Lack Of Historical Depth & Width. Review on Mangal Pandey - The Rising

The “Rising” didn’t soar like the eagle we had expected it to. Instead it crash-landed with a loud thud right in front of our eyes. One felt a little lost, a little bemused, a little sad at the outcome of a long awaited film. One more creative had fallen prey to a clueless, inept screenplay and will perhaps march forward only with the able support of the marketing juggernaut that today churns the film industry’s destiny. At the end of it all, one hoped that a lot more attention had been paid to the basic story structure.

The film suffered from a lack of historical depth and width in characters, plots, a rich canvas and more importantly the lack of history about the main protagonist. In the end it scored well for the sentiments that were echoed but did very poorly as a film. A below average effort it should have been half the time it actually was. At least then we would have witnessed a crisper and a tighter narration.

The fact that not much is known about Mangal Pandey seems to have been a major impediment. Overcoming this meant scripting fictional set ups to bring alive the supposed legend. The result was a collage like execution, which made use of certain stock characters and settings. Continuity in scenes and incidents portrayed could have given the creative some semblance of a story. Instead scenes never dovetailed into each other and the viewer was left to understand what could have possibly transpired. The story also revolved solely around the main protagonist. A strong supporting cast would have lent solidity. Toby Stephen's character did balance it out to a certain degree. But it was asking for a lot out of him. It takes more than one character to make a historical.

And to add to everything the film gasped for breath due to the ridiculous attempts to interject songs which had no reason for existence, into the script. It’s times like these that force you to question the mental and intellectual faculties of our screenwriters, question their professional ability for the craft they supposedly use to earn a living, question the directors involvement in these projects. If the audience can see the black holes, why can’t they? What forces govern their state and being? Asoka was another film that saw the same fate. The only difference was, it had a large and ready canvas that the director could have utilized to good effect. But that never happened. Instead Asoka was shown romancing and running around trees!

Instead of the half a dozen songs, supposing some of the time had been utilized to focus on the aftermath of what Mangal Pandey ignited - the first war of independence and its eventual end after a year. That would have given the film’s subject a fitting ending. If our directors desire to make historicals, then they should do justice to the subjects and not make an excuse and a mockery of everything. That's why Asoka suffered, that's why LOC suffered. All of them had generous amounts of popcorn culture infused into them. But who will educate our directors and more importantly are they willing to listen? I would think no. Good sensible cinema in this country cannot thrive and is devoid of any future.