Movie Reviews
Shubhra Gupta
New Delhi, January 28: Rang de Basanti
Cast: Aamir Khan, Atul Kulkarni, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, Sidhharth, Soha
Ali Khan, Alice Patten, R Madhavan, Om Puri, Waheeda Rehman, Anupam Kher,
Kirron Kher
Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Five young men, affiliated loosely to the University of Delhi, drifting along
the standard college trip, no class, only canteen, in search of self— Rakeysh
Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti is a beautifully shot rites-of-passage film
which talks to you. And that’s the film’s biggest strength.
It could have spoken much more effectively, if the director hadn’t messed up in
the climax. A British documentary filmmaker arrives in New Delhi, in search of
her chosen characters from the Indian freedom movement, and meets up with the
group, the five guys and their gal pal. The latter’s dashing pilot fiance dies
in a crash, trying to steer a faulty MIG to safety.
The tragedy galvanizes the reckless five into drastic action. So far, pretty
good. And then the script has the friends kill India’s defence minister, and
from there on, Rang De... spirals out of control. Shooting corrupt politicians
dead, as a last recourse to justice, may be smart populist strategy, guaranteed
to get the taalis. But this implausible strand nearly kills the movie, making
it less than it could have been.
Why, when you have such a wonderfully real story and characters, hammer in a
misguided message?
Permanent undergraduate DJ (Aamir) is scared to step out in the real world.
Poor little rich kid Karan (Siddharth) is headed for an MBA stamp from the US
just as soon he acquires a degree. Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) lives in fear that he
will die a virgin. Aslam (Kunal) a poor Muslim shayar is constantly being
sledged, both by his family for mixing with the ‘‘other’’, and by the fifth of
the group, Lakshman (Atul), who carries out the paashchaatya sabhyata ke
vipreet Hindutva aandolan, at the behest of his saffron-dhaari leader. The
romantic twosome of Sonia (Soha) and Flt Lt Ajay Rathod, act as the idealistic
fulcrum— all these are people we have known, or could run into.
The cynicism that the five friends exhibit is also something young people
identify with. When Karan says, is desh ka kuch nahin ho sakta. Aisa hi hota
raha hai, aisa hi hoga, there is a ripple of recognition in the packed theatre.
And when another says saare politicians ko line mein khada kar ke goli maar
deni chaahiye, or words to that effect, there is, dangerously, an approving
roar. Mehra and his scriptwriter have found the pulse of much of the metro
youth across much of India, in the way they make their characters speak and
act.
Where the movie gets all heavy is in the re-creation of the past, and where it
goes from there. The parallels filmmaker Sue (Alice) draws between the lives of
Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaq, Durga Bhabhi and
the rest of the krantikaaris, start off nicely by offsetting today’s
self-absorbed I-me-mine generation against the selfless sacrifices of those
long-ago young men, who died for their country. This kind of lush pop
patriotism goes down better with the target audience than the starker sort
shown in, say, Lakshya, also a coming-of-age film. But the constant long
intercuts between then and now become too pat. And, the end, with machine guns
rattling and the gang perishing gorily (can’t bump off people and live to tell
the tale, can we?), the action caught live on television, is embarrassingly
juvenile. This is Mehra’s second film after Aks, which died at the box office.
This time he has carefully assembled some of Bollywood’s best and
brightest, to get some things just right. The
doomed-rebels-who-finally-find-a-cause are well-etched. Aamir’s delightful
Daljit aka DJ, the life and soul of the group, flubs his Punjabi accent only
once in a while. We seem to be getting used to Brits talking in tongues— Alice
Patten’s Hindi is not bad at all. The line-up of some new and almost-new bright
sparks like Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor and Sidhharth works just fine, as does
the support of the veterans.
There is also a dazzling array of talent behind the camera. Kamlesh Pandey’s
story is strongly contemporary, Binod Pradhan’s camerawork is outstanding,
Prasoon Joshi’s lines and lyrics are funny and pithy, and A R Rahman ’s
soundtrack rocks the party.
Despite its problems, Rang De Basanti, resonates. But did Mehra have to
substitute the India Habitat Centre for Delhi University? Coming from a DU man,
that’s sacrilege.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=167430
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