A winner definitely. Review on Rang De Basanti

Bollywallas may soon have a new formula – carefree/irresponsible/materialistic hero becomes socially conscientious. Examples – Swades and now Rang De Basanti. But so far so good. So far the effort has been worthy of clap, clap, clap and many more claps.

Swades was subtle and more introspective while RDB is colorful, volatile, vibrant and at times even trite. Both the movies started spectacularly and at intermission point you could not but help feel euphoric. Both the movies however ended on a dastardly note. In Swades, the return of Mohan Bhargava was splendid but seeing him indulge in a bout of wrestling with the postman left one breathless. Was this the reason of him coming back to India? What about his great plans of transforming his village? Similarly, in RDB, the assasination of the Defence Minister stupefied me. Is it so easy to kill the Defence Minister? Do Ministers walk around with just one security guard? Do Ministers make such callous statements on televisions (maybe they do – Narendra Modi did)? Does the government actually thrash peaceful protestors? Maybe they do in the interiors, but not in the Capital of India, definitely not in an age of the electronic media, and definitely not in front of the electronic media. Maybe the idea was to equate that scene with the famous “Simon Go Back” procession. However, the radio station climax, though over the top, was adequately dramatic and scored the right punches. The last scene, showing the young Bhagat Singh plant a sapling and being watched over by the five friends was BRILLIANT and all the flaws in the movie slip away into oblivion. As the theme song plays in the background with the credits, you walk out of the cinema hall in a state of elation.

RDB is a winner. It has flaws (big glaring flaws) and yet it mesmerizes the audience simply because its heart is the right place. But it’s not enough to have the right intentions only while making a movie. One needs to have a strong screenplay also and RDB excels in that department. The writing is as strong as the subject demanded. Kudos to Malesh Pandey and Rakeysh Mehra the director. As a director too, Mr. Mehra delivers the goods.

The performances are just fine. Aamir Khan regales and reinstates your belief in him as an actor post Mangal Pandey: The Disaster. Others like Kunal Kapoor, Shraman Joshi, Atul Lulkarni, Sidhart, Soha Ali Khan and Mahadevan are as integral to the movie as Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman, Yuvraj, and Kaif are to the Indian cricket team. Obviously, Aamir is the Tendlya of the group. Equally praiseworthy are Kirron and Anupam Kher andAlice Paterson as Sue.

AR Rehman returns to form with an awesome track – the title song, the theme song, the love song, the tapori song and even the death song sung by Lata Mangeshkar are just super. Prasoon Joshi scores heavily as a lyricist. Binod Pradhan as usual does great work as the cinematographer.

Some super scenes

• The tapori dance sequence

• All the scenes showing the camaraderie between the group

• Aamir’s introduction of Sue to his mother

• The confrontation between Kunal Kapoor and Aamir Khan and Atul Kulkarni

• Mahadevan’s death sequence

• Aamir’s breakdown

• Shraman’s breakdown

• Anupam Kher’s death scene

• The Radio Station sequence

• The last scene

Downers

• Defence Minister’s death sequence.

• Sloppy second half

• The lathi charge sequence

Over all, RDB is a good movie which one should watch more than once.

Now guys and gals, I have a question. Is RDB going to be the Black of 2006? Any answers?