Review of RANG DE BASANTI ( PAINT IT SAFFRON )

Well I had seen some preview shots of Rang De basanti and I thought God Aamir looks so young and I heard somewhere that he lost lot of weight for this movie, My admiration of Aamir for the versatility of the characters that he potrays have been growing.

Then I heard the MIG controversies that the film got into and the Army was given a special screening and I understand they did not have problems with the film except one scene . All this I
attributed to pre release gimmicks that most films now pull to get attention .

So when I heard the movie is playing this week nearby , I was a bit skeptical of going .
What changed by mind was my brother , who recommended this as a must watch movie.

Well I don't want to go into the story , but a short review is in order . The story starts
off about an English Journalist(Patton ) who comes to India with her broken Hindi to shoot a documentary on Indias Young revolutionary War heroes . She is met by her friend Soha Ali Khan . After some tragedies with finding her suitable roles for Azad, Bhagat and the rest she meets Aaamir,Siddharth( remember him from Yuva ) , Atul Kulkarni, Kunal Kapoor . The intial meeting itself paints a good picture of India in it current state. These boys are carefree and do not connect with the ideas of pre-independence revolutionaries.

The narrative that follows interludes two stories one in the past and one in the present and the cinematography is excellent . The Scores by A R Rahman is catchy and is lingering on in my head. The songs are beautifully picturised and so well blended into the movie that I don't remember more than two songs in the movie.. Wherein it actually had 5 .
The song "loose Control " and the title song are especially dear to me . The former because it reminded me of so many good times in the past.

Kudos to Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra whose previoous film AKS was a hit and whoever said that was a fluke must be eating his words now .

It might be easy to categorize RDB as a patriotic movie but it does not fit into that bracket. The movie is much more , it is aimed at a social awakening .I hear this often from lot of Indians settled in United states , the bickering about the Infrastructure , the corruption , the lawlessness but when I point out that we are part of the problem , because educated people like us either do not vote,neither done anything constructively to prevent it many do not agree.

It is easier to criticize and point the finger at somebody than to own responsibility and take action . I cant remember a movie in recent times which tries to convey a message and does it so beautifully without any pretences.

The movie itself has two shades . The initial fun rollicking crowd and then a single incident turning the whole tone of the movie and a brilliant real to life ending which is reality in your face.

Bold is what I will call this movie. RDB is the BEST movie I can remember having seen in recent times. A MUST WATCH !!

Let me know your feel once you see the movie . leave me some comments.