rang de basanti
TRANSCRIPT
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2006
Rang De Basanti. A generation awakens?
Director's Note: There are two primary choices in life - to accept conditions
as they exist or accept responsibility for changing them. Rang De Basanti is
about changing them.
To do or not to do, that's the question.
Let's look at the pleasant colours of the movie.
Story. Rang De Basanti has a story to tell. That alone makes it a considerably
superior to the other contemporary formula movies running in the theatres. This
movie draws an interesting parallel between pre-independence India and the India
we live in. It also seems to suggest a flattering possibility of the presence of a
dormant super-hero in each one of us. O wow! Feels Good!
Performance. A good performance is the least what you expect from Aamir Khan. And
he doesn't disappoint you at all. The rest of the cast is also nice. Surprisingly, Rang
De Basanti is not an Aamir Khan movie per se. He shares the screen time almost
equally with other actors who have done well too. Atul Kulkarni distinguishes himself
by his passionate expressions and powerful dialogues delivery. Siddharta looks
convincing in his role and Sharman Joshi tickles the audience with his Haryana-
accented humor. Soha Ali Khan does better than what I had expected from her. I wish
Madhavan had a longer role in the movie. He is always good to watch. And this girl,
Sue, is good too. But great actors like Om Puri and Waheeda Rehmaan have been
under-utilized and wasted. There is not much for them to do in this movie.
Songs. I get repelled by beats very easily. Rock has always been a noise to my ears.
My taste of music is, I admit, anachronistic. But for a change Rehman makes it quite
a 'youthful' experience this time. The songs celebrate the spirit of the movie and
colours your mood. The title song sung by Daler Mehndi is just too good. The lyrics as
well as the timing of Roo-ba-roo in the movie is very nice. Overall a good musical
score.
*Akshaya has written a fascinating review of the movie, especially of the music. Read
it here.
Theme. It's a nice attempt. Movies, believe it or not, influence our psyche more than
anything else. Especially in India where people derive their values (!) from movies,
however absurd it might seem to you, any attempt to show something meaningful is
welcome. As I am not very unforgiving with the idea of moralizing and preaching,
which is the latent fallout of movies based on a socio-political theme, I enjoyed in
particular the dialogues and discussions in the movie.
Now I'll talk about what was not so good in the movie.
The treatment of script does justice neither with the spirit of the script nor with the
choice of the script. Result: Rang De Basanti paints your mood with eye-dazzling
fluorescent colours, which goes down the drain in the first shower you take.
Characters: To start with the characters don't look genuine at all. They look made-up
and they behave as if they are acting, as if a camera is watching them, as if they are
living for someone's entertainment! They remind me of a 10th class boy, who in order
to make himself interesting to the girl he loves, makes a big fool of himself. They try
too hard to impress the audience. They look good but they look fake; distastefully,
artlessly and hopelessly fake. The Director uses them as puppets. They have a life but
they don't have a life of their own. In second half they lose their whatever scanty
identity they have had in first half. They are used as mere mouthpieces. They say
what they are asked to say; they say things that are incoherent with the portrayal of
their character. Very hastily and equally clumsily they are pushed into playing the
roles that were ludicrous to their taste. And hence their effect doesnt last long. It dies
with the day.
Transformation: Ostensibly the transformation of these fun-loving cool dudes into the
worthy successors of our freedom fighters was the soul of the movie. Who says it is
impossible? No, it is surely possible.
-to kya karein?
-maar daalo.
-kya???
-haan.maar daalo use.
The bereaved buddy *asks* them to kill the defence minister and lo! kaam ho gaya,
madam.
Again, possible! Oh yes it is. But sorry, I am not convinced.
Nonsense is a group activity and most of the group activities are essentially
nonsensical in nature. Hardly anything meaningful or productive ever takes place
in a group. Even individuals capable of better things talk nothing of any intellectual
or even emotional import in groups. Of course I do understand that there are
exceptions when people of similar interests come together and make groups to learn
and grow together. Even then, I have observed, the mediocrity prevails and
ultimately the main purpose gets defeated by petty political conflicts. Or romantic
affairs.
Whenever one feels an inner compulsion of doing something he believes in, he goes
alone. Each one of us fights his/her own battle. Each one of us chooses his/her own
battlefield. This is the greatest burden and the greatest privilege as well. At any rate,
one can not do anything of any worth in a group where a high 'hypocricy-quotient' is
of utmost necessity, for mere admission in the group. Havent you noticed how the
same individual behaves in one-to-one interactions and how utterly differently he
behaves in groups? Havent you noticed how you yourself behave in a group?
This is what makes Dil Chahta Hai superior to Rang De Basanti. The latter looks
pedestrian in front of the former. The latter is fake and the former was genuine. The
transformation, nay metamorphosis, of the whole cool gang at the same time
by the same incident in the same way? May be possible. Sue finds all the actors
for her dream project in the same gang! Possible. All of them turn out to be having
hidden DNAs of great heroes! Possible. The same question assail their minds and
they are rescued by the same answer. Possible. So many possibilities in a row?
