Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming directorial film ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ is geared up for its theatrical release tomorrow, that is, on 25th February 2022. And some early reviews of the Alia Bhatt starrer biographical drama have already started pouring in.
For instance, Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian has rated the film an impressive 4/5. Moreover, ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ was recently showcased at the Berlin International Film Festival where the film had reportedly received a 7-minute standing ovation followed by positive feedback from some critics.
However, it’s a completely different ballgame when it comes to the IMDb rating of ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’. Believe it or not, even before the film’s theatrical release in India, it currently holds an abysmally low, albeit polarized, IMDb user rating of 3.9/10 based on more than 650 votes.
On delving into it further, it can be observed that around 60% of these IMDb users have given the film the lowest score of 1/10. This makes one think whether ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ is being given a somewhat similar treatment that’s reminiscent of Mahesh Bhatt’s directorial comeback film ‘Sadak 2’, also starring Alia Bhatt.
‘Sadak 2’ had also received a poor IMDb rating which currently stands at 1.1/10. Almost 95% of users had rated the film a 1/10 on IMDb. It’s noteworthy that ‘Sadak 2’ was on the receiving end of the nepotism debate at that time.
However, the difference between ‘Sadak 2’ and ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ is that the former was unanimously panned by critics and audiences alike even after the film’s release.
On the contrary, some of the people who have seen ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ until now have some good things to say about the film and Alia Bhatt’s performance. Which brings us to our titular question: Is ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ taking the ‘Sadak 2’ route with respect to its current IMDb rating?
It seems that the answer to this question is ‘No’. Firstly, because of the aforementioned positive reviews and secondly because the film has still not been released in theatres. And from whatever we have seen in the film’s trailer, etc, such a low IMDb rating seems unjustified.
So, the movie’s final verdict will be out from tomorrow which would hopefully be reflected in its IMDb ratings as well (whether bad or good). And perhaps, also considering the quantum of votes, it might be too early to comment anything about it.
‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ has been adapted from investigative journalist turned author Hussain Zaidi’s 2011 non-fiction crime novel ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai’ (a chapter). The film follows the story of a woman named Ganga Harjivandas from Kathiawad and how she transforms into a formidable underworld power to reckon with and becomes a madame in a red-light area.