Bollywood comes of age

Rating: 10/10 (27 January 2006)

Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra merges two plots in RANG DE BASANTI. The first is about a group of friends, their bonding, the carefree lifestyle they lead. The second plot pertains to the past, when freedom fighters sacrificed their lives during the era before independence. Mehra draws parallels between Indians ruled by the British and Indians ruled by corrupt politicians today. The message is subtle at first, but echoes piercingly before it reaches its finale. The transition of the five friends from meaningless to meaningful existence is done brilliantly.
Rang De Basanti has a story to tell, is not a ripoff of some exotic film, but the story is told at a leisurely pace. Is it a patriotic film? Yes and no. Is it a fun film? Yes and no. Is it a serious film? Yes and no. Does it have a neat ending? Yes and no.Thats the beauty of Rang de Basanti. Its the film which shows that bollywood is indeed coming of age.
A R Rahman lives to his reputation in Rang De Basanti. Binod Pradhan's cinematography is lyrical, and Adman Prasoon Joshi evokes the youth lingo with his dialogues. Sameer Chanda's art direction and Allan Amin's action sequences are its other strong points.
Aamir gets into the skin of the character and delivers a knockout performance from start to end, but the film has more gems when it comes to performances: Siddharth is excellent, Atul Kulkarni is fantastic, Soha Ali Khan is a complete revelation, Kunal Kapoor is natural and Sharman Joshi delivers a powerful performance.Alice Patten is brilliant and besides delivering a flawless performance, her style of speaking Hindi is sure to win a lot of hearts. Madhavan is likable. Waheeda Rehman is graceful as ever. Both Om Puri and Anupam Kher don't get much scope. Kiron Kher is exceptional yet again. Mohan Agashe, Steven Mckintosh, K.K. Raina and Lekh Tandon are adequate.
But ultimately, despite sharing the screen space with others, this is an Aamir Khan film. And the actor, playing a character 15 years younger, lives the role, conveying the right amount of mischief (as in the banter in Hindi with Sue without realizing she knows the language), carefree flippancy, earnestness, insecurity, even breaking down on screen, and keeping his infectious laughter till the very end.
Well, in the movie its said " I always thought that there are two kinds of men; those who met their deaths screaming and those who die in silence. And then I met the third kind" Similar type of feeling triggered in my mind too, There are movies made with some moral(some underlying message), some are pure entertainers, not making much sense. Yesterday i came to know about the third kind...........that leaves you with a thought, a thought...................