Rang de Basanti

Uday Reddy

Rang de Basanti, directed by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra in 2006, tells the story of a British woman making a documentary about India. Inspired by her Grandfather’s diary, Sue (Alice Patten), travels to India to recreate the story of early Indian freedom fighters. She recruits five college kids to star in her film, and they reluctantly agree to cooperate. Her friend Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) helps her find four guys to play the part of the revolutionaries, Daljit or “DJ” as he is referred to (Aamir Khan), Karan (Siddharth Narayan), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), Laxman (Atul Kulkarni), and Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) are all cast to fill the roles. Filling their days with partying and shenanigans, the group is very representative of modern day youths in India. They are not really concerned with social issues, or political issues, or anything other than childish things really. They participate in things that the previous generation considered seedy, such as being flirtatious and bribing police officers. The one exception, though, is Laxman who is inspired and is able to identify the problems with corruption India is facing. He thinks that India’s youth is far too concerned with popular culture than social issues.
The next big plot shift in the movie happens when Ajay, Sonia’s fiancé and also a Flight Lieutenant in the Indian Air Force, is killed when his plane crashes. The government insists that it was caused by a pilot accident and that Ajay is to blame. Sure of Ajay’s abilities, Sonia and her gang suspects that foul play has occurred and investigates. Eventually, they learn that the reason for the crash was due to faulty parts that the corrupt defense minister signed off on as part of a political contract, and in a shocking turn of events they learn that it was actually Karan’s father that was behind the faulty parts, the defense minister was only in it for the money.
Shocked by this new discovery, the gang decides to take action and protests in New Delhi. The police and protesters clash, leaving many injured including Rathod’s mother. The gang is even more fired up and realizes that the only way that they will get through to the government and the media is to assassinate the defense minister. Karan embarks on his own vendetta, against his father and ends up killing him as punishment for his corruption. What the gang didn’t think of is if the public would realize why the two have died, and instead the defense minister is considered a hero by the Indian people. The gang takes things to the next level when they storm a local radio station. Unfortunately for them, the radio station is evacuated of all employees, making the Police’ job of storming the building and killing all the freedom fighters that much easier.
While the gang isn’t exactly the most elite group, they definitely show many important themes and ideas throughout the movie. The group is used to show audiences that even the most uninspired Indians can come together for the greater good of the country. The group shows that even though one may die while fighting for one’s cause, it is still the just thing to do. Ajay is an obvious hero in the movie, dying for his country and serving as a catalyst for all the change that the group fights for. Even in the beginning of the film, Ajay is always pro-India, and the others (especially Karan) are decidedly anti-government. I feel that Karan is definitely the end hero in this movie though. He always is becoming the “better man”, and during his speech at the end of the movie, actually encourages joining the military and government to fight corruption from the inside out.
Sue was a critical part of the introduction of the film, but I feel that she really takes a back seat role in the film as it progressed. The film started being less about the previous revolutionaries and started shifting to the modern day issues that plague India. The song and dance in this movie were quite different than previous Bollywood movies, they were much less glamorous and much more heart touching and meaningful, in my opinion.
Rang de Basanti inspires and captivates audiences. I really enjoyed this movie because it showed that one does not have to be violent to get their point across. And actually, if they were not violent they would probably still be alive. But at the same time, they probably would have not been as successful. Nevertheless, Rang de Basanti is a great movie that really mashes past mentalities, with modern day controversies and issues.