Mangal pandey starts with a bang, the ’’mangala’’ song and music at full volume enough to wake any sleepy viewer in the movie hall.
mangal pandey is a film set in the 1850s when india was going through its worst phase in history - no law and order, ill practices and religious discrimination and worst of all - the british raj. I shall not elaborate about the story here but mangal is basically the story of a english army soldier who realizes that he loves his country too much to let anyone else rule it.
the film gets off to a great start, the music is good though not excellent and acting is beyond expectations both in case of aamir khan and toby stevens, the english captain who is a friend of mangal pandey. it is a story of friend, love, misunderstanding and betrayal portrayed so well that you actually almost get involved in the whole melodrama. almost..
the film lacks depth, the film lacks intensity and the film lacks a good female acting contribution. both rani and amisha have nothing of significance to do, and the scenes between aamir and rani are very short in duration and the music is not very captivating either - inspite of being an A R Rahman score !
all said and done mangal pandey is worth watching once, but then you cannot call it an excellent film nor does it justify aamir’s disappearance for such a long time from the movie circuit. when you have been gone for such a long time, the viewers expect a masterpiece not some lukewarm film about revolts and the british raj. a lot of things could have made this film a blockbuster but alas..
the best scenes in the film are when aamir finds out that his friend gordon lied to him and the scene when aamir is hanged at climax time. the dialogues are pretty good and the background score is also very good.
in all, mangal pandey is a good film. but it is not a movie which can cause a storm, or a movie that can be remembered as a masterpiece in the world of cinema. had aamit not taken so long to make the movie and had the hype been a lot lesser then I would say this is a very good movie. but expectations were too high and delivery was just lukewarm. this is where the penny drops!