Rang De Basanti

Grace Hennessy
HIND 2441
26 April 2010
Rang De Basanti
Written and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Rang De Basanti was released in 2006. The movie begins by telling the story of a young British girl, Sue McKinley (Alice Patten) who aspires to travel to India to make a movie following the events of her grandfather’s journal. Her grandfather was stationed in India during the early 1920s and witnessed the start of the independence movement, with a small group of freedom fighters. She becomes inspired by the will of the young men and hopes to find similar characters to play the roles on her visit to India. With the help of her friend Sonia, (Soha Ali Khan) she meets a young group of college students, begins to make a movie, and falls in love. She casts Daljit (Aamir Khan), Karan Singhania (Siddarth Narayan), Alsam (Kunal Kapoor), Laxman Pandley (Atul Kulkarni) and Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) as the young revolutionaries: Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Ram Prasad Bismil.
At first the group of young college students are uninspired. They come from priviledged lives and have never had to fight for anything before. However, as the movie progresses they learn about the sudden death of Sonia’s fiancée, Ajay Singh Rathod (R. Madhavan), caused by cheap, faulty airplane purchased by the government. After this, the characters’ feel the intensity felt by the original freedom fighters they were scripted to play. Further injustice is held against Ajay’s family and friends when their family is forcibly removed from publicly mourning his death. Everyone is injured, and Ajay’s mother slips into a coma. From here, the group begins a plan of action. They decide to bring justice to Ajay’s death they will have to murder the corrupt Defence Minister (Mohan Agashe). After nothing is brought to light on the corruption regarding Ajay’s death, they decide that in order to bring light to the situation, they must publicly announce it to India. Fortunately, they have a friend who hosts a talk show for All India Radio, and the group decides to hijack his morning program. On live radio they reveal their secret of killing the Defence Minister and their motivation, and crowds gather outside, along with the military. The movie ends with all of the young men being shot.
So far, I feel like this is the most modern movie we have watched. The way the young college students are portrayed, with the drinking and smoking seemed realistic. I thought that it accurately displayed the injustices of India’s government and left you feeling with the hope that it can change.