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

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

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