Shocking

Rating: 10/10 (21 September 2015)

I haven't felt so compelled by a movie in a long time. I watched this just because I wanted to revisit Bollywood in 2006. I used to avoid this film because the title track played too often on TV commercials and in promotions. I didn't have high hopes for it. I thought it was just another movie where Aamir Khan played a revolutionary. I wanted to revisit that time period, and watched this when I saw this as the one Hindi movie on Netflix from then.
At first I was annoyed by the English girl directing her documentary. I had to mentally cringe through her bringing the basis of the actual movie together.
Once DJ and his crew were introduced, I knew there was potential for something interesting to come of the movie. I thought it was going to be as simple as they helped make her movie while being rowdy in between and learning to appreciate India's history.
Late into the movie I started making jokes to myself about how these are actors performing a script and that the intensity of the movie was silly to me. But by the conclusion I snapped out of that mentality. I was shocked by what the movie turned into and needed to let it sink in.
The movie definitely reminded me of 2006 where a lot of teens were looking for a crew of friends, and among them they felt a need to be rowdy because in general they felt lost. I think this movie was very definitive of that.
Without spoiling the movie, I would just say that how well this movie portrayed the way of the generation and youth really hit me. Back then it was a very concentrated feeling. Between online media and cell phones the youth wanted a real, tangible presence in the world, but felt it slipping away. That feeling of a lack of identity and meaning is still here today, but watching this movie really got me to pay attention to how striking it was back then.
I could relate to the movie really well, and imagine others in this age group can too. Just because it's one of those eye-opening movies that got me to start thinking about my life, I have to give this a 10. I would recommend it to anyone who is a young adult that wants something to connect with or relate to with regard to identity and being confronted with injustice in a movie.