Zoya Akthar - take a bow

For me personally, Ranveer was the star of the show..the character that he was given- wow. Such amazing character development...one of the most well written by a Bollywood writer and then to be directed in the manner that Ranveer was? Heck, everyone from Alia, Sid, Kalki..to the remaining cast...you need a director with certain sensibilities and sensitivities to display what has been displayed.

Every role was well written, well thought of. The chemistry amongst characters were so well developed and beautifully illustrated. When did this last happen all within one film? I can't recall.

The cinematography, the background score..the incorporation of raps within scenes and showing how Murad came up with his content..etc. Once again, it takes a special director to do all of the above and everything else which I can't remember at this time. I have minor complaints like the film sort of dragged at some points and could have been a little tightened up, but it's fine. Nonetheless, I never thought much about Zoya's work..but with this film, I am now a fan. She has grown tremendously and she deserves the most accolades as I can not see this film being in sync without her work.

and Ranveer completely stole my heart as murad, i am so proud of his growth as an actor, he really can fit into any character that he is given, he showed murads emotions and journey beautifully, such a layered character and ranveer was so natural in the role

kudos to zoya for finding such a great cast, everyone really fit so perfectly in their roles

Her best work, I'd put it with Luck By Chance.

I am stunned with Alia reviews though. Safeena was mental and an unrelatable character for me

Safeena was not mental. I would say she was someone who bottled up a lot of things inside of her and did not have an outlet to express herself or her rage in particular. Notice how all the times she lost it, it was over Murad. She loved Murad and was loyal to him for ages, it was the one thing that she truly felt was hers and hers alone. Murad was also her way to escape her reality. She was however afraid to lose him. So every time her insecurities kicked in (over Murad), she couldn't control herself. The reason why people are loving Safeena is because she is uniquely written and displayed. Here's a Muslim girl, a hijabi, a medical student, someone who is extremely outspoken and fierce yet so vulnerable at the same time. This character could have been boxed or stereotyped easily due to some of the factors I mentioned above, but it wasn't. Yes, perhaps we can say she needed anger management, but I never saw her as mental. I think that's also a problem with how society works..we often are very quick to term people who have a short temper as someone who is perhaps psychotic or mentally unstable. That is not always the case.

Alia - I can't say this enough..definitely one of the best actresses Bollywood has today. Her subtlety in portraying Safeena was beautiful. She is the best crier Bollywood currently has. I don't care what anyone says..she moves you with her emotional scenes. She broke my heart when she had to beg to be able to continue her studies..or the time when she cried in the bathroom helplessly due to Murad lying to her. I also liked how Safeena was shown as selfish yet selfless at the same time. Her tears when Murad was up on stage was also brilliantly enacted by Alia.

I never saw Luck By Chance, but I have seen DDD and ZNMD. I didn't like ZNMD though..I felt it was very superficial. 😆 There wasn't much depth in that movie for my liking or maybe that movie didn't require depth. 😆 Nonetheless, I found DDD to be way better, but not everyone did as great as they possibly could. There were some weak performances in that film and the plot was sort of half baked. Although I did get a hint of Zoya having a knack of trying to dig deep and providing layers to her characters..but something was still missing.

Here in GB, she completely outdid herself as you put it. She has set new standards for other directors. The way she was able to show chemistry between different characters, the depth in characterization, the nuances used to display emotions..wow, she was amazing. The performances are great and I know we all keep saying that everywhere..but, it is because of Zoya. She tied everything beautifully. Otherwise, such a film could have been a disaster because there is so much going on with so many different characters and between various characters yet she was able to lock it all in. That takes immense skill of course, but a certain level of emotional intelligence too..which a lot of Bollywood directors lack.

I have seen Zoya's interviews and she comes across as a wonderful person. I think this film was able to reflect that part about Zoya onscreen.