The film is meant to be based on two `real life’ incidents, but it doesn’t tell us which. What we get, to begin with, is a scary inside view of the kind of skullduggery that goes on between places and people who are meant to be engaged in saving our lives, and are instead, busy lining their pockets, criminally indifferent to the dangers they pose.

Laal Rang has a shade grey and is much more high voltage than an ordinary thriller. Nobody could have played it better than Hooda. It’s his film.

Randeep Hooda gets into the skin of the nitty gritty of the character and holds the entire film on his own shoulder.

Laal Rang does not pack a solid punch because of its choppy storyline. Also, since the film is set in the heartland of Haryana, all the characters speak in Haryanvi, which after a point becomes too much. If you don’t listen carefully, you may miss the point.

A small film whose impact is enhanced manifold by Randeep Hooda’s presence, Laal Rang also has other bright spots. But cottoning on to them might call for patience.

Spare some, and you might just find Laal Rang worth your while.

Laal Rang is half-baked and unconvincing. Despite the grit, it never becomes a riveting film. Here’s a lesson to learn: Ideas don’t make good films, execution does.

Watch it if you can’t do without your weekly dose of popcorn and cola, else wait for its television telecast.

Laal Rang is not a boring watch but not a theater must-watch either. This is an entertaining film with a dose of seriousity and has Randeep Hooda pulling off a great role.

While the central plot offers much promise, the film in itself stretches it too far and tends to get slow, meandering and repetitive at many points. What could work against the film is also the heavy Haryanvi lingo-peppered dialogues, which could be really difficult to decipher for the audience that doesn’t belong to the Northern belt.

Once in while you tend to overlook the glaring aberrations in a story that is so well-intended that it makes you wonder:  why didn’t someone make this film before?

This film has many interesting individual elements but fails to lift off in its entirety. So yes, Randeep Hooda is hot, but Laal Rang is not.

Who could think that stealing blood and selling it for profit would be the stuff that could have you grinning in the dark of the theater? It is. And the characters that have been created seem to be unrepentant and brazen in their greed. If only the exaggerations could be reined in, this would be a wonderfully dark comic film.

Despite its well-portrayed rustic setting, the film fails to intensify with its plot. The simplistic story is not gripping enough, although it does offer a heart-warming climax.

While the story of Laal Rang might have faults, the performances, humour and authenticity largely makes up for it. Syed Ahmed Afzal’s earlier film Youngistaan had a novel concept and so does Laal Rang. Despite hiccups, the film touches on important aspects like how money dictates life and love in today’s times.

If you’d like a crash course in Haryanvi, this one covers the elementary level in just two hours and 25 minutes. But as a movie, it doesn’t justify the cost of a multiplex ticket. Give it a few months, a world TV premiere is on the cards.

A jumbled up messy film, Laal Rang could have done with a little more focus. It lacks spit-and-polish and style. There are no frills and flourishes, no slickness to the filmmaking. That, ironically, is its strength, the reason why it feels so real.

…you need to be patient with this film as it tends to inject unwanted romantic twists and drama into a film that could have been gripping even without those crutches.

Laal Rang could have been red hot alas turned out to be like a red flag to a bull. Don’t be in the red, spend your weekend on a beach or at a shopping mall and paint the town red or else you will see red. In a line, the film loses fizz sooner than you expect. Watch it only if you like Randeep Hooda. He is fab in the movie.   

The story is slight and stretched, and there isn’t enough meat it in to adequately explore the potential themes – the bromance that develops between Shankar and Rajesh, the moral concerns over illegal blood donation, the exploitation of poor donors, and the general shortage of the life-giving fluid that makes racketeering a necessity.