Fantabulous. Review on Rang De Basanti

I couldnt think of any other word to describe this movie.Frankly I am not an Aamir Khan fan..all this talk about him being a perfectionist and all..God..i mean.Mangal Pandey..what was so perfect about that.But now my faith in his histrionics has been reaffirmed.Rang De Basanti is one of the best movies I have seen in a long long long time.For too many months now we the audience have been subjected to pure torture by filmmakers who all want to be the next Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola.Half our movies our blatant rip offs from Hollywood,almost all the time our actors and actresses are going on meaninglessly,running around trees,or (this ones the latest fad)conning people,item numbers or smooching and wearing handkerchiefs instead of clothes as an excuse for bad scriptwriting and poor screenplay.But this movie is different.It has a message.It is empowering,inspiring and meaningful cinema.Filmed as a tribute to the air force officers who have perished in MiG crashes in the last few years this ones a classic.

Sue's grandfather served in the British army and was involved in the execution of Bhagat Singh,Sukhdev and Rajguru.He has written down all his first hand experiences and Sue guards this diary as a treasure.It inspires her to come to India and do a documentary based on these revolutionaries despite the fact that the BBC has refused to fund her dream.She attends night school for hindi and befriends Soha Ali Khan in India who helps her make all necessary arrangements.Finally she arrives in India and begins her solitary search for the actors who she thinks will be most fitting to play the revolutionaries.She auditions a lot of people..all misfits.She realises that the youth of today have absolutely no feeling for or take no pride in their country or its freedom fighters.All want to go abroad and make their fortunes.Finally,her search culminates in Soha Ali Khan's circle of friends...DJ(Aamir khan),Sukhi(Sharman Joshi),Aslam(Kunal Kapoor),Laxman(Atul Kulkarni),Karan(Sidhaarth)and Soha Ali Khan herself.They are just like the rest of the people she has auditioned but she feels as though the characters from her grandfathers journal have sprung to life.The documentary progresses.The group initially do not pay much heed to the struggle of the freedom fighters and treat it all as a joke-the spirit and exuberance of youth.But as the filming of the documentary moves forward even they connect with the spirit of their characters.Aamir Khan as the fiery Chandrasekhar Azad,SIdharth as Bhagat Singh feel the fire of the revolutionaries.Sidhaarth's Dad is a highly influential businessman and he is very discontent with being dependant on him and not being able to do anything.Atul Kulkarni is a fundamentalist who is being very clearly misguided by politicians.The five guys are so easy to relate to.They can just be your best friend or someone you went to college with.So many issues are dealt with.How politicians feed on the idealism of youth and misguide them,communalism,corruption in the highest echelons of administration.

So you think..another Bharat Mahan movie...the documentary is only the base on which the rest of the movie is built up.SOha Ali Khan is engaged to Madhavan who is a MiG pilot.Madhavan is an exemplary officer,very lovable and a real charmer.But he tragically dies in a MiG crash during a training session.The friends are grief stricken but what enrages them is that the defence minister puts down the death to carelessness, in a bid to hide the corruption involved in the purchase of faulty parts for the MiG aircrafts.They lead a peaceful demonstration but are subjected to lathi charge and violence by police.Finally our group turns militant,becomig real life revolutionaries,bringing in revolution into the 21st century,much like their reel life counterparts...only while Chandrasekhar Azad and Co. fought against the British empire this time their enemies are their own...corrupt politicians..while they killed English officer for the murder of Lala Lajpat Rai..they decide to kil the Defence Minister.At the end of the movie everything comes together.The movie's message is clear...''no country is perfect..we have to work towards making it perfect..become a part of the system and improve it from the inside.Do not blame corrupt politicians..after all they were elected from among us itself.''They manage to get this message across to the youth of the country..i am not going to break the ending...you are going to watch the movie for that.

What I liked about the movie..performances..the characters(very relatable and a good mix of what almost accurately depicts todays youth)...the way they have depicted disillusionment of todays young people,and how Aamir Khan has not done a larger than life role and is content to remain in the shadows and give all the other characters equal screen time.Kunal Kapoor with his rugged good looks is great.Atul Kulkarni is as usual at his fiery best.Soha Ali Khan is a better actress than her brother,Madhavan plays a cameo but makes his presence felt(in fact when he dies I got a little bleary eyed)Sharman Joshi gives some comic relief but he has done a good job.SIdharth is the surprise element in the film...he has done a great job and the lack of obvious brawn and muscle(arent we all getting tired of seeing well sculpted muscles and abs on all our leading men??) in the star cast just made them all the more appealing...

I can just go on and on about the movie,but I would strongly recommend that you watch the movie and give me your comments.One of the best movies I have seen in a very long time.