Rang De Basanti...All or Nothing!

Saw the movie a couple of weeks back, had to find out if it lived up to its hype, and honestly, I wasn't too disappointed. Opinions however have been very polarized for this movie; people have either loved it or just hated it, haven't met too many people who have an opinion in the "in between". I for one, am the "in between" guy! I loved the concept of the film and what it tried to drive home, however I seriously feel the implementation could have been better.

The fim maker seems to have spent a lot of time in the first half, rather 3/4th of the film just delving too deep into the lives of the characters, which left him very less time for the important part of the film, which actually formed its crux. As a result, scenes like the lathi charge incident by the Rapid Action Force at India Gate didn't seem appropriate, especially when the protest was a silent one, that too in the capital. Additionally Madhavan never figured in the bunch of the main characters, I feel he needed to have more coverage. Somehow, all of a sudden the movie seemed to detach itself from being realistic, just because there wasn't enough time to drive home the point the fim maker was trying to make.

Hindi films can either be a bollywood flick, or a realistic, well-made film (Black, Mangal Pandey etc.), however when a film falls in the grey zone, it leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately, Rang De Basanti fell in that zone. Although the concept, along with some scenes in the film were very moving and provocative, I wish the implementation could have been thorough.

My favorite scene in the film is when Aamir Khan comes back home with the English Girl and just as they are starting to eat he breaks down; now that is great acting! That scene definitely shows why Aamir today is a cut above the rest!

Lastly, I think I get what the fim maker wants to show us. He is very successful in showing how an English girl, an outsider who really needn't take so much interest, could not only see where our people were going wrong, but also show that to us. He successfully portrays how we are so used to things like corruption and the everyday filth, that these things are just mundane and we don't notice them anymore. In fact, they are so mundane that its just tea-room chat and nothing else for most people. If we want to make a difference, it cannot be done by sheer criticism, or even abuse of democracy for that matter. We definitely need more goal-oriented young minds in our political system who aren't in it for the money.

I sincerely hope we have more thought provoking films like this, we defintely need them! And of course, for the people who didn't like the film, there will always be another one :) for the time being you can just take back the fim maker's thoughts and see what you can make of them!