Cashing in on the Feel-Good Factor  lots of 'Feel', and some 'Good'

Rating: 6/10 (31 January 2006)

Basanti is the latest and perhaps loudest, mouthpiece of 'Stop Whining, India Shining' campaign. When the producer, director, dialog writer, script supervisor, auntie, Bobby, Kakaji, Dikra, Prem, Snookums and the Dhobi (laundryman) all go on Telly to promote their movie, you can rest assured they're going to have their say. After all, they paid for it.
Director Rakesh Sharma, dialog writer Prasoon Joshi, script-man Renzil, and even Aamir all chose to speak about their Hindi film in English in the 'Making of...' show. Why? Even if the interview was in English, why not intersperse with some Hindi! Many bilingual people switch back and forth. The hypocrisy of Bollywood types really stinks. If they felt so strongly about Desh, they could choose to speak in Hindi (or some other language). But never mind, thats a mini Maha-Bhaarat by itself.
The big irony in the story is that the wasted youth depicted here need the help of a young British documentary filmmaker, not only to discover themselves but also the India they've completely forgotten. And in the process these chaps hope to clean up politics, overhaul the system, blah blah, other idealistic nonsense. Neither Aamir-Rakesh nor anyone else at RDB ever heard of Bihar, UP and MP, nor did they bat an eyelid over the purposeless deaths of Satyendra Dubey (age 30, IIT-Kanpur alum, gunned down in UP for whistle-blowing corruption on PM's highway project), or Manjunath Shanmugham (age 27, IIM Lucknow alum, IOC employee, shot dead by Bihar mafia for fighting adulterated petrol racket). Why not focus on such recent events that have shaken the country?
It's a silly plot clearly inspired by "Swades" which had a lot of fizz but bombed in theaters. Since then, Bollywood types have been jumping up and down 'Mera Bharat Mahaan' pseudo-nationalistic brigade in hopes of cashing in a fast buck or two. Apart from plot, casting is lousy - how can a 40-year old actor pretend to be college kid? None of the guys looks like youth! Doesn't Bollywood have any young actors? Why cast men past their prime in such roles? Even this director had a compulsion to pack it all in a 3-hour bore-job while devoting the *entire* first half to 'character development'. Please, 3 acts not 3 hours!!
The Defence Minister's assassination is a sheer cop-out and an escapist solution thats not only impractical but ludicrous. But is it the right thing to do, bumping off someone because they're corrupt?
Plus points: Different take on clichéd subject (corruption), masterful presentation, lots of feel-good moments (and scenes), good dialogs.
Minus points: Poor casting (no new faces), weak plot (loose ends), too many songs, average background score.