Possible. Okay. But this possibility is not any more possible than the possibility of my
liking it. In Dil Chahta Hai, the friends laugh together and dance together but when
their destinies call them, they go alone. This is how life is. Nature has its own
aesthetic taste.
Stereotypes and Simulacrum: And a particular observation has started getting on my
nerves. I wonder why all punjabis have to be alike in nature? Why each one of them
has to burst out in a flurry of Bhangra at slightest provocation? Why should one talk
more than that is needed and more loudly than that can be tolerated? Why can't one
even pretend to be thoughtful, even to look different, even to attract a female, even
for God's sake? Why this burden of 24*7 enthusiasm? I am tired of these stereotypical
pan-chewing biharis and chak-de-fatte punjabis. The filmmakers portray punjabis as
arrant fools capable of nothing better than nonsense dance, as if they have to dance
in order to forget the perpetual itch in their arse. God! A man has to die to make
them leave the dance floor! And how credulously we have accepted it all though we
very-well know that it's far from the world we live in. It seems that these film-makers
don't at all respect for our intelligence and our capacity to appreciate the subtleties
and various nuances in a character. It's ludicrous that a villain must look like a villain.
So much sterotypes and so much kitsch. But kitsch has a power to overshadow the
reality. It has done it again. This movie is a triumph of kitsch over everything
genuine.
I wonder what would a foreigner, who knows punjabis (or biharis, for that matter)
only through popular hindi cinema, say if he/she meets a punjabi who happens to be
in pensive mood.
- you said you were punjabi?
- yes.
- but how come you are not dancing?
- ?
I'm sure he/she would take our pensive punjabi as exceptional or abnormal or lesser
punjabi. And if our poor chap happens to be not very rich then o my God! What kind
of punjabi are you? This is what happens when perception differs widely from reality
and separated by a deep ditch of confusion.
Baudrillard's simulacrum and hyper-reality suddenly seemed to have more meaning
than I had previously understood. As DJ looks more punjabi than our pensive punjabi.
Similarly the gang looks more young than youth itself. I wondered how? And I
wondered how ridiculous these guys would look if not backed by this noisy
background music? All the effect, all the noisy gaiety and vacuous machoism would
vanish in a flash leaving them look like a bunch of jokers with painted-nose in a third-
rate fancy-dress show. Their youth was supported by nothing but noise and would die
with it. So dance, or die.
This movie pretends as if we have been oblivious of the corruption in our political
system. It wants a credit for letting us see the similarity between our former and
present rulers. And it claims that a generation awakens. Awakens? To what?
Let me digress a little. We are living in changing times. After independence, this is
the time of biggest upheavals. And unlike 1947, this change has affected even the
lower middle-class also. Then I don't think things concerning our everyday life
changed so drastically. Our constitution remained the same and police continued to
be a repressive force in the hands of those few who were in power. The
administration continued to second-fiddle the politicians and the judiciary rather
deteriorated after independence. Hardly anything changed. Yes, the elite class surely
claimed their right to rule and they distributed power and wealth among themselves.
Nothing much changed for we, the people.
But this change has much deeper penetration. This post-globalization economic and
cultural change has swept the entire nation under its great wings. The big ship has
landed into the river and all the boats are rocking by the giant waves thus created.
Some are being tossed about and some have been capsized. Either you climb at the
big ship or you drown. Everyone is groping for the rope. But it is not easy as your
neighbour also wants it. And he can knock you down to get it. So better you knock
him down before he does to you.
Our values are left in the boats we had deserted. We dont know what is right and
what is wrong? We are culturally confused people. We have lost our memory. Who
are we? What do we do? Where do we go? I think these are the questions to be
answered. Urgently. The problem in our generation is this ever-widening economic
disparity and this sudden realization of poverty (accentuated by the stark difference
in lifestyle) in those who have been left behind in their boats rocking precariously in
the turbulent river. I wont waste my words and your time anymore on it and will
come back to Rang De Basanti.
I disagree to those who blame this movie to have endorsed violent means of political
reformation. They must have forgotten the Q&A scene where Karan apologises for
what he had done. Rang De Basanti has not recommended violence and it should not
be criticized for doing what it has not done. Infact it doesnt offers any solution. It just
asks us to do something about the problems around us instead of doing nothing. And
I admire the movie for it. The movie has already suffered the nonsense of a dumb
animal-lover who finds torture on animals only in movies and nowhere else. How
helpless emotion looks in the embrace of sentimentality, especially when it is fake!
In the last, on a lighter note, I have known two types of movie, good movies and bad
movies. Then I saw Rang De Basanti.
Go and watch this movie. With all its weaknesses it's worth a watch.