On Sunday, I watched the movie, Rang de Basanti in Southall, London. My first bollywood movie in UK.
It is a story of a group of friends, who representt the present generation: a generation who seem to have nothing to worry and nothing to motivate and live life for. Suddenly, a lady from Britain arrives. She’s the granddaughter of a jailor of the prison where Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries were hanged.
Till the first half, it is all about fun and jokes where people kid each other about the freedom movement and all. The real fun is the guy who is so crazy about rap music that he converts the national anthem, vande mataram and other songs to a rap.. All he says is two words from everything and then moves on to some meaningless gibberish in English.
In the second half, the story turns serious. One of the friends, a pilot in the Air Force is killed as he crash-lands his Mig 21. The defence minister instead of initiating an enquiry accuses the pilot of being reckless. This suddenly ignites the passion to fight in them all and the friends take up a protest march. When there is a lathi(police stick/baton) charge and some of the friends are hurt and the pilot’s mother is beaten badly, the friends suddenly turn into revolutionaries. They kill the defence minister and take over a radio station to convey their justifications and are ultimately killed by the security forces.
Somehow, the analogy in the movie did not seem to be right. The revolution that started after the lathi charging and firing in Jallianwala bagh is definitely not comparable to the lathi-charge against the protesters in the present. And the sudden change from being reckless youths to passionate revolutionaries is sort of abrupt. The sudden decision to kill the defence minister and then killing one of the defence related bureaucrat who happens to a hero’s father is quite a overkill. (No pun intended!)
The cynicism that is prevalent in India, where the attitude is “Chalta hai” has been captured very nicely. The lack of any motivation for the Gen X/Y/Z (whatever we are called now) is also portrayed nicely. Yet, to say that killing is the correct means to achieve a goal seemed to be wrong. I guess the real moral of the story was somehow lost in the revolutionary zeal.
The director, I guess wanted to say what the pilot (played by Madhavan) says. This is repeated by Siddharth in the radio station too. The message is: “Stop complaining. If you want things to happen, you must be the initiator.” He says, if you want to change something, why don’t you become a defenceman, an IAS officer who can administer and weed out corruption, a minister who can reinvigorate a sense of serving? Instead, we all sit in Café’s sipping Hot Chocolate (or whatever) watching NDTV and then saying, India is going to the dogs! I guess the only way to improve our country is to first improve ourselves, our thinking.. I guess, Kennedy’s saying still holds, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”.
The movie has made scathing attacks against the power hungry politicians yet, leaves away the bureaucrats with a bare scratch. After these are the guys who run the country. Policitans come and politicians fade away. What remains is the endless, tireless machinery of the babus. Against the strength of this babudom even the politicians may see themselves helpless. This was happened time and again when the whole IAS cadre raised against any move to classify them as public servants. The reason is, if they become public servants, then, they will have to serve the people, not harass, exploit and rule them. This strange phenomenon of a stone walling bureaucracy is very well brought out in the book, “India in slow motion” by Mark Tully.
Guess I was digressing a bit. Despite all the problems portrayed in the movie, I guess the youth in India are still much better off. At least there is a peer pressure and family expectation to study hard and be someone in life. In the west, even such a motivation does not exist and without the parents support, their life gets truly directionless.
Anyway, the movie on the whole was really well-made and the cinematography was class apart! The sepia colored flash-backs and the beautiful yellow sun-flowers in the end symbolizing sacrifice was a real nice touch. Three things just stood out in terms of picturization: The friends running towards a Mig 21 taking off with waving the shirts above their heads: Amir Khan breaking down after the pilot’ death and Amir’s absolutely surprise when he realizes the Brisher knows Hindi. “Yeh kudi to Hindi samjthi hai yaar!” Too good.
It is a story of a group of friends, who representt the present generation: a generation who seem to have nothing to worry and nothing to motivate and live life for. Suddenly, a lady from Britain arrives. She’s the granddaughter of a jailor of the prison where Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries were hanged.
Till the first half, it is all about fun and jokes where people kid each other about the freedom movement and all. The real fun is the guy who is so crazy about rap music that he converts the national anthem, vande mataram and other songs to a rap.. All he says is two words from everything and then moves on to some meaningless gibberish in English.
In the second half, the story turns serious. One of the friends, a pilot in the Air Force is killed as he crash-lands his Mig 21. The defence minister instead of initiating an enquiry accuses the pilot of being reckless. This suddenly ignites the passion to fight in them all and the friends take up a protest march. When there is a lathi(police stick/baton) charge and some of the friends are hurt and the pilot’s mother is beaten badly, the friends suddenly turn into revolutionaries. They kill the defence minister and take over a radio station to convey their justifications and are ultimately killed by the security forces.
Somehow, the analogy in the movie did not seem to be right. The revolution that started after the lathi charging and firing in Jallianwala bagh is definitely not comparable to the lathi-charge against the protesters in the present. And the sudden change from being reckless youths to passionate revolutionaries is sort of abrupt. The sudden decision to kill the defence minister and then killing one of the defence related bureaucrat who happens to a hero’s father is quite a overkill. (No pun intended!)
The cynicism that is prevalent in India, where the attitude is “Chalta hai” has been captured very nicely. The lack of any motivation for the Gen X/Y/Z (whatever we are called now) is also portrayed nicely. Yet, to say that killing is the correct means to achieve a goal seemed to be wrong. I guess the real moral of the story was somehow lost in the revolutionary zeal.
The director, I guess wanted to say what the pilot (played by Madhavan) says. This is repeated by Siddharth in the radio station too. The message is: “Stop complaining. If you want things to happen, you must be the initiator.” He says, if you want to change something, why don’t you become a defenceman, an IAS officer who can administer and weed out corruption, a minister who can reinvigorate a sense of serving? Instead, we all sit in Café’s sipping Hot Chocolate (or whatever) watching NDTV and then saying, India is going to the dogs! I guess the only way to improve our country is to first improve ourselves, our thinking.. I guess, Kennedy’s saying still holds, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”.
The movie has made scathing attacks against the power hungry politicians yet, leaves away the bureaucrats with a bare scratch. After these are the guys who run the country. Policitans come and politicians fade away. What remains is the endless, tireless machinery of the babus. Against the strength of this babudom even the politicians may see themselves helpless. This was happened time and again when the whole IAS cadre raised against any move to classify them as public servants. The reason is, if they become public servants, then, they will have to serve the people, not harass, exploit and rule them. This strange phenomenon of a stone walling bureaucracy is very well brought out in the book, “India in slow motion” by Mark Tully.
Guess I was digressing a bit. Despite all the problems portrayed in the movie, I guess the youth in India are still much better off. At least there is a peer pressure and family expectation to study hard and be someone in life. In the west, even such a motivation does not exist and without the parents support, their life gets truly directionless.
Anyway, the movie on the whole was really well-made and the cinematography was class apart! The sepia colored flash-backs and the beautiful yellow sun-flowers in the end symbolizing sacrifice was a real nice touch. Three things just stood out in terms of picturization: The friends running towards a Mig 21 taking off with waving the shirts above their heads: Amir Khan breaking down after the pilot’ death and Amir’s absolutely surprise when he realizes the Brisher knows Hindi. “Yeh kudi to Hindi samjthi hai yaar!” Too good.
1 comment:
This is a good review. I totally agree.
Also, thank you for linking me...twice over.
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