May be I belong to those 1% of the people who somehow where not convinced with the plot of Rang de Basanti. I remember watching Rang de Basanti with 3 more friends of mine in, a middle sized “Anand” theatre. And as my other friends kept praising Rang de, I pondered to myself am I convinced with the plot. Let make it clear I am not making any comments about the acting skills of the artists in the movie. That would be ridiculous, of a person ignorant about artistic talents criticizing art. I simply would refer to the plot.
Its obvious people were appealed about the so called “deshbhakti “of four disillusioned youth who were appalled by the loopholes in the democracy and decide to take the matter to themselves!
Let’s start in a frivolous note! Imagine Madhevan was not the fiancé of our protagonists friend . Say would then our heroes acted in such a fashion or would they have been subjected to same moods of rebellion. What say, Madhavan was the person who cheated upon the girl for somebody else, say with the firang ! What would then Amir or the girl say, “usko apne karmo ka fal mila, right?” ya “Bhagwan ke ghar me der hai par andher nahi “and would then the audience undergo the same swings of compassion mood for Madhavan. Ha ha ha , perhaps not !
That’s what my point is, it was utterly senseless of the script writer to make a movie out of personal revenge and mask it in the face of devotion for the country!
What does the movie show? Four youths who have nothing in the world to prove , who spend their time in uselessly finding joy in the most frivolous activities in the world acting as a role model for this generation! Just pause and ponder would you allow your son or brother perhaps to emulate them, wasting their life in petty activities and then finding“terrorism” as a goal to find meaning out of their lives. Yes their carefree candid nature might appeal you, might make your hair stand out of your body, and might make you emulate those activites which they did? But is this life all about?
And what the heck does the movie show. A complete disregard for democracy in a democratic country! If you think that it open your eyes think again, the movie contradicts the very fundamentals of democracy. Are we ever taught to take violence as a means to find justice? Does the land of Gandhi and Buddha deserve no more than this? Is this the respect we render to all our forefathers who propagated the means of non violence as a means of protest? Is violence the only means to finding justice in this world ?
I doubt if the makers of the movie made a progressive movie or a movie which is too retrograde. To me the movie is no more different than those typical personal revenge movies masked beautifully in the name of democracy to earn some brownie deshbhakti
compassions from the cinegoers.
1 comment:
I see your point. However, I believe the primary objective of the makers of the movie was to map the relevance of revolutionaries in the pr-independence era to present times. The fact that the poor guy who died was the fiance of Soha Ali Khan was to ensure that the mapping seemed plausible. Had it not been the case, as you say, Aamir and his gang wouldnt have had the kick to fight them down. In that sense, I believe you are looking at a part of the movie that was not meant to be highlighted. But again, nice observation. Looking forward to more of your musings.
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