A brilliant movie, Rangeela. I just ended watching it the 10th time.!
Being one of my all time favorite, I never get tired watching this movie, again and again.
Although the story lacks the ’reality’ element, the movie is strong enough to overlook the fact that it only happens in Bollywood that an educated and later very successful girl finds out she?s in love with a ’roadsider’ (mawaali!)
Well, No doubt Ram gopal verma has done an excellent job as a director by giving a tremendously good treatment to a mediocre story.
The story revolves around three main characters : Mili, Munna and Kamalkumar.
Mili (Urmila Matondkar) belongs to a middle class family where she has a mom (No points for guessing its Reema lagoo!!), a tapori dad who’s always singing parodies out of bollywood songs and a funny brother with an equally funny name,
’Motilal’!!
Mili is a group dancer (extras) in films. She has a passion for films and dreams to make it big in bollywood someday. She wants to be an actress.
Munna(Aamir khan) is an orphan, ’sadakchaap’ types! and blacks movie tickets for an earning. He’s very close to mili’s family and also in love with mili.
One day, Kamalkumar(jackie shroff), who is a bollywood superstar, catches mili while she’s dancing, and offers her the lead role in his forthcoming movie.
And the childhood dream comes true!
Kamalkumar who is depressed after loosing his love in an accident, falls in love with mili.
After some twists and turns and the regular drama, all of them learn that munna and mili love each other. And, like any other happy ending, ’They lived happily ever after’
Urmila is very good in the movie, perfectly suits the role of a young ambitious lass.I feel she has done perfect justice to her character, Mili. Ram gopal verma has made her look great in the movie.
Aamir khan is brilliant as Munna.
Jackie shroff is his usual self, nothing great. He?s OK.
Apart from the main story, the main characters, there are certain characters and sequences in the movie that make it a good laugh.
* The producer, P.C (Avtar gill) : Although he gets irritating at times, I particularly laughed when he mentions that suraj barjatiya’s ’hum aapke hain kaun’ was his script and the marriage sequences actually happened in his own marriage!!
* The director, Steven Kapoor (Gulshan grover) : Gulshan grover made a friendly appearance as a ’director?. He desires to give a competition to the hollywood directors, rather than bollywood ones! Believe me, He’s the best in the movie!
* Gulbadan (shefali chaaya) and her Mummy ji (shammi) : They are hilarious. These characters are an excellent mock on the tantrums of bollywood actresses.
When gulbadan twists her ankle(dunno if she really did!) while she’s dancing on ’saroj khan’s’ steps, mummy ji gets angry, curses everybody from dance director to producer to director and calls for a pack up. Well, Steven Kapoor was justified to wonder, ’Hollywood mein Julia Roberts ki maa Steven Spielberg ko aise bol sakti hai kya ?’
Aint it folks? !!
Later, Gulbadan leaves the movie coz she’s marrying Sudhir Kumar, her ’driver’ who used to drive her from one shooting to another, to another...and they both fell in love!!
* The tragic story of pakiya(Rajesh Joshi) : Pakiya is munna’s friend and he also blacks movie tickets. Mili is unaware of this ’black’ part. One day when she sees pakiya selling black tickets, munna cooks up a story as an explanation.
’Pakiya ki to akkha life-ich black hai. Jab woh paach saal ka tha tabhich uski maa tapak gayi.Uska baap akkha din daaru pi ke fultoo rehta tha, woh bhi sala tapak gaya..uske jeene ka ek hi maksad tha, uski apni behen ki shadi, usi ki shadi karaane
vaaste woh jeerela tha, par uska bad luck hi kharab tha, ladke waalon ne itna dahej maanga itna black money maanga ki tabse lekar abtak woh dus ka tees dus ka tees hi karela hai’’ !!!
Now that?s some real cooking!!
* Munna’s treat : Munna takes mili on a treat in five star hotel dressed in Yellow! He places an order like : ek plate kaanda, bheja fry, usal pao, baida curry, jinda rice shorba maar ke!
Do they actually exist on some menu or are ’cooked up’ dishes!
Music and Dance: Excellent Music score by A.R Rehman. All the tracks are great, my fav’ being ’Kya kare kya na karen’, ’Yaaron sun lo zara’, ’Pyar ye jaane kaisa hai’ and ’Maangta hai kya’
Choreography by Ahmed Khan and Saroj Khan(tanha tanha) is cool!
Although the reel story is far away from the real story, Rangeela is no doubt, an all time Entertainer and will always remain as one of my favorites.
Cheers,
Senorita.