rang de basanti

Rang de basanti
Saw a wonderful Hindi movie, at imaginasian, after a long time in NY. We tried seeing it on Saturday night, but it was houseful at 7 pm, and people were queuing up to buy tickets for the 9 pm show. We bought tickets in the am for a 7 pm show on Sunday, when we got in at 7 it was houseful and we had to sit on the third row.
A few minutes after we sat down in the center of the third row, we had a nice Indian gentleman ask us if we could move. My friend looked at him straight in the face and said we sat here for a reason, we can’t move!!
I had no idea, what the movie was about so I came in with no expectations. It was a beautifully made film, set in Delhi and Punjab.
It had an interesting, unexpected story line, and a nice juxtaposition of the past and the present. The dialogue was catchy, with a lot of Punjabi slang like chuck de Pathe, thrown in.

Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra merges two plots in Rang De Basanti. The first is about a group of friends, their bonding, the carefree lifestyle they lead. The second plot deals about the past, when freedom fighters sacrificed their lives during the pre-independence era. The director draws comparisons between British rule and present day India ruled by corrupt politician.
The transition of the five friends from meaningless to meaningful existence is done very well. The director shows sepia images of Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad and Ashfak, with images of the current day revolutionaries, and then at the end of the movie both those different narratives became interchangeable.
Sue (Alice Patten), a young, London-based film-maker, who comes to India to make a movie on the revolutionaries is very good . Its nice to see a foreigner not portrayed as a stereotypical caricature.
The five friends are all wonderful, they are DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan (Siddharth), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), Sukhi (Sharman Joshi), Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) and Laxman (Atul Kulkarni).
A.R. Rahman’s music is ordinary. Cinematography (Binod Pradhan) is outstanding. The lensman captures the essence of Delhi beautifully.
Amir Khan holds the movie together, by getting into the skin of the character.

Comments

Anonymous said…
WASSUPPP

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