Rang De Basanti stars Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Madhavan, Sharmaan Joshi, Kunal Kapoor and Soha Ali Khan in the main roles. Whew, what a star cast. And Oh, I forgot Alice Patten!! The film is directed by Rakesh Mehra of ’’AKS’’ fame, music is by A R Rahman, Lyrics and dialogues are by Prasoon Joshi and the Cinematography is by Binod Pradhan
This movie had generated a lot of hype and controversy long before its release and hence it was having a lot of expectations when it hit the theatres. Does it live up to its hype? Read on....
Sue(Alice Patten), stumbles across a diary written by her grandfather which gives the details of struggles which Indians had gone through before getting indepenedence. Specifically, it chronicles the struggle undergone by Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and company. Inspired by the diary, she decides to come to India and film a documentary on the life of the protagonists. Owing to shortage of funds, she decides to shoot the film using College students and she is helped here, by Soha. She is not able to find people who are apt and finally decides to make the film using Soha’s friends (Aamir, Kunal, Siddharth, Sharmaan). But she finds that they are not the lease bit interested in doing the film. She also finds that they are not the least bit bothered about their country. The only thing they are interested is in chilling out and living life to the fullest. How the making of this documentary, along with the tragic accident of one of their friends (Madhavan, in a good cameo role), changes them and their outlook towards the country, forms the rest of the story.
First about the performances(not in any order):
Aamir as DJ, gives a very good performance in the movie.He along with Sharmaan, are responsible for many of the light moments in the first half of the movie. He is equally adept and astounding in the heavier scenes, like for eg. the one in which he breaks down after Madhavan’s death. His acting, coupled with the wonderful dialogues, make the scene very memorable.It takes real confidence to give such an important climax scene to a new comer yet he does that, and that has considerably raised his image I guess. After the insipid Mangal Pandey, Aamir is back!!
Siddharth as Karan, the rich guy who has everything but happiness, gives a wonderful and highly unexpected performance in the movie. He is the one who has the most footage in the movie and he really does well. The scene where he meets his father for the last time, the scene where he breaks down when Sharmaan accuses him.... they show that he is really grown up into a mature actor and that he has arrived
Kunal as Aslam, too gives a restrained performance as the guy who is always loyal to his friends even though he faces problems due to the friendship in his own ilk. I have not seen him in Meenaxi, though if he continues like this, it should augur well for him
Sharmaan Joshi as Sukhi, also delivers a good performance. His scenes are mostly limited to the lighter moments, but he delivers in the serious scenes too.
Alice Patten as Sue, looks beautiful, gives a very natural performance and speaks good Hindi too :). A really good find. She is the one who catalyses the others into action and she gives a sincere portrayal
Atul Kulkarni as Lakshman, gives a performance which I guess would have been easy for him to do as he had already done a similiar role in ’’Hey Ram’’. His acting when he realizes that the party is more interested in being in power than doing good to the people, is very good.
Soha Ali Khan, has not much to do but whatever she had, she has done well. I was expecting her to be the weak link in the movie, but she was surprisingly good.
Madhavan, Kirron Kher, Waheeda Rehman, all are excellent in their cameo roles. Even though his role is small, Madhavan plays it really well and comes out on top.
Coming to the technicalities, top marks has to go to the director and the screenplay writer. The way the story shifts between the life of the revolutionaries and the current group is simply too good and more importantly, it carries the movie forward too. The sepia sections have been excellently shot and they really merge with the overall movie. Cinematography is excellent. The Sepia shots also are quite brilliantly captured on camera. Delhi is also shown very well. Look out for the introduction scene of Aamir, where he is shown on the roof of a building with the moon as the backdrop....simply too good!!! As for music, I guess the songs are already a hit, but the background score was just amazing. Playing Guitar in the backround when Aamir(as Chandrasekhar Azad), escapes from the british, was simply too good and a real enjoyable experience. The songs too were very well picturized. I was expecting some foreign location for the song ’’Tu Bin Bataye’’ and the actual picturization took me completely by surprise. Excellent work
Some Scenes which were very good:
The Scene where Aamir breaks down after Madhavan’s death
The scene where Siddharth kills his dad
The scene where Atul repents the animosity which he had for Kunal. Not much dialogues, but a very effectively portrayed scene
All the scenes, which compare the current situation to what the revolutionaries did
The entire radio station sequence
The last talk between Aamir and Siddharth.
Almost the entire movie :)
Overall the movie is quite good and a real experience to watch. Some people say that killing the Defence Minister was not the right thing to do and that this is not the message which a film like this should convey. The movie does not suggest anything of that sort and the climax does show that the protagonists are also aware that what they have done is wrong and they do repent for it by giving themselves up.
The movie does have it cons, but this movie is a lot better than some of the current and past movies, which have become huge hits, such as all Karan Johar’s trash. When we have such an excellent movie at the start of the year, we can only hope for better things in the year to come. and Mr. Rakesh Mehra, hats off for making this movie without making any compromises whatever!! Your next, will have some expectations for sure. You rock. Wait, the entire cast and crew rocks....