Underplayed Gems

Queen (2014)

Queen poster
Directed by
Vikas Bahl
Genre
comedy drama, adventure film
Country
India
Runtime
2h 26m
Rated
15
Rating
7.3 of 10 from 314 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A shy young woman from Delhi decides to go on her planned honeymoon alone after her fiancé calls off their wedding. In Paris and Amsterdam, she meets new people and learns to enjoy life on her own terms.

empoweringlightheartedwarmbittersweetinspiringgentleplayfulself-discovering

What happens

Queen is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film directed by Vikas Bahl and produced by Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, and Madhu Mantena. The film stars Kangana Ranaut in the lead role, with Lisa Haydon and Rajkummar Rao playing supporting roles. The film follows the story of Rani Mehra, a diffident Punjabi girl from New Delhi who embarks on her honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam by herself after her fiancé calls off their wedding. Bahl co-wrote the script of Queen with Chaitally Parmar and Parveez Shaikh. Anvita Dutt Guptan wrote the dialogues for the film. Ranaut, who was encouraged by Bahl to improvise her lines during filming, is recognized as an additional dialogue writer. Amit Trivedi provided the musical score and Guptan also wrote the lyrics. Principal photography of Queen began in 2012 and took 45 days to complete. Queen received universal critical acclaim, praised for its direction, screenplay and Ranaut's titular performance, with various critics and publications citing it as the best Indian film of 2014. Made on a budget of ₹230 million (US$2.4 million), the film earned over ₹950 million (US$9.9 million) at the global box-office, emerging as a commercial success. It is one of the highest-grossing Indian films featuring a female protagonist. The film won several accolades at prominent Indian and international award ceremonies. At the 60th Filmfare Awards ceremony, the film received a leading 13 nominations and won a leading 6 awards, including Best Film, Best Director (Bahl), and Best Actress (Ranaut). At the 62nd National Film Awards ceremony, the film won the Best Hindi Film (Bahl) and Best Actress (Ranaut). Queen is cited as a groundbreaking and an influential feminist film by many scholars. Over the years, the film has built a strong cult following. It was named one of the best films of the decade (2010s) by multiple publications such as Paste and Film Companion. Several publications such as O, The Oprah Magazine and Cosmopolitan have named it one of the best films of Indian cinema. Shubhra Gupta from The Indian Express named Queen as one of India's 75 most iconic and finest films that celebrate the journey of the country. The British Film Institute ranked Queen amongst the 10 greatest Bollywood films of the 21st century. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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