A Bollywood Milestone!!!

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2006)

Sue, an English film-maker, inspired by the views contained in her grandfather's diary, on the great revolutionaries of the Indian Freedom Movement, decides to make a documentary on the subject. Due to lack of funds, she enlists a carefree bunch of College students to do the parts of the revolutionaries. These young people represent this generation of young Indians, who are disillusioned, pessimistic and hence indifferent to their country's future. But during the course of the shooting of the documentary, they transform, taking inspiration from the characters of the revolutionaries they play in the documentary. Imbibing the spirit of Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and the likes, they slowly awaken from the cynical slumber they'd been in so far. Then when one of them, an Air Force pilot dies in a MiG crash, the consequence of a shady defence deal, they decide it's their time to be revolutionaries. But I will say no more! Go watch it! Great film! *** The acting performances are all great. Aamir is his usual best. Alice Patten speaks good Hindi, and acts even better. The rest of the crew all do their part to convince us of how they're just youth like the rest of us, taking all things lightly, not giving serious thought to their realities and being quite sure that they couldn't do anything to change things. But I'd make special mention of Sidharth in his role as Karan Singhania, who is the most tortured soul among the group, because of his unscrupulous father, and his extreme cynicism in his view of India. He really steals the show. He outshines even Aamir. It seems he's the hero, if you need me to pinpoint one. He's done a convincing portrayal of a troubled young man, who doesn't have much hope for anything, until the last moment when he realises the revolutinary in him.
This movie is a must watch. It's a film with a message though. Where Mani Ratnam with his Yuva failed, Rakesh Mehra, has come trumps with this truly landmark film. The direction is superb and the story truly unique. The screenplay is great, in that it effectively weaves together different themes including, today's indifferent youth who do not care if their nation goes to the dogs, the revolutionaries of the Independence movement, the corruption in politics and how the youth can change things if they did their bit.
One remembers the Bhagat Singh overkill of movies a few years back. All those movies told the stories of the revolutionaries. But they were fairy tales which had no relation to the contemporary youth or India. Their stories were unique to their time, so we thought after seeing those movies. I even used to fancy how it would have been nice if we could be in that generation and have fought like Bhagat Singh did. But I never imagined that a revolution was possible in this era, when we were being ruled by our own elected representatives. But this film shows how the situation is no different.
Of special mention is an exceptional sequence where, the Jallianwala Masacre is shown, and suddenly General Dwyer, the infamous villain, is replaced by the guilty Defence Minister, who orders the police force to fire. Then the Ajay, the fighter pilot is shown walking towards the firing policemen, smiling, and when he gets hit, says something about his jacket getting torn. That's a satirical look at how things haven't changed. A classic sequence indeed.
Having watched the film one realises, that the revolutionary spirit, that is the legacy of our Independece movement, still lives in the youth, and that it only needs to be awakened for the face of India to be changed.