SIMRAN—THE GIRL WE ALL WANT TO BE DEEP DOWN INSIDE

There is something magical about Kangana Ranaut. Be it her recent involvement in controversies or her much-talked-about troubled personal life, she's braved it all like a true 'Queen' with her head held high. And despite the tumultuous times that the actress has been through, every time she appears on the big screen, there's just this state of trance that she weaves. Every. Single. Time. The trailer of her next venture, Hansal Mehta's Simran dropped recently and we couldn't help but fall in love all over again.

The film follows the life and times of Praful Patel (Kangana Ranaut), a simple Gujarati girl who believes in living life on her own terms. Praful is a divorcee whose idea of freedom is butterfly wings emerging out of her back. She goes bar-hopping, making passes at random guys (and failing miserably!) and holds no qualms in admitting to looking desperately for love—a self-discovery journey that looks straight of her runaway blockbuster, Queen. However, things stir up in the latter part of the trailer when Patel reveals her biggest "character flaw" to a potential love interest. When the innocent girl-next-door is not busy messing things up, Patel loves indulging in stealing and robbing everything from gas stations to banks to stores. All of a sudden, you're in for a roller coaster ride and what follows is a stream of robberies, chases and at the heart of it all, emotions! How will Simran's addiction affect her life? Will she be able to find love and more importantly, herself?

Remember how Kangana's last venture Rangoon tanked at the box-office and yet she managed to become the talk of the town? That's just how it is with Kangana. Be it Tanu Weds Manu's Tanu or Rangoon's Miss Julia and now Simran, Ranaut just doesn't play her characters, she lives them. She's undoubtedly one of the finest performers we have right now and with Simran, she's back in her element. One look at the trailer and you know there isn't any other actress who could've carried this off. That's the kind of impact she leaves on you. It takes serious guts to do a film like Simran that doesn't rely heavily on a plot per se and is more of a solo character's journey and here is an actress who's done it time and again, with the same panache.

And complementing Ranaut is film-maker Hansal Mehta who knows the kind of space the actress deserves and he gives it all to her. Even with his previous works like Aligarh and Citylights, Mehta always lets his actors take the centerstage. Simran is the most commercial he has been yet and in a smart yet brave move, he steps back again and lets it be all about Kangana. Oh, and what a well-made trailer! He manages out the bring the best in the actor in a span of two and a half minutes by coupling it with some seriously haunting yet beautiful music. Absolute winner!

Shot primarily in the U.S., Simran is reportedly inspired by the life of an NRI nurse who was imprisoned for robbing banks to pay off her gambling debts. The film has been in the news for the alleged fall-out between the film's writer Apurva Asrani and Kangana Ranaut. However the beauty is that one glance at the trailer, and you forget about it all. It's all about Praful Patel and her dream-like world, a world we'd be waiting to be a part of this September.

Produced by T-Series, Simran releases 15 September 2017.