Rang De Basanti

Allie Padnos
Film Review
Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti is an inspiring political film that has made a tremendous impact on Bollywood cinema and society in India. Sue, an English woman, is introduced immediately in the film and we learn she is planning on making a documentary drama in India about the revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement that took place in the 1920’s. The documentary was structured around her Grandfathers Diary, who was a British officer during the revolutionist movement. Rang De Basanti is unique because there are two different coinciding stories occurring through out the movie. The parallelism is significant because one plot focuses on the historical events in the 1920’s, while the other plot is about college students who become inspired by the freedom fighters and the documentary they are creating. This film differentiates from other Bollywood productions since the focus is primarily on youth political war, but still displays typical themes of national identity/self-sacrifice, religion, and tradition.
When Sue arrives to India she meets up with her friend Sonia, and she is quickly introduced to Sonia’s boyfriend and group of guy friends. The close group of friends all attends a university, but display different college characteristics then typical Bollywood films since they do not spend time at school. Immaturity was displayed by the group of boys and they did not want to become part of reality and the real world since there days were full of having fun and partying. The group consisted of six males; DJ, who was very popular, Karan, who was the son of a man highly involved with the government, Aslam, the Muslim of the group, Sukhi, who was depicted as the baby of the group, Laxman, who believed the political system created betterment for India, and Ajay, a flight lieutenant for India. DJ developed a crush on Sue decided that the group would help act in her documentary. At first it was hard for Sue to create the movie since the boys were taking it as a joke and always goofing off in serious situations. She was astonished the college students knew very little about their Indian history. Half way through the film reality hit the group of boys which forever changed there lives, and led them to develop new characteristics and forced them to take on a new perspective on India.
The tragic death of Ajay created a huge impact on the group. Ajay died in a plane crash because the parts of the plane were poorly put together. He was a hero of India because he flew the plane elsewhere which prevented many deaths of innocent citizens, which displayed national pride and his honor of putting his nation before his own life. The Government depicted his death as reckless and non-heroic which degraded his honor of a flight lieutenant which tremendously upset his family, friends, and fiancée Sonia. The group used the documentary as inspiration and the fight for freedom seen in the 1920’s served as their foundation to politically fight the corruptness of the Government. Their mind-set drastically changed to the ideal of bettering the country through political movements to advocate change. In order to make the corruption apparent, the group had a memorial for Ajay in a populated public area. The Police started beating innocent people and even Laxman started to become aware of the corruption, which changed his initial standing point towards the Government. In order to create a bigger impact, the group decided to kill a head official of the Government, and then later announce they were the killers and what prompted them to become involved. This broadcast was done at the local radio headquarters. In the end the group of five was gunned down at the radio station, once they unfolded their story to the public. They truly self-sacrificed themselves for the betterment of the nation, which is a traditional Hindustani theme.
Religion was displayed in Rang De Basanti because there were scenes from the documentary showing how the freedom fighters would pray in jail to help them get through their harsh conditions. Also their publicly displayed memorial for Ajay was a religion reference. DJ’s mother was often seen praying throughout the film. Although Ajay appeared to be the only one with Hindustani values of the nation state in the beginning of the film, his friends proved they would die for their country in the end. The film showed self-sacrifice was evident for the group of people because they wanted change for the betterment of the people of India. The idea of self-sacrifice has been traditionally seen in Bollywood films.
The music was significantly different then any Bollywood film we have watched yet. It did not seem to emphasize the major themes of the film and was not sung by the actors. The music was recorded and would intensify the happiness of the group as they danced with each other. Overall the music did not add a significant effect to Rang De Basanti.
At first I did not like the film because it was complex to follow who everyone was in the beginning. I thought the first half was extremely slow, but once the second part started I changed my overall standing on the film. I ended up really liking Rang De Basanti because it was action packed and had a great structure in the second half. I did not like the music because I like the traditional type of singing and dancing. The making of the movie and special effects were very modern which made the film too western based influenced. I enjoyed the emphases on political corruption and the connection of traditional Bollywood thematic ideas. Overall Rang De Basanti took an interesting new direction in Bollywood film, making the film highly successful.