Critics' Review: ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ Has Verve and Audacity

'Gangubai Kathiawadi' starring Alia Bhatt will release in theatres on 25 February.

Alia Bhatt in and as Gangubai Kathiawadi.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi starring Alia Bhatt had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. The film stars Alia as Gangubai, a young girl trafficked into sex work who grows up to become the matriarch of Kamathipura and an advocate for sex workers’ rights. Based on a chapter in Hussain Zaidi’s ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai’, the film is scheduled to release in theatres on 25 February.

Take a look at the Alia Bhatt-starrer's first impressions:

“There is terrific verve and audacity in this picture and some spectacular fantasy-musical setpieces. In fact, it is the streak of schmaltz within the gruesomeness which gives the story its outrageous energy. There is an entertainingly brazen quality to this movie, a brashness and recklessness to go with the mawkishness: it has a storytelling killer instinct.”

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian