Rang de Basanti
Concept:
There must be no Indian who must not have felt sometime or the other that the only way to clean Indian politics is to clean the politicians first. And surely some of us may also have felt that the surest way to do this is to terminate a few of those corrupt b@#%*rds. Now Rang de Basanti explores that angst, that frustration in the modern youth. Youth, who are cornered from all sides by stinking politics, would not shrink to take the gun in extenuating circumstances. But then there are also repercussions to face…
What the movie is about:
Sue McKinley (Alice Patton), an American film producer, wishes to make a film on Bhagat Singh based on the version of Mr. McKinley, her grandfather, who apparently was the jailor who led Bhagat Singh to the gallows. But Sue is refused in America, as there ‘only Gandhi sells’. Off Sue comes to India (Delhi, to be precise), where she’s already contacted Sonia (Soha Ali Khan Pataudi) for the shooting. Auditions follow and fail. Days pass and an extremely disappointed Sue stumbles upon DJ (Aamir Khan) and his gang comprising of Sukhi (Sharman Joshi), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor) and Karan (Siddharth). Sue cajoles them into playing Chandrashekhar Azad and company; later Laxman Pandey (Atul Kulkarni) – an extremist – joins in as Ramprasad Bismil.
Everything is a merry-go-round with the dud actors trying to play complex historical parts, when slowly a journey of patriotic revelation begins. Then Sonia’s husband, played by Madhavan dies in an MIG air crash. He was the pilot and the defense minister (Mohan Agashe) blames him on national television to be incompetent. The real cause is the purchase of bogus Russian parts.
This incites the flame in the mind of DJ and friends, and they fight this bureaucratic red tape as a modern day Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdeo and Bismil.
Pros:
Rang de Basanti is a movie that is bigger than any actor or technician involved in it. It is bigger than Aamir, bigger than Atul, bigger than even Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. Talking about the actors in the movie is a trivial exercise – the product is much, much superior than those who made it. In retrospect, this is the greatest compliment to those who made the movie.
The most important pro of the movie is its characterization. The youth are easily identified from one of us. Check this out. Every college has the following characters; and they are the protagonists in Rang de Basanti:-
(i) DJ, the ‘cool dude’, the bike expert, the girl charmer – but who knows that his life beyond the university is a zero. So he does not want to get out of it.
(ii) Aslam, the sensible fellow in the group. The one who stops his friends from doing something wrong, but they never listen to him.
(iii) Sukhi, the person who values his friends above his own intellect. Will do anything blindly for friends.
(iv) Karan, the rich guy. He’s got it all. Comes to college only to freak out with friends and escape home.
(v) Laxman, the wannabe politician. Does menial hooliganisms in college hoping the political bigwigs would appreciate him.
Haven’t we all seen these people? This is the major scoring point of the movie. The characters are one of us and we are the characters.
The dialogues are another big plus. But I won’t mention them here as someone has already put them in their review.
Atul Kulkarni’s rendition of ‘Sarforishi ki tamanna…’ Better than the album version. Got a respectful applause at the movie hall.
But the best part is the montage scenes of the revolutionaries. I felt the few Bhagat Singh scenes were much better than the entire movies done on them a few years back.
The movie has a few mind-blowing sequences. But the one that stands apart is when the friends give a standing salute to the Amar Jawan Smarak atop a moving jeep. Awesome!
Cons:
The movie has absolutely no jarring points in the first half. But in the second half, it becomes too fantastic. The transformation of the friends from ‘dudes’ to ‘revolutionaries’ is not justified. However, this may be a ploy by Mehra to keep the flow of the movie. The decision to kill the defense minister seemed to be too far-fetched, going by the characterization of the movie.
Verdict:
Rang de Basanti turns out to be one of those new breed of patriotic movies like Swades. While Swades delved on the Indian youth in America, Rang de Basanti delves on Indian youth within India.
Don’t watch this movie if you wish to remain in your comfy realm of false security. Do watch this movie if you have an ounce of responsibility towards your country.
Personal:
The movie has jerked me in more ways than one. The main question in my mind is whether killing a corrupt politician is a solution to the problem our politics faces? In fact, were Bhagat Singh and company right in killing Saunders? Does killing politicians - however worthy of being killed they may be - serve any purpose, when they are protected by such a large infrastructure?
Friends, I want you to post your comments on this question of mine. It will be interesting to know whether this thought - and the movie itself - works at a conceptual level.