In Vikas Bahl’s Queen (2013), when a component startled, half clueless Rani (Kangana Ranaut) meets (or moderately hears) Vijayalakshmi (Lisa Haydon) for the primary time in Paris, the firebrand half French-half Indian single mom is busy having coitus within the subsequent room. She comes out for a smoke within the balcony shortly, nonchalantly telling Rani that she had actually 4 minutes to f****.A shocked Rani retires to her room, utterly oblivious to the very fact that is the beginning of a lifelong friendship. As Vijayalakshmi retains telling her, ‘Vijay nahi hai toh kya hua, Vijayalakshmi to hai!‘ (so what there isn’t a Vijay, there may be Vijayalakshmi )

For starters, Rani and Vijayalakshmi couldn’t have been extra totally different from one another. Rani, because the society would conventionally label is a ‘good woman’, as she herself ( throughout her maiden drunken stupor) admits, “maine mummy daddy ki har baat maani hai. Aaj tak koi galat kaam nahi kiya.” (I’ve listened to every part mother dad advised me and have by no means finished something fallacious)
A easy middle-class woman from Rajouri in West Delhi, she stands as a benchmark for majority of Indian women and their desires – full your primary schooling, get married, procreate after which focus on elevating your kids.

Vijayalakshmi then again, is brazen, brash and lives life on her personal phrases. Whether or not it’s proudly owning up her physique or citing a baby on her personal, she makes her personal selections, regardless of how unconventional they could appear to the outer world. Initially somewhat stunned, Rani quickly warms upto her, despite the fact that she doesn’t adhere to her lifestyle by a mile, which is totally okay. Not like a romantic relationship the place there must be some frequent floor, one of the best a part of friendship is that you would be able to be as totally different as chalk and cheese and but, get alongside like a home on fireplace.
When Rani, heartbroken after being dumped by the narcissistic and misogynistic Vijay (Rajkummar Rao) on the eve of her marriage ceremony (good riddance as she would later realise) travels to Paris for her honeymoon alone, she encounters an inevitable cultural shock, together with an especially westernised way of life, shortage of vegetarian meals and the stark loneliness. After a few chilly, arid nights, she warms as much as town, even hilariously braving off a mugger, by holding on to her purse with such tenacity as if her life is determined by it! She meets the fiery Vijayalakshmi and the 2 stroll across the metropolis, get drunk and go on purchasing journeys, with Vijayalakshmi’s extrovertness (learn ‘lip to lip’ kisses with boys, as Rani says), being an ideal foil to Rani’s preliminary closeted persona.
Not like most Bollywood capers, the film is just not centred round a girl’s affection for a person and besides just a few fleeting references of Vijay, the story purely focuses on Rani’s character graph going by means of a metamorphosis. Whereas not judging Vijayalakshmi at any level, Rani proudly hangs round together with her in her kurtis, even getting her good friend to put on one after they bid goodbye on the station. From Vijayalakshmi, Rani learns to let go and have enjoyable, whilst Rani’s bemused household is shocked to see her skimpy apparel on a video name, with the spunky daadi commenting, “arre yahan to adult film chal rahi hai.” (An grownup movie is happening right here)
Then again, Rani brings a sure sense of stability to Vijayalakshmi’s in any other case chaotic life. On a day of proposed consuming revelry, Rani suggests doing one thing else and the 2 ladies, removed from the hustle-bustle of town simply soak within the recent air, whereas admiring a fantastically lit up Eiffel Tower, with out saying a phrase to one another.
The truth that Vijayalakshmi is a single mom doesn’t cease her from having a life, a indisputable fact that Rani comes to understand. Actually, when Vijayalakshmi asks Rani to hold a parcel to her good friend Ruksar in Amsterdam, it seems that she is a pole dancer! Stumped, Rani however meets Ruksar lovingly, even innocently telling her that ‘ye kaam toh bahut mushkil hai‘ (that is such a tough job), earlier than giving her a heat hug, thus proving that girls simply must be understood, with out worry of judgement and mock.

Over the course of the film, Rani encounters many ‘firsts’ – proper from travelling alone from Paris to Amsterdam to sharing the room with three boys, who initially sceptical about, she shortly befriends, repeatedly calling the Russian one Sikander, despite the fact that his title is Oleksander. Not like Vijay, who continuously berated Rani for her want to work or simply have a voice of her personal, her new discovered mates give her the liberty and respect she actually deserves.
From her kurtis, Rani slowly transitions to lengthy, pastel flowy attire, a metaphor for coming of age for her, as she struts across the metropolis in boots, attending rock live shows and having the time of her life together with her mates. Nevertheless, Vikas makes it a degree to maintain Rani’s intrinsic persona nonetheless intact and whereas she is elated to return to India carrying her trademark Kurti, one thing in her has modified, this time for the higher. Ultimately, she with no shred of awkwardness, goes to Vijay’s home and provides him a heat hug thanking him, leaving the repentant, now x fiance, ruing what he has misplaced.
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