Saw this movie yesterday. Second show at Rex. Felt it was totally overhyped. Didn’t find it as great as many of my friends have.
The lives of a bunch of TDCs changes forever when a firang gives them gyaan about India’s great freedom movement and asks them to act in her movie documenting the same. Then they go on to do some arbit stuff (don’t want to play spoiler here). The end is one of the most hilarious I’ve seen in recent times. Perhaps I can call it ridiculous. Definitely not a kind of ending fit for a movie with patriotic overtones such as this.
My fundamental disconnect with the movie was that I couldn’t identify with any of the lead characters. Looking back, most of the Hindi movies I’ve enjoyed are those where I could easily identify with one of the leads; and lived his life for the next 2-3 hours. Dil to pagal hai (shah rukh khan), Yuva (vivek oberoi), Dil Chahta Hai (both aamir khan and saif ali khan), etc.
In Rang De Basanti, the characters in the first half are overtly TDC. And in the second, they become overtly patriotic. Not that I’m not patriotic. Just that their way of thinking doesn’t quite gel with mine.
Then, of course, there are these side plots which could’ve been safely dispensed with. The director takes his liberties and indulges in a lot of BJP bashing. A little would’ve been ok, but when you bash the BJP in every other scene, it does leave a bad taste in the mouth. Then, of course, you have the gyaan about Hindu-Muslim bhaichara. It seems like the director has taken it upon himself to give a lesson in morals to the youth of the country. And it doesn’t seem like he’s quite succeeded.
To end on a positive note, the performances in the movie have been superb. If only the script were a little more refined… And yeah, the ride home at 1 am on a bike borrowed from