From the Gulaal review:

What is fun — as is always the case with Kashyap — is the detailing. The characters are a constantly quirky, perfectly cast bunch, and each has moments actors would kill for. Mahi Gill, for example, plays a beauty parlour owner called Madhuri who dances the odd mujra in a low-cut blouse. One look around her parlour shows us posters of young Tabu even as the song she chooses to play on her stereo is Vijaypath‘s Ruk ruk ruk. Gill’s resemblance to the senior actress is evident, and Kashyap exaggerates it further till she eventually cries out in anguish, wondering if it isn’t enough for her to look like Tabu.

The film is, however, a marked departure for Kashyap in terms of treatment. Sure, he still has an utter loser for a hero, but this is a film where the director understates his style and goes for severely gritty filmmaking. Cinematographer Rajeev Ravi goes earthen very well, and all the film’s brightness comes from the red gulaal of the title. The rest of the film’s palette is muddy, filthy, sweat-stained and pockmark’d. This is a narrative you follow with morbid curiousity, and Kashyap’s made sure you can’t take your eyes off the proceedings — even if you may want to.

Here’s the full review. Rediff, March 13, 2008.