Its been a month since I watched a movie and I chose Rang De Basanti to break the fast. Caught the movie today at the Jade Cineplex on Beach Road. This was also my first time at a Singapore movie theatre.
The movie starts off with a UK filmmaker arriving in India to make a documentary about Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and their fight against the British. She ends up recruiting some students from Delhi University for acting in her movie. Though this merry bunch don’t care much for the country’s fight for freedom and its current state, their behaviour starts to change once they get under their roles. At this point their close friend (an IAF pilot) is killed in a MiG-21 plane crash and the government’s irksome attitude to his death stokes them into taking action.
I was really impressed with most aspects of the movie. The characters are neatly done and feel natural, almost like friends we know around us. Acting is topnotch, Aamir and the rest of the gang deliver. The constant merging of the actors and the story of their real roles is super slick. Scenes from the freedom movement moved me. The movie was shown with English subtitles and I lapped it up. It helps to savour the poetic lyrics of the songs, which by the way are all earworms. The background score is superb. If your gut wrenched in some of the scenes, that was not just because of the scenes, the background score has played a part too.
Though the movie is so enjoyable there is a nagging problem in the story. The protagonists act very amateurishly and take an eye for an eye. I don’t belong to the camp that believes that such actions will solve the problems of our country. That is neither practical nor justifiable. Juxtaposed with Bhagat Singh et al. inside the movie it might seem alright. And yet, its not. I believe more in the world of Swades and than Rang De Basanti.