Well ……. . Review on Rang De Basanti

…. I am left speechless. It has been a long time and the water has flowed, and here I mean the salty types … the ones that flow out of our eyes when emotions overwhelm you … yes tears! Chitter chatter and incessant criticism has been the stereotype of any “post movie” scenario ..

This republic day was different, for a change the entire crowd stayed till the credits rolled and the trio ( me and a couple of my friends) who are the definitive movie buffs trudged with moist eyes silently till the vehicle and remarked … “ Mind Blowing”. This movie had definitely left us speechless.

I wouldn’t be the type that would hail this movie as a flawless movie, humans are susceptible to errors and yes there maybe many small flaws in this movie too … some fictional representations which we as commoners defined wouldn’t do so. But this movie has done something that its predecessors failed to do “Grab you by your lapels and drive home the point”. The emotions which are the aftermath of this movie are genuine ones which are not driven by certain other long title movies which are fantasy oriented and loaded with glycerine.

The Story line is pretty well executed, defying the archetypical mode bollywood movies are shot … constantly yo-yoing between two similar storylines and lacing it with the “in your face” comedy in the first half. Some lines that hold you rapt with attention are Aamir Khan’s “Sue kar mere man ko” and Sharman Joshi’s “Alsam, tu to gaya”. We immediately strike parallels with the characters and settle in snugly within 20 minutes of the movie and Alice Patton’s “Maa ki aankh” breaks the ice immediately.

Camerawork, especially the jumping into the “water body” is awesome, each of the characters displaying different emotions. Being a south Indian I was eager to watch Siddharth and Madhavan make their mark in the Hindi movie big league. Madhavan doesn’t have too much scope and is anyways credited with a “Special Appearance” but Siddharth is nothing short of brilliance, giving a cool demeanor to his character which cracks under stress and has displayed these emotions very well. Sharman Joshi, bring him on fellas .. he is not only your “Style” bhai but can do much much more when given the platform to perform, here is one actor that has risen from this movie apart from Siddharth. Kunal Kapoor was anyways a good actor, even in Meenaxi and he continues his good form.

Soha Ali Khan gets the 70’s Sharmila Tagore back to life, acting et all. From someone who was expected to give probably a mediocre performance, she rocks the movie filling it with simplicity and a certain honesty to her character. Aamir the king of acting, shows us why he is the best actor amongst us now. The “breakdown” scene with Alice Patton is simply mind boggling, I am sure he would have actually cried to get it right. Alice Patton moves seamlessly with her brown counterparts often making us forget that it’s a foreigner among Indians in this movie, her sincerity with Hindi demanding a special attention. Atul Kulkarni was his usual self, you almost expected him to mouth his “Abhivadayee” dialogue from Hey Ram as he almost continued from there. The other actors were almost wasted and just drifted along in the proceedings with the exception of Kirron Kher.

There has been a plethora of issues treated very well in this movie, among many more the attitude of Indian youngsters towards patriotism, the anger against corruption and Hindu-Muslim animosity and the ultimate patch up with never seems forced.

Bollywood is slowly (and thankfully !) coming of age and this is one of its best examples. This movie is sure to sweep the masses at large of its feet for its sheer sincerity and brilliant performances and direction.

Thank you Rakeysh, Thank you Aamir and thank you the crew of Rang de basanti ..

… and by the way ..Thank you Soha Ali Khan .. you looked very sweet in the movie and acted extremely well too 