’Mangal Pandey: The Rising’ has already garnered as much controversy as much as attention it has in terms of being one of the most awaited films ever for obvious reasons. There is a tendency on the part of us Indians to either eulogise or scandalise our heroes, historical or otherwise. The Ketan Mehta film, starring Aamir Khan, is based on a script by Farrokh Dhondy is both smart and gripping. It mixes history, folk-lore, contemporary socio-political concerns as well as Bollywood masala in order to make the concoction accepted and assimilated by the masses. The execution on the part of the entire cast and crew deserve nothing but praise! A viewer might argue with the cinematic sensibility as portrayed through the film, but the sheer audacity of the team to handle a subject as difficult as the trying times for the soldiers under the East India Company’s regime that culminates in the uprising better known as the sepoy mutiny of 1857. The history that the film dishes out needs to be absorbed with a pinch of salt.......that’s what the Saavdhaan (beware) refers to. But the passion and the patriotic fervour makes me chant Shubha (holy) Mangala (auspicious). It is a new beginning for populist fares from Bollywood: the land of glamorous tamasha!