“No time lah.”
“Don’t know what to write about.”
“Yes! This NEEDS to be written. But my FYP…”
“But my FYP…”
“But my FYP…”
“No time lah.”
Lots of interesting things happened, but I guess I’ll talk about them in reverse chronology in the coming weeks. So I didn’t write because of other seemingly important things. This weekend is no different: Reasons 1 and 3 through 6 still stand, but I really need to talk about this movie I watched. No worries: no spoilers in the main text (only at the very bottom of the post).
I heard about Rang De Basanti only 3 weeks ago, as I stumbled upon “Aamir’s latest movie”. Even more surprised I was when I learnt that AR Rahman, the Main Man, was scoring music for it. (Although I was supposed to write a post on the soundtrack like a week ago, I think I’ll just talk about it here.) And more: Siddharth, the lover-boy punk of “Boys” (Tamil) and pot-bellied heart-throb Madhavan of “Alaipaayuthey” fame were also in it. So naturally I had very high expectations for the movie. It also has a very cool website.
The film’s synopsis: British film maker (played by Alice Patten, ex-HK governor Chris Patten’s daughter!) who goes to India to make a film based on her British soldier grandfather’s diary on the events he experienced in colonial India. The diary gives vivid accounts and conversations the grand-daddy, a high-ranking soldier, had with the Indian insurgents/freedom fighters of the time (he also found it more and more emotionally difficult to torture them as they were tough nuts). Inspired by the power of these freedom fighters, most of who were young men who were hanged in their early 20s, the young filmmaker manages to get some friends to play the historical characters featured in the diary. These friends (Aamir Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Siddarth, Sharman Joshi) are mostly disillusioned, happy-go-lucky, drunk goof-ups or unthinking political zealot (Atul Kulkarni). So as these spineless chaps get into characters of those real men who gave their lives for the idea of a free India, there emerges a blurring of lines between the historical characters and their real lives, as they awaken to find that things haven’t really changed from pre-independence to post-colonial India.
What the movie also asks is: what does it take to snap youths living in the rich world, continually feeding themselves with entertainment and mindless pleasures, out of their hedonistic indulgences to find the meaning in their lives, the meaning that touches the core of their spirits, and how far they would go in order to manifest that meaning? In this sense, Rang De Basanti goes beyond Indian shores, and has a message for all youth to not become soft, complaining or accepting of all the crap that’s being thrown at them, but to think, assess and do something to change the situation around them.
The movie is extremely refreshing, totally absorbing and technically exhilarating. As a film that tackles youth, apathy, national identity and history, popular music has been used ingeniously to give a lasting flavour to the message. It’s only when you see the kind of music you listen to everyday used for a totally different scene or mood that you appreciate the deep impact pop culture has on you (to know what I mean take a peek at the spoilers below, or better still, watch the movie). Using such music has an amazing power to create new meanings, and ARR, as we’ll see later, has done this remarkably well in Rang.
Visually, Rang is very beautiful. Slick camera work and title credits, and tasteful juxtapositions of the historical narrative with the present-day story make the day. Camerawork by Binod Pradhan is wonderful, a joy to watch every frame. The sepia tones and ‘over-exposed’ tints remind you of music videos, and give each scene a unique taste and mood. The music director managed to slot in the right sounds at the right frames at the right time to give an impeccable viewing effect.
AR Rahman is a world-class music director, his work being mostly innovative and very refreshing. It shows in this movie. In Rang, he has given a bhangra-themed title song (feat. Daler Mehndi), a Arabesque song of uprising, a Beatlesian song of martyr-ism, another soft song of suffering and sacrifice. The remarkable thing is, being a Tamil speaker, I didn’t understand a word when I first listened to them. In the cinema, where they had subtitles, I realized the depth of the lyrics and how totally novel the idea was – I mean, who would ever think that the song ‘Khalbeli’ was about an impending bloodshed? I thought it was going to be picturized at some nightspot with sleazy girls and old men gyrating.
Acting was first-rate throughout. Aamir Khan shows why he prefers to do one movie at a time, and he shines as DJ, the old graduate who, under a veneer of carefree jolly-wolly and gung-ho, is just too scared to get out into the working world become part of the faceless mass. I wasn’t too impressed with Siddharth in Boys, or Aayutha Ezhuthu, or rather, he just played the teeny-bopper, bubblegumwhatever lover-boyish looking dude who looks young and runs after girls. In Rang, his acting as a quiet, initially-resigned youngster with domestic woes, and who goes on to play Bhagat Singh in his friend’s movie, is very impressive and has shown what he’s capable of. His eyes speak a million words, and he uses it well for the character. The rest of the cast was generally well-placed, and they all had a rapport with each other that showed in the movie; they didn’t seem to act when bantering, laughing or making jokes at each other; they were really doing it.
But a few let-downs feature as well: Only Siddharth’s character was fleshed out quite substantially, while relatively less attention was given to Aamir, and more so the others. The handsome Kunal Kapoor’s “Aslam” character was given a touch-and-go exploration on the tensions a Muslim living in India faces: on one, part his overly-orthodox, aloof Muslim parents, and on the other, his own identity as an Indian and acceptance by friends, transcending religion. (Heck, it would’ve taken an entire movie to talk about this.) Having said all that, trying to fit in everything might have lengthened the movie undesirably or made everything else diluted. It’s all about trade-offs…
Questions of identity, Western culture creeping up on traditional culture and their impacts have been increasingly used as backdrops in recent Hindi flicks, like Kabhi Khushi, Khabi Ghum, Mein Hoon Na, Swades, and patriotism in shows such as Lagaan, Mangal Pandey and Bose: The Forgotten Hero. Rang De Basanti is a very bold, adventurous attempt to give an original flavour to the much-discussed theme of youth, patriotism and apathy. In the movie, what starts out as a fun ride slowly becomes a heart-wrenching search for the meaning of the characters’ lives, which may be a scary proposition for many: you might know the truth, but how far are you willing to go to uphold it, or implement it, and are you ready to face the consequences? Maybe we all realize this, which is why we’d rather not face the truth, and just be comfortable doing what we always do.
I’d recommend Rang De Basanti to everyone who wants some good music, and food for thought. Stop here if you don’t want to look at the spoilers.
SPOILERS
[Indeed, these are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SPOILERS, so if you HAVEN’T WATCHED the movie yet, CLOSE THIS WINDOW NOW.]
A great many scenes took my breath away, and I’ll list some of them:
+ The opening title credits was a collage of bits and pieces of maps and research done on the revolutionaries of colonial India, set to thumping beats and the base rhythm of “Khabeli”.
+ The juxtaposition of the historical events with the real-life decisions that the protagonists make – a superb allusion that another revolution is taking place 50 years after independence.
+ The slow music of “Koonchala” against the slow-motion, black and white scene of riot police breaking up the protest in front of the Red Fort. The lyrics talk about blood shed and pain – a very powerful treatment of the scene that relays utter disappointment, but also a form of spiritual revelation of the protagonists.
+ The ‘exotic’ beats of “Khalbeli” during the planning stage of the murderous task that the friends are plotting, and the impending doom they would be facing.
+ The totally extremely wild moment of the music and anticipation as Aamir whips out a gun when the Defence Minister is taking a walk – this is mind-blowing music-image coordination.
+ The friends are martyred smiling, just like their historical predecessors (got this one from Yashila).
+ The beautiful scene where after staging the most dramatic radio broadcast ever, Aamir and Siddarth become once again normal University students, without worries, smiling, talking about girls, when they are set upon by the special forces and shot at. The scene freezes with their smiles and a voice-over narration, a combination that is incredibly moving and powerful.
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