(Lowest: * Highest: *****)
There are two kinds of people,
People who go screaming to their death,
People who go silently to their death,
Then I met the third kind….
Every now and then there is a movie that stands out… This one is of that kind. Everything about Rang De Basanti is magic pure magic. This for the record is only the third movie I have felt inclined to clap at the end of the film for its pure brilliance, the earlier two were Black (The best movie ever…) and Aviator (What can I say :) ). Renzil D’Silva and Rakesh Omprakash Mehra script this journey through youthful experiences and mature decisions flawlessly and provide their way of feeling patriotic.
Sue (Alice Patten) comes to India to make a documentry about her grandfather’s diary which accounts the rise of Indian Independence struggle in 1920 in the hands of 5 revolutionaries. Her pal Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) steps up to help her… Her search for her 5 main characters is in vain and while hanging out with Sonia’s friends she realizes that her friends fill the characters perfectly….
DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan (Siddharth), Aslaam (Kunal Kapoor), Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) and Laxman Pandey(Atul Kulkarni) are chosen to play the roles. Sue soon realizes that convincing them to play the parts is eazy compared to get them to give conviction to the roles. As Karan simply puts it “I dont know why someone would give thier life for their country?”…
The first half of the movie reminded me so much of Dil Chatha Hai and the second part had touches of Sarfarosh here and there. The movie is amazingly edited and pace of the film is really good, at no time are you free to look at your watch yet your not pushed to the place to rethink every dialouge.
Cinamatography again was very good, entire first half had bunches of sequences which were compleately out of focus but they looked really good. The whole music video like look to show the defiance of young blood was apt. The second half boasted its linearity… it was almost as if the second half was directed by someone else. This was required coz almost 75% of the story was said in the second half. The swinging shifts from color to monchrome for specific scenes gets a bit too much and is confusing.
The music makes foot tapping contagious and the very fact that they have give priority to story over the songs is really good. The songs on the screen play only till when they are required and end before the actual song finishes. A R Rehman is magical once again and what a way to make a comeback :).
Acting…. What can I say… Im speechless the performaces were mind blowing my favourite was Soha Ali Khan, she was perfect in every scene. Siddharth was the next best… his potrayal of Karan was truly impressive, considering he comes from a film industry that is inclined to give him roles like a college kid in love almost every film this performance surely seperated the men from the boys. Aamir is as usual deligent and eazily comes off as a college going kid(considering he is 40), Kunal Kapoor is amazing and his whole nude scene is purely hyped its almost invisible in the film, Sharmaan Joshi plays the comical angle most of the film and is really good towards the end when questions his fiends of their choices and Atul Kulkarni, what need be said of him… his acting skills are unquestionabally brilliant. My only dissappointment of the film was Madhavan… not sure if it was that he had to play a more mature role than the rest of them but it just seemed too made up and at times he looked too caught up. Atleast he has lost weight hopefully he will get a bigger role to give him a chance to prove his caliber.
My view of the movie: Go Book Tickets And Watch it