This is my rebuke to Khalid Mohammad's review of RDB. Before anyone proceeds, I would request you to read that review first. And this contains major spoilers, so anyone who hasn't seen the movie, read no further!!
First, let me start off by saying that Khalid Mohammad is my pet peeve. The die-hard Rahman fan is also a very biased Aamir Khan Movie reviewer. When Khalid used to review movies for Times of India I used to have a thumb rule that if ToI said a movie was bad, it was good and vice versa. It worked like a charm, with exceptions of course. So I was especially interested in reading his view of RDB. I didn't have to wait too long. He put across his view and I offer my take on his view. The thing that strikes you immediately is the flippant way in which the review starts. Usually Khalid reserves his mock statements and his "lets try to rhyme and pun" routine for movies that are doomed to get a 2 star rating. I personally cant stand flippant reviews, even for movies that I dont like. Reading a review that flows like this one does, for a movie I like, is really painful. But, lets move on to the first part of the review. Khalid starts off with "It takes as much guts as madness to do a Rang De Basanti an anti-Authority tract which assigns full marks to wayward youth, and a big round zero to wrinkly-crinkly ministers, politicians and armament wheeler dealers. I agree with this but the latter part of the statement is a generalisation. Sure, the ministers are given a zero, as is Anupam Kher, but the youth are definitely not given full marks. That is the whole idea of the movie. Besides Madhavan, none of the others are really given full marks. Everyone is presented with their flaws. And the ultimate fate of the group further underlines the flaw the youth has. I will get back to that in the end. He then continues with "Welcome to India where everyone is looking for excuses to kill one another. Indeed". The first flippant remark we find. While the protagonists of the movie believe that nothing is worth fighting for or dying for in the country, they definitely aren't looking for a reason to kill anyone else. The very attitude they project is live and let live... or maybe live and let die, but the attitude definitely isn't "kill them all, let God sort them out". "Thats writer-director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra badland which is so fiercely feverish that you might need a thermometer to check your fluctuating temperature". I cant even begin to fathom what he is trying to say here. I wont even try to speculate. I will just add it to the "flippant-remark-o-meter". "At times you're elated by the Mehrathon, at times you're brain boggled". Since this is purely subjective, I will leave it at that. I am sure that many people would find the movie puzzling and/ or frustrating, while others will love it. "Aah, its one of those: a quasi political diatribe which leaves you with conflicting feelings". The flippant-remark-o-meter continues to tick. Again, mixed feeling is purely subjective. I was overwhelmed by the movie and I mean that positively. It touched a cord somewhere. Just as Lagaan touched me as a pure entertainer, this one touched me, but it was something more than just an entertainer. Sure, a lot of nihilistic movies are entertaining, but something about RDB really touches since it is so entertaining and peppy and then so serious and morbid... the real lingering feeling for me was the loss of innocence. I felt sad, very sad. And at the same time it was euphoric since the movie was so entertaining and technically so brilliant. If that could qualify as mixed feelings then maybe the film does leave mixed emotions. But obviously what Khalid is talking about is the frustrating feeling you get when a movie is not as satisfying as you would like it to be and, at the same time, it isn't disappointing enough to write it off. Remember the first time you saw Dil Se..? That was pure mixed feelings for me. It took me a couple of subsequent viewings and a lot of retrospection that made me consider it a great movie. Khalid then proceeds to bring up 3 movies with similar themes. While I had only watched Inqulaab, I really dont see any similarity between it and RDB. If we are going to stick to one point, that MPs were gunned down in both the movies, it is absurd. I mean, you might as well say that RDB is similar to Angaar cos Jackie is a happy-go-lucky guy who is changed to a motivated man in that movie and it ends with Khadar Khan blowing up the entire parliament. Whereas Inqualaab, if anything, was a cry and a lament by the film maker about the state of affairs, RDB was a wakeup call to a generation. But I guess Khalid is just trying to address the common refrain made for RDB, that it is different. He is trying to say that it isn't. He then proceeds to give a rundown of the story, ensuring that we notice that Madhavan has a wig. Yes Mr. Khalid, we already noticed it. If you have seen Madhavan lately you will notice that his hair style is similar to Aamir's in RDB and no air force pilot has that kind of hair, so why the comment? It gives me the impression that he is desperately trying to draw our attention to small facts, trying to prove that they are negative. I'm sure that even if someone didn't know he had a wig on and were later made aware of it, the common refrain would be "so what?" But, a few flippant remarks later (the documentary being discarded like tissue paper) he proceeds to tear apart the finale. This is where I have a major bone to pick. Symbolism seems to be lost on this man. As far as I can tell, the documentary goes till the very end, till they show Chandrashekar Azad shooting himself. Of course, it is left to speculate if the documentary was really shot till there, or, like the prologue to the movie, this was a symbolic representation of Aamir Khan. Yes, we do wonder why nothing was ever made of the documentary in the end, but that isn't the point now is it? The documentary was a catalyst to give the "losers", as Khalid calls the boys, a reason to live for and believe in an ideal that is worth dying for. This isn't a 666 minute movie like the Lord of the Rings trilogy wherein every catalyst is accounted for. And, if we really want to get technical, we know that by definition, a catalyst itself never undergoes any change... so the documentary never undergoes any change. It just remains unfinished. He then proceeds to say that we run towards the revenge story now. Revenge? Excuse me, but which