A story of a indian who was in the british army, who was brahmin and gets touched by achhut, who can see good and evil but doesnt realize British East India Company’s intentions until he himself becomes achhut. as he realizes what the BEIC is really doing he transforms in to rebel.. sounds very simple story yet very dramatic... thats how I would summerize Mangal Pandey..
performances-
Aamir Khan: he is mangal pandey... he is under the skin of character and does it perfectly...... this guy can do anything and everything when it comes to doing variety of role.... he is amazing amazing amzing...he is great in emotional scenes, especially when he realizes his faith.he is great in showing anger towards the british when he realizes the secrets behind the kartoos...there is a scene where mangal pandey is shown fighting british army by himself, and he realizes he is going to lose so he tries to commit suicide..in that particular scene aamir’s acting is unbelivable..this is the year’s best performance along w/ Amitabh Bachchan’s Black..
Toby Stephens: provides great support and he is the surprise in the film. the hindi dialogues seemed to come of very easy to him... an excellent performance from him too..he also shows his love(in friendly way of course) towards mangal
Rani Mukherjee: is not needed..the role is too small for her to do but whatever she does she does it well
Ameesha Patel: is also not needed... however she improves a little bit on her crying abilities.
The Music:
it is good music but the songs take alot away from the movie.. they seem to pop up out of nowhere.. especially rasiya and holi aayee re.. sometimes those pop up songs carry stories w/ them but not in this case.
there are many clapworthy scenes especially the climax and the marching of the army which is really treat to witness on big screen. the battle scenes are also worth watching on big screen. my personal favorite scene is when mangal pandey tries to kill himself..the fight between Capt. Hewson and Mangal is also good..
THE BADS:
the songs kill the movie... what could’ve been a perfect film is ruined by misplacement of songs... the ’’romantic’’ side of mangal and gordon ruins the movie even more
overall, the film is enjoyable in theater and must watch if u love patriotic drama.. 8/10