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January 28, 2006

Movie Review: Rang De Basanti

[Copious spoilers ahead. Read ahead at your own risk.]

Rarely does a movie overreach itself so much in making an analogy that you become convinced of the analogy's opposite. Rarely does a movie that purports to praise unsung heroes in India's struggle for independence end up leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Yet, we all know that Aamir Khan only picks rare movies like Rang De Basanti.

Rang is a youth drama set in modern day Delhi. A British filmmaker in London, Sue McKinley (Alice Patten) wants to make a documentary narrating the stories of relatively obscure heroes in India's struggle for independence. Inspired by the diary of her grandfather, who was deployed to India at the time, she resolves to bring to screen the conversations and experiences narrated by her grandfather. Set back by budget cuts (because "Gandhi sells" and not these revolutionaries), she decides to travel to India and try to make the movie herself.

Sue gets with a circle of friends, who attend Delhi University, when she arrives in Delhi. This close-knit group includes DJ (Aamir Khan), who immediately takes a shine to her. Eventually, she convinces everyone in the group to act in her film. After a few shaky starts, rehearsals and filming for her documentary commence. The characters in her documentary get the death penalty for taking violent action against the British administration after the inhuman Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which stands in contrast to the nonviolent (and according to some, passive) philosophy espoused by Gandhi. The audience and the actors themselves learn about these heretofore forgotten political events of early twentieth-century India, which revives their national pride. This revival is not without its naysayers, like Karan (Siddharth), who lament the state of India today after all the sacrifices made in its name during the freedom struggle.

Rang has some of the most innovative camera work seen in recent Hindi movies. There are a few jarring, and perhaps intentional, transitions between young revolutionaries who had committed their lives to India's freedom and hedonistic upper middle class college students who sometimes seem indistinguishable from their Western counterparts, save some old school Punjabi charm. However, these transitions between history and the present day becomes less forced and are executed increasingly seamlessly as the actors experience an awakening.

Meanwhile, a parallel plot showing Indian Air Force pilot Ajay's (R Madhavan) relationship with Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) also evolves. Ajay has a passion for flying and for Sonia. He is easily the most 'together' character in the movie, unlike the others, who make fun the primary objective of their lives. Unfortunately, the screenplay neither shows Ajay's journey nor gives Ajay and Sonia enough screen time together, preferring instead to concentrate on DJ's pithily hilarious one-liners and the unheard-of phenomenon of a white chick speaking Hindi like a natural. And therein, my dear readers, lies the problem.

Ajay passes away in an unfortunate air crash caused by defective and cheap Russian mechanical parts in his Air Force plane. This is the Sputnik event that changes the very tone of the movie, taking it from its now-familiar innocuous and jocular setting to its bizarre and grotesque denouement. The corrupt Defence Minister, who is in cahoots with Karan's father (a hapless Anupam Kher), publicly denounces the integrity and character of Ajay, a stellar pilot, after the crash. When it is clear that the incorrigibly corrupt bureaucratic machine will not so much as acknowledge Ajay's service to the nation, our circle of friends get galvanized into action.

A peaceful demonstration by them at the India Gate Soldier's Memorial turns into a veritable Tian An Men Square-style massacre. By this time, the transitions from history to the present day are so smooth that history indeed becomes the present day. In a bizarre scene at one of their frequent haunts, which is almost identical to a scene they played in Sue's documentary, the friends, having now been stirred out of apathy after playing revolutionaries, decide to kill the Defence Minister themselves.

The friends successfully execute, pun intended, their plan and abscond. Clearly, whatever drove them to kill a high ranking government official had banished all semblance of fear in the fugitives so they could just do the right thing. They decide to go to a radio station and confess to the killing on air and explain what motivated them before turning themselves in peacefully to the authorities. Their confession sends shockwaves all over India, resulting in calls of support and criticism pouring in. Meanwhile, the authorities, who I am no longer sure weren't Chinese, lay siege to the radio station and resolve to kill every one of the fugitives. One by one, the friends are killed, not before the audience learns that the proceedings had pushed Karan to patricide.

As the credits rolled, the movie was dedicated to the many Air Force pilots who lost their lives in peacetime due to faulty and cheap parts in their airplanes. While I don't mean to downplay the shocking corruption at the highest levels of government that leads to these deaths, I was in no way convinced by the movie's obvious analogy between such an unfortunate turn of events and the systematic and unjust repression of freedom fighters by the India's British government. Perhaps the depth of passion in the patriots the friends played in Sue's documentary could have inspired them to run for public office and effect positive change. But for them to do exactly as the characters they played and end up in an eye-for-an-eye bloodbath is something the audience simply does not expect. I felt stunned and manipulated by the sepia lighting and sonorous chord sequences of the 20s into having some unconvincing pet cause of the director force-fed to me.

At any rate, the movie features a soundtrack that keeps up well with its attitude in the first half. The dialogue is punctuated with witty one-liners and rejoinders which underline the talents of several rising actors. Sue is a spunky and remarkably un-stuck up Brit who is but one half of a very credible on-screen chemistry between herself and DJ. Maybe after getting plenty of gori nookie in Lagaan and Rang De Basanti, Aamir will finally pull off a relationship with a white girl that could stand a chance.

Posted by Vishy at January 28, 2006 09:50 AM

Comments

Posted by: Punya at January 28, 2006 08:50 PM

Posted by: Kneerudge at February 1, 2006 05:55 AM