After clearing all the hurdles in the censors, Jiiva's Gypsy is finally out for release. This political romantic drama showed great potential with its promotional videos and it also had a curiosity factor. How has the film fared? Read on to know.

Gypsy (Jiiva) is a carefree youngster who travels along with Che, his pet horse, around the country for his livelihood. During one such visit to Nagoor in Tamil Nadu, he comes across Waheeda (Natasha Singh), an orthodox Muslim girl and falls for her at first sight. Waheeda sneaks out from her house and escapes from her (already arranged) wedding with the help of Gypsy and eventually falls in love with him during their travel. Later, they get married and settle down in a small part of Uttar Pradesh. Things turn ugly and tragic when violent communal riots separate Gypsy from Waheeda. What is the fate of the couple and what impact did the communal riots have on their lives, forms the rest of the plot.

Jiiva is full of energy throughout the film and he breathes life to the character of Gypsy. He delivers his best and it is glad to see the potential actor inside him come out after a long time. Jiiva's commitment to that character is evident through his performance and it is one of the major positives of the film. Natasha Singh seems to be a good find and she adapts neatly to the character of an orthodox Muslim girl. However, her lip sync had issues and it is a worry. Special shoutout to Che, the super energetic horse and he is very impressive. Che is a show-stealer and his bromance with Jiiva works very well. Malayalam actor Sunny Wayne isn't put to good use. Lal Jose, who played Natasha Singh's father, was impressive. Other supporting actors don't leave a lasting impact.

Director Raju Murugan has got a very intriguing story that has the potential to be explored deeply with intensity. The story definitely holds a curiosity factor and it makes you invest in the film. Right from the first scene, the film grabs your attention and that has been maintained until the end. The dialogues are meaningfully written and quite a lot of work has gone into it. The political dialogues and the references add more authenticity and it has the potential to connect with the audiences. Gypsy has a noble message that is needed in today's scenario, especially with all the CAA, NRC protests happening around the country. Probably, in that way, the delayed release has helped the film. Kudos to the entire team for executing the communal riot sequence that leaves an impact. Gypsy is more of a love story that is set in a political backdrop, something that we haven't seen in the last few years.

On the flipside, the emotional quotient doesn't hit you and you don't feel the completeness while coming out of the theatre. Waheeda's love for Gypsy isn't established properly and because of that, you don't feel empathetic towards them or their love. Also, the film takes a lot of time to get into the story and things get intense and interesting only from the pre-interval sequence. The film has a very good premise, well-written dialogues, convincing performances, strong technical backing, but where it falters is the treatment. The second half falls flat and the proceedings don't engage the audience much. What could have come out as another version of Mani Ratnam's classic, Bombay, falls short because of the treatment and packaging.

There is this one scene in the second half where people come forward and face the gun to save the life of Sonu Kumar. That was one well-written and executed scene and one could just wish that, there were more of it. The scenes could have been arranged in an even more engaging fashion and that would have made Gypsy a compelling watch. Since the film's major portions happen in North India and Kozhikode, the Tamil dubbing looks odd and it alienates the audience from connecting with the characters and the emotion. Also, unfortunately, the film has been butchered by the censor board and the rawness and intensity of the film is reduced due to that. 

Music director Santhosh Narayanan and cinematographer Selvakumar are the major assets of Gypsy. Being a musically driven film, the emotions are beautifully uplifted through SaNa's background score and similarly, he adds tension to the riot sequences as well. DoP Selvakumar captures scenic locations at its best through his lens and the compositions are confined and neat. The geographies are established well through his visuals. Raymond Derrick's editing transitions are neat and it helps the flow of the film.