Wannabe Rang De Basanti. Review on Heroes

I had read reviews on MS praising this movie to the skies and that made me curious enough to check out this movie. I guess my high expectation was the reason I did not like this movie.

Story

This movie is a journey of two carefree and good-for-nothing boys Saand (Sohail Khan) and Nawaab Saab (Vatsal Seth) for whom life is a joke. They are about to fail in their film-making course and the only way they can pass is to make a good docu-movie. They come across a war-reporter (Mohnish Behl) who had covered Kargil three years ago (the movie is set in 2002). He gives them three letters which three soldiers had handed over to him to send to their families. Saand and Nawaab decide to make a film on ‘Why not to join the Indian Army’ and undertake the responsibility of delivering the three letters. They set out on their bike to travel across different parts of India to deliver the letters. Their first stop is a village in Punjab where they meet the widow (Preity Zinta) of deceased soldier Balkar Singh (Salman Khan). The second stop is a small town in Himachal Pradesh where they meet Sunny Deol (brother of deceased officer Bobby Deol) who himself has lost his legs in the war. The third stop is J&K where they meet Dr. Naqvi (Mithun Chakraborty) the father of deceased officer Dino Morea. Saand and Nawaab’s interaction with these three families and how these meetings changes their outlook towards life and their country is what the movie is all about.

Impact

This movie had immense potential but was let down by the director. It could have been another Rang De Basanti but the treatment completely ruined the impact. The movie starts with a 5 minute montage of Kargil and we get a glimpse of the soldiers fighting at the border. This completely grips you and you look forward to whats coming next. But the next few scenes suddenly stun you with cheap humour and bad songs (badmash launde – completely wrong in a movie like this). Agreed the director wanted to show how carefree Saand and Nawaab are but there were better ways (eg. RDB). Here you start doubting the director’s intentions. But thankfully the movie gets back on track with the two boys leaving on their journey to deliver the three letters.

The first track (Preity/Salman) is the best of the lot. There is no chest-beating or over the top declaration of love for the motherland. The widow’s quiet acceptance of her husband’s death, and pride in his bravery is very gracefully depicted. Most of the scenes in this track are brilliant – be it when Preity asks the Saand and Nawaab to read her husband’s letter, or when she talks to Salman’s uniform, or when she listen’s to her son’s declaration of joining the army – we can see the fear in her eyes but also the fact that she does not discourage him.

From here we move on to the Sunny/Bobby track. And this is where we are again disappointed. It seems the director was more interested in using Sunny’s punching capabilities than acting ones. The scene where Sunny reads Bobby’s letter was very unconvincing. If only that track had ended there but in the next scene we see Sunny and the two boys sitting in a pub where Sunny beats up 10-15 guys sitting on his wheelchair. Then the next scene has Sunny spotting some aircrafts in the sky and racing them in his wheelchair. Even the flashback song with Sunny and Bobby dancing in a pub is so insipid – one minute they are drinking and being merry and then suddenly somebody blows the trumpet and the song suddenly becomes ‘I love India’ jingle. By the time the two boys moved on to the third part of they journey I felt sorry for Sunny – for Sunny, not for the character he played.

The third track is the least impactful. Mithun’s non-acceptance of his son’s death and the breakdown after a game of rugby was – in one word – boring. Again a complete waste of a talent like Mithun Chakraborty.

The director is either unsure of what he is trying to show or he is manipulating all the target audiences. The Saand/Nawaab track in the beginning is targeted to pull in the youth, the Preity/Salman track is for the lovers of sensitive cinema, the Sunny/Bobby track is clearly meant to generate seetis and taalis, and the third track is targeted at the family audience. The result is – jack of all trades, master of none.

The end of the movie is disastrous. What should have been a coming of age moment for the two boys turns out to be howlarious and unintentionally funny. You have to see it to believe it.

Performances

The performances of almost all actors are good. This is a multi star cast movie but most of the actors have less than 10 minutes of screen space. Those who leave an impact are Preity, the boy who plays her son, Salman (but the Punjabi accent was bad), and Mithun. Special mention for Preity Zinta. I always associated her with young and bubbly kind of roles but her performance in this movie was a revelation. She brings a heart-touching dignity to her portrayal of a war widow which is rarely seen in bollywood heroines. Her Punjabi accent is perfect, yet she speaks more with her eyes – eyes that sparkle with pride and unshed tears. An award-worthy performance.

My Final Verdict

A few good scenes and performances do not make a good movie. The story was good and fresh but the director could not make the right use of it. Some of the scenes are really brilliant but they come once in a while and therefore lose the impact. The music is also bad, except for the ‘mannata’ song nothing stands out. If only the director had stuck to same maturity in all the tracks as the first one, it could have been a pathbreaking movie. I give this movie 2.5 points.