Rang De Basanti - A different review!!

A Great hindi movie after a long time. You can read the thousands of reviews available for this one and know why exactly it is what it is. I just want to post here some of the comments made by my friends.

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By Santosh Balakrishnan -> a methodical & critical review of this much acclaimed movie!

I do like hindi movies .. infact i love some of them, the only reason why i'm so critical about them is because they do not reflect our sensibilities (the situation on the ground .. so to speak) I mean tell me how many people can relate to (relate not ape) any of SRK's movies ? (set aside swades, paheli etc.) or for that matter most of today's movies ? On the other hand look at BigB's old movies; they were a reflection of the era they were made in. Sure you can argue that Kuch Kuch hota hai was a movie which reflected the aspirations of the neo-liberalized tweens in India - but it just doesn't cut it. This is precisely why i watch Amir Khan's movies, they are realistic and have minimal amount of crap. Everybody could relate to the tapori in rangeela, the police office in Sarfarosh etc. Rang De Basanti also features an amazing performance by Amir Khan, Siddharth et al. besides great music score and totally believable characters.

My cribs about the movie are as follows (CAUTION: ** minor spoilers ahead **)
1. The camera is never steady throughout a scene, it seems as though the cameraman had a severe bout of dysentery while shooting this film, perhaps he wanted the film to look contemporary and vibrant, i think he failed pathetically. The camera work is worse than gimmicky .. its distracting. Did also notice the various hues in which the movie is shot ? (Sepia for the history parts, B&W for the scenes shot by sue and saturated color for all other scenes) The movie looks more like an ad-campaign for the youth and less like a .. well movie ;) (Also did you guys notice the pixilated/brushed backgrounds in some scenes ... for what reason ? )

2. I think the parts featuring Sue's Grandpa were a bit overly stretched .. i mean i do understand his dilemma but that scene in the church nearly made me puke .. it was way over the top .. those parts could just have been edited out.

3. How did sue shoot such an incredible documentary, with authentic settings, clothing and so many extras, when we all know that she had no financial backing and was armed with nothing more than an elementary hand-held camera ? I would love to listen to your explanations of this bizarre occurrence ;) (this is just nit-picking .. i'm sure .. but there needs to be a rational explanation !)

4. Most importantly i think the message it conveys is frighteningly shallow (i mean not about shooting the defense minister, but about the ways in which you can do something for the nation). It seems that hardly any thought has gone into making this movie. It is undoubtedly an admirable cause but the handling of it leaves me disappointed, it seems to be made for a generation which will watch it in multiplexes on sunday and go back to work in MNCs on Monday and talk about the movie at the coffee machines and will promptly forget it on tuesday. Also please understand that i do not want every movie to a message etc. but then when an attempt is indeed made to convey a message, it should be plausible and thought-out. If the message about youth doing something for the nation stirred you i suggest you rent the CD for a movie called "Hazaaron Khwaishe Aise" (not sure how its spelt in english .. hindi translation of thousand such dreams ;)) that in my humble opinion is a much educated take on a similar subject .. one of my favorite movies too ..


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By Raghavendra Gandewar

About Sue's movie dream

I do agree... director did not really explain how She could manage that movie with no budgets.. But some how I felt.. Maybe it was just in her dream.. maybe she did not really shoot the movie and she was just visualizing it.. And.. after that drama.. what happened to the movie was unexplained!! So, I think, director brought in the whole part of movie shooting in order to just bring in the context...

I don't remember exactly.. but I don't think any indications were given to say that the movie was actually shot completely by her!!...


About Message

I thought the message was not very clear!... maybe this is the message the director was trying to convey:

"One needs to take SOME initiatives in order to achieve something...Everybody talks about the solutions.. but nobody implements them.. rather nobody has any interests in solving the problem for public/country and one is always interested to solving it for him/her own sake"...


Irrational thoughts

1. Don't think defence minister in India will take that Deadly walk every morning alone!!! 2. Don't think defence minister can be killed so easily 3. Killing a politician cannot solve the corruption problem.

What I liked

1. Chemistry between all of them
2. Way each character was clearly defined
3. Meaningful songs
4. Motivating music
5. Acting

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By Sandeep Shinde -> myself, in response to Santosh's comments

I completely agree with you about the era movies, I too have stopped Yash Raj/SRK movies long back. Movies like Veer-Zaara do not at all excite me any more. But I know such movies will keep coming specially due to their success rate. India mei aisa nahi hai ki there are no talented people or talented actors available, the major problem I think is that there is no need to make use of this talent. You can easily make a peppy movie (like bunty&bubly or Neal&Nikki or even salaam namaste) without much of an effort put into it (except the music...where I think the talent of Music directors is used to a good extent, obviously except the ones like anu malik and himesh rash....).

Watch "Saher" (if you haven't already), too good of a movie. I know u'll like it a lot. I have been searching for Hazaaron K.A. in all the music stores in delhi, but kahi nahi mil rahi hai.

And not about the RDB comments of yours...
I was about to write a review for it on my blog and I seriously agree with most of the points put in by you.

1. yes the camera work is pathetic at places, majorly I found it very bad during songs...with rapid camera movements in front of street lights, he was trying to create some light effect (this was happening in every song) which I didn't understand till the end. Also when he showed bike and jeep riding, camera movements were so fast, I thought I have some problem with my eyes
:-)
But I liked the color difference between shot scenes, past scenes and current scenes...a very different technique, it had good effect on me at least!!

2. yes about sue's grandpaa, those parts were looking odd in the movie..

3. I had the exact same question as soon as they showed shooting of first scene (the train scene!!), I just asked my friend sitting next to me, how did she manage to bring such a old train compartment!!! I really do not understand why the director hasn't given any thought to explain this!!

4. The message is given to youth, but it is definitely too much stretched with defence minister killing and the final scene too ( I don't want it to reveal to aniket). But I guess for a movie to work in india, something crazy HAS to happen at the end...then only people have a great impact of the movie on their minds. (it used to happened with BigB movies too...sholey, mukkadar kaa sinkandar). I personally didn't appreciate it at all.

Now my points for the movie:
Pros:
1. First half is amazingly humorous, the actors are suited to their characters. I Liked Atul kulkarni, but he was given very few dialogues... The scene where he reads "sarafaroshi ki tamanna hamare dil mei hai" fully with so much of emotion....ohhhh amazing. That was the scene of the movie for me.
2. The past history is mapped to the present scenario in India, and it is handled in a very good way.
3. Three cheers to music, songs and specially background scores. The songs are also in background, you don't release when they come and go. Very different lyrics too. AR Raheman is gr8.
4. Amir khan is amir khan again, and that has made a huge impact on performances others too.
5. Generally I try to predict where the story is going and try to think from directors mind. But I was not able to even think whats gonna happen.

Cons:
1. Soha ali khan was not at all fitting in the group, somebody other would have been much better.
2. To much drama in the end.
3. and your points which I agreed....
4. director's message is definitely not going to reach to the audiences, you are exactly right when you say that it'll be forgotten on Tuesday...

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And I'm sure this is not yet over :-)