History Lessons Remixed. Review on Rang De Basanti

I went in to rip it apart.

Well, you can't blame me, the advertisments and promos showed four boys, still wet behind their ears, singing and dancing to patriotic songs, and throwing their shirts off to a flying aeroplane.

What idea does that give? I thought it'd be a run-of-the-mill movie about yuppie NRIs coming in, changing themselves and successfully changing something wrong in India.

I was wrong, I didnt expect what I saw, I was humbled.

Ever since we were in school, all our answers in History ended with 'this was one of the most important incidents in the Indian Freedom Struggle'. It left me wondering, which was || the most important || incident in the Freedom Struggle? Come to think about it, whom we today call patriots had just done something which could best be described as 'spare incidents'.

So, what made them || the freedom fighters || they are today?

Answer: They were intelligent.

After watching RDB, I have understood that the freedom fighters, may they be Satyagrahis, or Bhagat Singh had just one single point plan : Awake the Generation.

And awaking a generation isnt something about going out and shooting someone, because you have some personal gripe against them. It isnt about bombing some place and then hiding all along. It is about speaking to the world and all citizens of a country, telling them the reasons behind their actions.

And this idea is what made the four guys give up their life. I won't go into details about what they had decided while going into the All India Radio, but I am sure there are a lot of questions in people's minds about the ending.

Why did they have to die? - As the makers of the film have said, (not verbatim) 'you liked the guys, you didnt want them to die, tough luck, there are many in this world whom you will like if you meet, but even they die'.

Thinking back, I think that the protagonists in the movie, and our Freedom Fighters have always used the biggest weapons in their bags at the right time - Death

The movie clearly gives all of this message:

There is something wrong with the system, the system has to be changed, violence is not the answer to this problem. All violence can change is a person's status from alive to dead.

The only way to change the system is to get into the system, keep your conscience, have a soul, and walk on the path of righteousness, otherwise shut up, go to your job and don't crib about what happens in India.

It tells us that there are no fabled courts where in the whole crowd can come in and change the judgements. It tells us that people who live by the sword die by the sword, make no mistake of it.

This is the first time that I don't have the guts to write a review on a movie.

PS: For those who can download Videotones on their mobile, please download the Rang De Basanti Videotone, you are in for a surprise :)

Roy Daniel D'Silva