Review: Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti
Stars: Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Soha Ali Khan, Waheeda Rehman, Siddharth Narayan, Kunal Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Alice Patten
Directed by: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Released: 2006

Koi desh perfect nahi hota. Use perfect banana padta hai.

Every once in a while, a film will come around that completely makes you stare at the screen with awe during the entire film. Rang De Basanti is one of those films. This is a film that shows the truth and does not sugar coat anything. It shows real characters all with different personalities. All with different positive and negative traits that all end up balancing each other out. You fall in love with these characters in the two hours, forty-six minutes they are on screen and they don't leave your mind or your heart anytime soon after the credits roll.

Sue McKinley (Patten) a cute, sweet little blonde from the UK with a video camera, lots of time on her hands and a big interest in the men mentioned in her grandfather's diary decides to go to India to shoot a film about the revolutionaries Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Ram Prasad Bismil. Sue holds auditions with her friend Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) and has no luck finding the perfect actors to play her beloved freedom fighters. Later the same day, Sonia introduces Sue to her friends DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan (Narayan), Sukhi (Joshi) and Aslam (Kapoor), four friends who are all very different but have a strong relationship that would put brotherhood to shame.

It's not long before Sue sees in them the famed freedom fighters and proposes and idea to them... Why don't they star in her film? None of them are really all that excited about it, but in his quest to make Sue happy, DJ gets his friends to agree to it. Because of their lack of passion, it takes a while for the film to take off. It also doesn't help that Sue has also hired Laxman (Kulkarni), a man who has always had his difficulties with the group, to also star in the film as Ramprasad Bismil. But still wanting to make Sue happy and complete the film, the group gets more into it and starts to realize the importance of the men they are portraying.

During the filming of Sue's film, Sonia gets engaged to Ajay (Madhavan), an air force pilot who believes that there is nothing more honorable and special that fighting for your country. When his MiG mysteriously crashes and the government closes the investigation as quickly as it begins, the group is enraged and decide to follow the example of the men from their past and take matters into their own hands.

Many films have been made on these men, especially Bhagat Singh, but I believe there is something that sets Rang De Basanti apart from all the others... and that is simply the fact that Rang De Basanti connects the past with the present. Many times it can be hard to relate with the past, but the creators of this film carefully weave the stories from the past with events in the future and help today's youth see why it is important to learn about the actions of the past and, as the title says, the color of sacrifice.

I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever as far as the acting goes. But I must give Aamir Khan a huge honorable mention. His performance in this film has cemented his spot in my list of favorite actors. I don't see his spot being challenged again anytime soon. Also, Siddharth Narayan needs to do more Hindi films! He's terribly cute and very impressive with his acting. Joshi was amazing with his comedic timing and did a great job turning on the serious acting when it was time (I was also shocked to find out that he was the same young man from Lajja!). But perhaps the one that surprised me most of all (other than Aamir, of course) was Kunal Kapoor. I've heard of him, seen him around and never gave much thought to him. But once he was on screen he was there and not to be lost, which is hard to do when you're with Aamir Khan, but he held his own. And my, how nice it was seeing Waheeda Rehman on here! I went insane seeing such a legend!

The music was also a sheer and utter win, but that's something I've come to expect when watching a film done with music done by A.R. Rahman. Rang De Basanti and Paathshaala are personal favorites.

The story left me in tears, sorrowful and wishing that things had ended differently but also realizing that they couldn't possibly have or it would not have been as effective. Rang De Basanti is now on my favorite films list, and is definitely a film that cannot be missed by fans of Indian cinema.

Rating: 10/10