2006 continues to be a year of surprises.
After big time disappointments by John Matthew Matthan and Rajkumar Santoshi ( shikhar and family respectively), and a refreshingly good movie by rohan sippy, here comes Rakesh Om prakash Mehra’s 2nd directorial venture, which will sweep you completely off your feet.
After the debacle of Aks, which, if nothing, proved mehra to be a competent technician, RDB establishes him as a good storyteller as well.
The biggest success of this movie is that it makes the viewer THINK. Without much sermonising, or benig jingoistic, it beautifully and more importantly, realistically, portrays the transformation of a group of carefree, aimless youth into responsible and motivated men. RDB does what a hundred ’Mangal Pande’ s wouldnt. It evokes a sense of patriotism and responsibility within the viewer.
Sue, a London based girl, plans to shoot a movie in India about the martyrs of the indian freedom struggle, based on the writings of her grandfather, who happens to have served the british army during that period.
She stumbles upon a goup of carefree, happy go lucky friends (Amir, Sharman, Siddharth, Kunal, Soha), with little conviction in the ideals of the freedom fighters, and no plans for their future, whom she decides to cast in the leading roles. during the shooting of the movie, the characters go through a lot of introspection, and are on the verge of maturing to responsible men, when suddenly their lives take a sharp turn after a shocking incident.
One of their friends(Madhavan), who is an Air force pilot, who eventually is also engaged to Soha, gets killed in an Air crash.
While the crash gives rise to speculations about the corruption in the trade of faulty MIG aircrafts from another country, the defence minister comfortably blames it on the inefficiency of the late pilot. this gives rise to an angst among the friends who then decide to murder the minister. what follows, is a journey of these guys from being boys to men, building up to a dark, but a very non filmi and unconventional climax.
RDB strikes a chord with the audience mainly because the characters are very realistic and look straight out of real life. The credit goes to a near perfect casting. also, a special mention must be made of the dialogues which are written in normal lingo, but bear a deep meaning and stay in ones mind long after the movie gets over.
The director shows fantastic creativity in mixing the flashback scenes with current ones, drawing parallels between the situation in 1925 and 2005.
The performances are top rate, with almost everyone playing their part with utmost conviction.
Amir, as usual stands out in the enterprise and breathes life into his role.
Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni, and Siddharth play their roles so dedicatedly, that at times you forget they are just acting. Soha and the Foreign actress excel in author backed roles.
The music is good, with almost every song being used as a backgound score. the beautifully composed classic ’sarfaroshi ki tamanna’ is used splendidly.
As in case of any masterpiece, the story and screenplay are the most powerful aspects of this movie. the risk with such a movie is frequently the story entering a lecture mode with a dose of patriotism et al making it completely unbearable for the viewer. Not once does mehra get into the lecturebaazi mode.
the love angle between aamir and sue looks a little forced, but fortunately, no time is wasted on the sublpot.
Overall, the movie hits bullseye as far as its motive is concerned. Though its bound to do well at multiplexes and metros in general, its the front benchers, the hoi polloi, who are detrimental in the success of a movie. Remember, we live in a nation where a ’Masti’ pulls more crowds than a ’Legend of Bhagat Singh’, and SRK in ’Kuch Kuch hota hai’ is loved more than SRK in ’Swades’. If Amirs star power and the calibre of the movie are successful in striking gold at the box office, remains to be seen.
So, Congrats, Mr. Mehra for a laudable effort. and All the best at the BO. Hope the generation is awakened.