-dimensional and unrealistic as it grapples with three distinct elements that don’t seamlessly blend with each other, mainly because of the way they have been presented to us. An aspirational story on ‘love unites all’ with characters that come across as far-fetched, set in present day political reality of communal clashes and religious politics just feels like Gypsy has piled on more than it can handle. The film therefore feels scattered, and we connect less with the story as it progresses.

Gypsy, who travels with his white horse Che, makes a living by performing at events with his dancing horse. He is also a very good singer, having picked up songs from different parts of the country. But except for these bulletin points, we connect very less with who Gypsy is as a person, as a friend, as a lover.

The story has few political references in the first half, focussing more on the love story between Gypsy and Waheeda (Natasha Singh), a Muslim woman he meets at Nagoor. This can be disconcerting at first since the lead character is not your usual hero. He lives outside the confines of law, does not own an Aadhaar card, and so we’re expecting more confrontation with law and authorities. However, we get little of this. In fact, Gypsy makes best use of situations, meandering his way through with a laugh. At the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border where some party functionaries are advocating hatred against each other, Gypsy uses his knowledge of languages to turn the situation to his favour.

In most places, the film’s messaging seems forced, and frankly not well thought out. This is evident in the scene in which Gypsy finds Waheeda crying, not happy with her imminent wedding. We’re sure, at that point, no one in the theatre would have seen Gypsy’s reaction coming. Referring to an India-Pakistan match he was watching just before meeting Waheeda, Gypsy says, “Don’t be upset, it does not look that grim -- your people could win.” This is cue for the Muslim-Pakistan reference and an angry Waheeda pledges her allegiance to India.

The “peace song” too is poorly written. We don’t get a sense of why people are doing it and consequentially believe lesser in its power to unite people together. The lines “Manitham thaandi punitham illai va, idhayam thaandi iraivan illai vaa” (There’s nothing more scared than humanity and there’s nothing more devine than the heart) are indeed beautiful but in the film they do nothing to move you.

Waheeda is clearly scarred and is suffering from post-traumatic stress. Is this peace concert aimed at healing her? or at healing people as a collective? Gypsy does very little here in showing us Waheeda’s plight but we ironically feel like the focus is on her. Every time she meets Gypsy, she widens her eyes in fear and we hear people crying and other sounds from the violent night. This happens several times in the film and sadly, with repetition, it has lesser effect on us.

The film has very good music but in some places the background score sounds a bit intrusive. Inspite of the clear reference that this film treats its music with great importance, because of the fact that it deal with too many things and ideas all at once, none of them leave an impact on us. Neither love, nor the idea that music can connect all of us. 

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com