RDB - Disastrous movie, well made. Review on Rang De Basanti

Ok the good thing first ...... Aamir, his expression when he bursts crying while he his gulping down a morsel with Sue on the table - thats a priceless expression. Absolutely brilliant & worth every bit of praise that can be accorded.

The rest of the 3 hours, best described, a disastrous movie, made well. The reasons for that comment: endless.

The RDB is a clear representation of a directors mind in confusion. He does not seem clear what message, central or otherwise, he wants to communicate. If it is an attempt to en-liven history & the valiant contributions that our freedom fighters have made, to gen-now, then unfortunately he fails miserably. Not withstanding the slew of recent productions pretty much with the same intention, he does not complete the story he wants to tell.

Sue comes from UK to make a documentary; auditions happen but does the documentary get made ? The closest references towards that are present day faces being morphed onto the ones from the yesteryears - often shown as thoughts in Sue's mind while she reads her grand-pa's diary. No shooting seems to be taking place - no sets, no equipment, no money ....... no nothing, so I dont really know what happened to that project (besides morphed faces).

Now it is possible that some of us think that the real idea was not making the documentary - ok, thats fair. But hold it, I then need to know what the real idea was ? It certainly could not have been to highlight corruption (I mean why would you want a screw a good initial plot like on which the movie began to again come back to talk of modern day politicians & their making ways ???)

Give the benefit of doubt - perhaps corruption it is that the director wanted to talk about; but then, you are talking about a sensitive matter of defence deals, ur getting even more specific talking about the MIG disasters; and you have also represented the reason for that being 'faulty, outdated' spare parts that have been bought by the Indians .......... now, as a layman, I do want to know, sensitive as I am to those accidents that keep happening with an alarming frequency : Is it the spare parts that we have bought that are the REAL reason for these disasters ???

Do we have evidence to say that these bought purchased under dubious circumstances & that these were 'bad spares' that have been bought ?

Its one thing to allege that our politicians are corrupt; there are no surprises in that: however when you are specifically speaking about instances of corrution - as significant as the one represented, do we not owe to the audiances an assurance of the authenticity of the story that is being told to them ? No wonder the IAF had objected to the way the MIG's had been presented .......'as flying coffins' in this movie....!

Issue 3. Again persisting with the above thought that actually exposing corruption was the main objective of the movie .......... what has the story teller told the audiances about the ways in which this 'awakened' generation can make good this irredeemable situation ? My view, rather 'imaginatively' by telling them that since the system does not respond to our concerns, you take the law in your own hand & go kill the guys responsible. Now this is PREPOSTEROUS. You show the course of action that they are taken after being 'awakened' & then you save face by mentioning in the end that ..............ooops I am sorry for killing him, you guys should nit follow suite & should instead join the IPS, the IAS, politics etc etc. etc.

This is mindless story telling ......... one which glorifies are pathetic recourse & then tenders in a faint apology of what has been glorified. Even worse is that during these closing scenes, again we see morphed images of our freedom fighters with these 'awakened' kids of today who have committed a dastardly act. Think that is ground enough, equalising the acts of both of these very different set of people, on the same plain. There is a disastrously simplistic analogy drawn showing the deeds of these two very differnt sets of people.

But then if even exposing corruption was not to be the central thought, then I am even further confused as to what the story was ....... ! I guess a little bit of all of the above: awakended sense of nationalism, an expose on corruption (and a very specific issue on that - which I dont even know, the facts of which have been validated in the first place) & a way of dealing with it.

On specific performances, Aamir is fairly average bordering on being irritating. He makes a fool of himself trying to speak 'Punjabi' which is disasterous; especially to thos who know the language. If his speaking that was so important to his character, we surely could have been tutored slightly better.

In close-ups, his face look 'old', haggered & all puffed up & his hairstyle is actually fairly silly looking. Simply put, he disappoints me. He should play more characters which he can pull off without making a fool of himself (eg. Dil Chahta Hai - where his look n feel matched the character he was trying to play, or even Mangal Pandey, where never mind the movie, he looked good).

Soha was a revelation. Simple, non - squeaky & fitting very well with the character. Just the right amount of expression, not going over the top at all. Way to go Soha !

The other guy whose name I dont know (plays the muslim friend) is also quite charming looking & acts just according to the role - does a good job.

All the others are ok & dont merit any special mention.

Would I recommend anyone watching that movie ? Simple answer, NO.

NO because the directer does not know what he wants to tell, and whatever he tells, both the message & the manner of telling is absolutely DISASTEROUS. Yes on the technical aspects, and ONLY ON THE TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF MOVIE MAKING, the movie has been made well.