movie is Khalid watching? Is that what it is? What drove them to kill the defense minister? When Madhavan died, they didn't all get up and decide to kill anyone. It was the constant cover-up by the minister that drove them to it. Would you say that Bhagat Singh killed Saunders in revenge? No, it was symbolic. Cause and effect. Revenge wasn't the motive that Bhagat Singh had. The movie even spells it out to you, almost enacting the same scene again, but this time in the present. It wasn't revenge. It was frustration and it was the feeling that a message had to be sent. The feeling that India is better off without the defense minister. Where does the revenge come? But, even though the movie makes it so obvious, drawing parallels to the Saunders killing, Khalid sees revenge!! Ek Ek ko chun chun ke maroonga. Yeah right!! Now, a protest by Alaskan penguins. Hmmmm. Firstly, let me say that the climax of RDB is possibly its most powerful scene. Again, you could argue that no minister would order the rapid action force to gun down college students in media glare. But, but, but... that is a decision that had to be taken. Dont you understand? RDB is about waking up and being pro-active. And, the issue that it underlines as boldly as "A generation awakens" is that violence isn't the solution. It is subtle, but it is there. Ask any frustrated youth of the country what they need to do to change the country. Go ahead. Ask anyone. They will say "kill all the politicians". Well, that is what the movie says will not work. Everybody who I have discussed the movie with was left with a negative feeling that nothing would have changed even after the boys made it clear why they shot the minister. And that is what RDB is trying to convey. The argument "Shoot all the politicians" is no solution. You will lose everything (which is symbolised simply by the boys losing their lives) and nothing will change. That is why the epilogue shows a small kid planting a tree... if it isn't obvious; let me spell it out to you... that will make a change. The tree planted by the kid will make a much bigger change than the killing of the minister by the boys. That is what the movie says. So, yes, they could have shown the boys getting arrested. Then what? They are all hung? Same nihilistic ending. They are set free? Utopian ending. They are sentenced to jail? Um, ok. So the law is kept, but ultimately the symbolism is the same as them being killed. They still lose everything. So, when you face that decision, you go with what gets a stronger emotional reaction. And that would be the boys getting killed. Yes, and that is definitely not as absurd as an Alaskan penguin protest march. Besides, penguins did have a protest march in Batman Returns and it rocked!! Now, the critique on how the boys die. Lakshman and Aslam die holding hands. Well, I for one am sick of the Laila-Majnu comparison. What are you Mr. Khalid? A homophobe or something? The holding hands was a touch of class. Amitabh dying in Dharmendra's arms was a sense of class in Sholay... I am sure that was a-ok with you. The friendship that develops between the two is beautiful and their death is a perfect end for them. "The supposed hero is reduced to a security guard". Well, Mr. Khalid, besides you, no one else felt that way. Everyone was all praise for Siddharth's superlative performance and for the guts Aamir had in allowing someone else take centre stage in his movie. Had Aamir had everything to do I am sure you would be the first one to complain that he overshadows everyone and none of the others are properly fleshed out. It is a no win situation in this case. Siddharth had the most right to go and put his views across. After all, he would be the most maligned of the lot since he killed his own father. And it made perfect sense. Moreover, he was the one who was closest to Madhavan. Catch him smiling away so happily when Madhavan proposes to Soha. See the scene where Madhavan gives him a jacket simply cos of a throwaway remark that airforce pilots get to wear sexy jackets. The proximity to Madhavan and the fact that he killed his father gives Siddharth the right to be the one putting his points across. And the final shot had the two of them laughing hard as they were shot. The so-called hero of the movie wasn't playing second fiddle there now, was he? He then goes on to praise the acting and the technical aspects. Yes, he does praise Aamir's performance. But then, who in their right mind wouldn't? Still, he gives credit to all the departments, except the script. Overall, he says that no movie is perfect so watch RDB. And he gives it a 3 star rating. Let me put Khalid's ratings in perspective, so you can draw your own conclusions. He gave Sarfarosh a 2 star rating. He gave Asoka a 4 star rating. He gave Lagaan a 4 star rating. He gave Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gaum a 5 star rating. I have seen all the movies except K3g and I can assure you that my rating would have been different. I would give Sarfarosh a 3.5 star rating. I would give Lagaan a 5 star rating and I would give Asoka a 1 star rating. Overall, I feel the entire exercise of reviewing movies is a bad job for Khalid. Unless something goes drastically wrong, I can give 100% assurance that he will rate Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna a 5 star rating. Those are the movies he likes. Of course, he is fair to some movies, like Satya, which he did give 5 stars. But mostly I just think our tastes dont match!! Sorry for the rambling!! p.s: just before sending this I read Rakeysh Mehra's interview and 2 things he said really struck me. Firstly, his idea was exactly what I had interpreted, that kill 'em all isn't a solution. Secondly, at one point in the movie, when Tum Bim Bataye was going on, I told my wife that I felt Siddarth also loved Soha. I was really shocked when Mehra said that was an idea he had as well!! Please note that this was written exactly one day before I read the interview, so the views are from my head, not something I just ripped off!! p.p.s: The extended version of all 3 Lord of the Rings movies really does total up to 666 minutes!! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Explore, Experience, Enjoy A.R.Rahman - The Man, The Music, The Magic. Only at arrahmanfans.com - The definitive A.R.Rahman e-community. Homepage: http://www.arrahmanfans.com Admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arrahmanfans/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
