na koi padhne wala na koi sikhne wala
apni toh paathshala masti ki paathshala
5 rebels let loose....by the society..by ther parents..searching around for a purpose to lead ther life for....booze...bike...fun...rebel...
hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar
aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar
5 rebels let loose....simmering wit anger...angry wit the world...angry abt their country’s pathetic state..ready to weed out evil..
Rang De Basanti- the movie everyone was waiting for especially Aamir Khan’s earlier dud at the box office, The Rising. And trust me, its worth the wait. It teaches one patriotism without the jingoisms usually associated with it. Bet ppl of our generation wud hve learnt more abt Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad & Co. through this movie than the earlier attempts at glorifying them(three movies I think and all were flops). You laugh out loud when DJ realises that Sue can understand and even speak hindi. You cry when Sonia learns about Ajay’s(a pilot) death due to a plane crash. You rise from ur seat with anger when the defence minister says that it was the pilot Ajay’s mistake. You can feel the goose pimples when Sonia says ’’Maar Daalo’’ to her friends.
Rebels turn revolutionaries. All thanks to Sue’s plan to shoot a movie about the revolutionaries who challenged the British might and woke up a nation. A nation that was the jewel in the crown of the ’’Empire’’. A nation whose people let themselves be looted without even caring to raise a voice. As they shoot the movie, the rebels realise that India hasnt changed much. Here is where the director’s ploy has to be lauded. Instead of going overboard with long speeches about brastaachar and parampara, he underplays and let the script do the talking. The correlation between the Old and the New order is just perfect. India has not changed much, the rebels realise. The nation is sleeping once again and to wake them up, they resort to the same method. The result??well, that only the future can tell....
The king is back....Rahman’s music is not only refreshing but also has been cleverly placed in the movie. Be it bhangra or rap or blues or plain melody, he scores. About the cast: Aamir(DJ) is his usual cherub self. The character can be described as a cross between Mangal pandey in The Rising and Akash in Dil Chahta Hai. Atul Kulkarni(Laxman) as the Hindu fundamentalist realises that you need not be a Hindu to be a Ram and politics based on religion does not go beyond vote bank. Kunal Kapoor(Aslam) is the restrained muslim youth who cannot understand why on earth is he expected to hate a Hindu. Sharman Joshi(Sukhi) is the happy-go-lucky guy who cant live without his friends and is ready to give his life for them. Soha(Sonia) acts so well tat I am sure her brother Saif can learn a thing or two from her. Alice Patten(Sue) first hindi dialogue is ’’teri maa ki...’’ :D Till the end she carries the movie but then is sidelined and she remains a mute spectator to metamorphosis from rebel to revolutionary. Maddy(Ajay) is like the godfather who makes the rebels realise that therez no use in sulking as long as they cant take up the matter in ther hands. His is a cameo and he plays it without much of a fuss.
Then comes my favorite, Sidharth aka Karan. Guess he represents the Generation-Y more than anyone else. He is like how Amitabh wud hve been before his angry young man image. Totally restrained. Lost and looking hopeless. In search of some purpose. He steals the thunder from Aamir especially at the climax. The retro look with a 70’s ishtyle Ray Ban and a cigarrete throughout the movie suits him to a T. The way he lets out his anger at the maligning of Ajay’s name and his handling of the climax shows how much he has matured as an actor. Though one hopes he is not typecast in similar roles and suffer the same fate as Madhavan after RUN.
Overall, a movie that should be a casestudy for other directors in Bollywood. Especially those who ape Western movies and think that shouting profanities or melodrama is wat we people luv wotching.