Rang De Basanti

Tanmoy has written this review to me in an e-mail. Earlier he used to write film reviews for some newspaper, which name I never asked.
With his permission I am putting it here as a post.

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I liked the intent with which the film Rang-De Basanti was made but somehow the execution left me searching for more. May be it was my mistake of expectations. I should have watched the movie after the hype had died down completely- I normally do that for such movies. But whatever might be the reasons my expectations were not fulfilled after watching the film- and I couldn’t find too many reasons why so many people are finding it awe-inspiring or motivating.

Though I must say at the outset of writing my views on the film- anything that motivates today’s spineless youth is a welcome thing and if there the movie is actually scoring in that respect- then I congratulate the entire team who made the film possible. I certainly do feel, that most of the urban youth today are escapists. We might be brilliant in our skills and forward looking in thoughts but when it comes to standing up and doing something for our homes- that is in words: ‘getting the basics right’- we fail consistently and miserably. The Jessica Lall incident might be under lot of limelight but everyday lot of Jessica Lall’s are happening in the country- unnoticed, un called for- and trust me it is high-time we feel that we are the ones who are responsible because unless and until we feel that way from within we can’t hope to cure the system or hope that the system would be cured. And there are no dearths of issues where we can make the difference. From delivering the best service to our client, to minimizing corruption at our desk, to talking nicely to the people on the road, to helping our families to be strong- we need to move beyond our gymnasiums and flex some real muscles if at all they exist in things like conscience to make the real difference in our very small society. And that is how we would justify ourselves being human- and in the process we would have an enlightened country with humane countrymen.

The film does prick us in that sphere. In fact, the shifting of periods and drawing parallels between the Freedom movement and today was a masterstroke. It is so true that inspite of being in a sovereign set up we are worse than an enslaved nation. In fact at least, earlier we could have blamed the outsiders- the British being the cause of ours misery but now we have only ourselves to blame- our fathers, uncles, brothers who occupy the positions of power to blame- we have spoilt our own home and we are doing nothing about it- just waiting for some magic to happen or even worse even we don’t want to realize we are the ones who are killing our own society.

Therefore, I loved the way; the film draws parallel between the two societies and in a way, it is probably the greatest asset for me in the film. I liked the way the millennium youth got transformed into revolutionaries after someone who was near to them got affected. It appeared so true- unless and until we see a Jessica happening in our families or we are under threat ourselves, we are motionless spectators! It is true- we have forgotten that it is we who need to prevent certain things from happening too.

I thought the path that the youth followed to get justice from the system might be called as militancy by many but was realistic. True- the first thought that comes to our minds when we face a system failure is to “teach the system- a lesson or two”. It is a spontaneous reaction- and especially the reaction becomes stronger when we see, nobody comes to us for help- because we didn’t help him or her when he or she needed it!

I loved the idea of the film- but then it stretched too long and probably the team got a bit carried away to get the message forward. Still it was good and can be called a successful blend of entertainment, social message and period. The director took a risk of trying to blend too many things and can be called moderately successful in this.

I was a bit disappointed in fact with Amir Khan’s character. I understand he is probably the best man to play this role and that is why he was needed in the film but somehow I found his pranks as a young Man too irritating and repetitive. Somehow the character played by Sharman Joshi of that of Sukhi was similar to that of Amir’s and he appealed to me much more than anyone else in the film. All the character artistes were good but from Amir I expected a bit more. He gave an amazing performance as Azad but somewhere down the line his character should have been a bit different than all others around him- given the fact that he is The Amir Khan.

To me as an audience Amir turned out to be both the prospective strength (Azad was the thinking and shrewd mind but somewhere Amir’s DJ appeared inane) as well as weakness in this particular film.

And of course the ending should have been better etched. The film could have shortened the fun portions and have had a little detailed script towards completion or may be as such the film should have been shorter- much shorter. The lengthy taxi ride of Alice Patten should have been short and perhaps she should have shot a Video of what her young friends wanted to say or talk about and sold it off to International Media. I somehow felt that that could have been done rather than the whole fiasco at the AIR station.

Overall, I didn’t love it as a complete film that much and can’t call it landmark but yes it is indeed a good attempt.

I liked Swades too, infact it looked a bit realistic to me but then Swades lacked the entertainment Punch and problem is today’s youth loves to get motivated while they are still dancing!

It somehow saddens me that even serious messages have to go across wrapped in glossy paper- but then who said our minds are fat free and we are not living in a regime where everything needs to be marketed- Even motivation!

10 out of 10 for the entire Rang-De-Team for that. They couldn’t have done better probably- given the audience they have to cater to