Rang de Basanti
Passable
Strictly for those who have watched RdB
For all that pre-release publicity extravaganza, Rang de Basanti turned out to be just passable.
For what did RdB convey. The youth must be willing to lay down their lives for the nation. Fair enough. But no more. Except that MiGs are bad aircrafts and India’s armed forces deserve a better deal.But how did they convey that. The storyline is weak, ie. for teh effect it intends to create.
RdB does not take a stand on corruption. Nor any of the things that contribute to India being a “hopeless” state. An one off-line suggesting filling up of IAS and IPS by determined youth is only just that- an one off line. For the entire hype, one expected the medium to be the message.
The DJ gang had never suffered in life because of “all that was wrong with India” and had even bribed the cops themselves. They weren’t any different to take up the moral high ground and shoot the Defence Minister.
RdB is anti-establishment, not just anti-politicians. RdB does not offer suggestions to the youth, nor does it particularly exhort. The Bhagat Singh-Azad excuse (though admittedly, inspirational) was handy to bring in the religion equation. A narrative (though technologically brilliant) left the audience with a lot of guessing to do.
There have been better movies exhorting the youth- The Tamil flick starring Sidharth- Boys , to put in their mite for the nation – Swades . There have been better movies tackling corruption – Muthalvan (Nayak in Hindi) and Ramana (reasonable inspite of Vijayakanth) and how-can-I-forget Anniyan (Yet to be remade in Hindi) probably my favourite movie of 2005
Nevertheless, RdB is a well-made movie with all actors and actresses (I am still old worldly) putting up a good show. While the Crew got the religion equation right they missed the regional equation. A southie could have been thrown in somewhere, atleast as one of the radio callers. But of course, UTV, the producers, needed Madhavan for the movie to sell in Chennai.
For that heavy Media-budget and the mutual IOUs with NDTV and other brands, the movie was a BIG letdown
Finally, the one line that redeems the movie…
Is par bhi na khaule jo vo khoon nahi vo paani hai
jo desh ke kaam na aa saki, bekaar vo jawani hai
PS. If the media and some ppl still go gaga over .... just goes to tell you how opinions can be influenced with a big Ad budget .
2 comments:
Well! I loved the movie!
The part showing the past is absolutely inspirational. Its one of the few movies which'll just make you say "my lovely country".
And it was a much better attemt that "Ishq-vishq" (I know its no comparision, but even then!).
A welcome attempt for a hindi movie.
sorry pawan,
I think it was a good attempt to bring out a movie like this. It had a message, though anti-system, but bearable when compared to the anti-human anniyan. It was well directed to include the fact that, youth are not really bothered about any thing surrounding them untill they become a victim of it. And it was a much better than boys. I took my mother to this movie.
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