‘What’s your name, Basanti?’: 
Rang De Basanti is a commercial blockbuster in the guise of protest cinema. While City of God rose from the barrios, Basanti rose from Juhu Beach. Yes, it’s an earnest critique of corruption and apathy. But it’s also Aamir Khan’s second Lagaan clone: same English love interest, same chest-pounding nationalism, same period costume drama. Our Peter Pan in high-waisted pants is calculating and relentless.
Basanti hangs on an interesting gimmick: an English filmmaker persuades a group of Delhi University students to act in her documentary. As they reenact the Indian independence struggle, they evolve from cynical partiers into hardcore patriots. But after real life (or intermission) intrudes, the plot goes medieval on your ass.
Aamir Khan leans on the same regional rube routine he’s used since Rangeela, only he’s Punjabi Sikh, not Marathi. The real stars are Saif Ali’s über-cute sister Soha Ali Khan, the handsome Kunal Kapoor (no relation to Shashi Kapoor’s son) and A.R. Rahman’s romantic ditty ‘Tu Bin Bataye.’
The movie begins a wastrel yuuuth flick like Dil Chahta Hai and Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. There’s lots of cheesy ’80s rock guitar, very Karate Kid. Cool, yaar, stop pressurizing me, let’s freak out. At least the cheese is set off with slick music vid cuts. Then it mashes the patriotism button hard with fighter jets streaming the colors of the tiranga. It’s Top Guna for those still in the crib when Goose was in the sod.
The movie smothers its best idea in Bollywood-style subtlety, which is to say none. Like in Africa, corrupt politicians have replaced European colonists as the Man who’s Keepin’ You Down. It’s a neat transposition, but for the mentally slow, the director dissolves the Butcher of Jallianwalla Bagh directly into a corrupt government minister. It’s like admiring someone from afar until they leer at you and grab their crotch.
On the other hand, the blonde isn’t fetishized here, nor is she the babe; that falls to Soha Ali Khan. Alice Patten delivers her lines in the best phonetic Hindi I’ve heard from a Brit actor yet. And it’s always fun watching photogenic desi jocks — those are not the types let into the U.S. on brains. It’s a reasonably original script, not a lift of Oldboy, The Game or Fight Club (thanks, GC). It’s a current issues film, which in the U.S. is considered death at the box office. And it touched me, I let the manipulation in.
This is one of the three-to-four Bollywood movies a year truly worth seeing. I dislike the showy, force-fed patriotism, and the motorcycle/electric guitar factor is tacky and lame, but the issues it tackles are extremely topical: India’s rising self-confidence, the end of the brain drain and a newfound determination to throw the bums out.
WARNING: Plot summary and spoilers below.
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p>While the students are filming the movie, their best friend, a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force, dies in a MiG training accident. A public probe reveals that the defense minister was getting kickbacks from an Indian arms dealer who imported shoddy parts. The parts had killed 78 pilots and downed over 160 fighters over the years (the stats are from the IAF’s shameful, real-life accident rate).
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p>The arms dealer turns out to be the father of one of the main characters. This twist is so similar to Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons that I wonder whether it was lifted, though it certainly could have evolved independently.
Arthur Miller, the playwright, found the idea for Joe’s crime in a true story, which occurred during the Second World War: a manufacturer knowingly shipped out defective parts for tanks. These had suffered mechanical failures which had led to the deaths of many soldiers. The fault was discovered, and the manufacturer convicted…
Worried by the lost production and not seeing the consequences of his decision, Joe told Steve to weld over the cracks. He said that he would take responsibility for this, but could not come in to work, as he had influenza. Several weeks later twenty-one aeroplanes crashed on the same day, killing the pilots. [Link]
Joe Keller’s famous, tragic line: ‘… I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess they were, I guess they were.’
The students organize a protest at India Gate with the dead soldier’s mother. Worried about political damage, the corrupt defense minister calls up the local saffronist party boss. The boss sends in the khaki-suited goons to beat up the students and the martyr ma.
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p>
Here the movie turns very dark. Vowing revenge, the students assassinate the defense minister, take over a radio station, confess their crimes on air, start a national dialogue on government corruption and are gunned down by Black Cat commandos. The movie’s nihilist, taboo-breaking ending evokes Thelma & Louise and True Romance for me.
Unlike Gadar, which came right out of the Rocky-shoots-up-Afghanistan era, the jingoism here isn’t directed at Pakistan, and the Indian Muslim character gets sympathetic treatment. And rehabilitating the BJP lieutenant was a wonderful idea. I only wish the historical story were as well-filmed as the present-day one.
Kirron Kher, who was so good in Devdas, is hilariously accurate as a tough-but-caring Punjabi mom, but Mumbaiyya Punjabi bugs the shit out of me. It’s a fake language formed by speaking Hindi words in a Punjabi accent: the attitude-laden ‘Sanu ki lagda?’ intonation over the Hindi words ‘Mujhe kya?’, with a couple of random Punjabi words thrown in for emphasis. And it’s used all over Hindi movies.
As an aside, the ImaginAsian theater in Manhattan makes a shameless pass at your heartstrings by selling Parle-G biscuits and Pocky sticks and putting a small Bollyart exhibit on its walls. The Loews State was nicer, but A for effort, Asian.
Related posts: Shaitaan’s Billis, ‘Yuva’, Creep, Blessed review: mangal ho, The end of an era
Manish,
You have the wrong Kunal Kapoor. The guy in RDB is just a namesake, a much better one, I must say. Shashi Kapoor’s son is much older and very obviously anglo-indian. THIS Kunal is younger( 30ish) and has no filmi connections. http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2004/feb/27sld1.htm RDB is definitely a different theme from bollywood. Go watch it, everybody!
Thanks! Fixed.
Manish,
Shashi Kapoor’s Kunal Kapoor is older, as WesternGhaat stated. He played a sikh hero in Govind Nihalini’s Vijeta.
I think he was quite successful model.
SK’s kids run the Prithvi Theater too.
It seems people seems quite elated by RDB
kush, The successful model was the other son Karan. He used to appear in the Bombay dyeing commercials. Daughter Sanjana and Kunal run the Prithvi Theater.
Gotta watch it this weekend.
Dude, I beg you, please don’t speak of DCH and QSQT in the same line/breath.
So after the whole desi blogworld and their uncle aunties have blogged about RDB, Sepia Mutiny awakens =)
I cannot comment on the fake Punjabi being from Mumbai but on the whole I think the movie is a very well made youth angst film. Some sore points always remain because a movie cannot satisfy everyone. Maybe they could have shown the transformation better… ifs and buts my friend. The movie as a whole is genuinely well made and possibly path breaking for Indian cinema stuck in the 90s’ sugar coated NRI romance parampara and pyar clash.. Gawd I can’t watch another one of those. The only other recent movie of a similar nature that I can remember is Gulzar’s brilliant Hu Tu Tu which unfortunately starred Sunil Shetty 😀
If some of you f*kers had stayed home instead of buying out all the theaters, I would’ve gotten to see it earlier 😉
(Kidding– I saw it a week ago, but it deserved more than a capsule review.)
ROFLMAO
youth patriotism, India empowered. well, rang de basanti sounds great but with 40 yr old Delhi University student (Amir) sounds like daddy’s priveledged son’s with priviledged patriotism. Anyways I will offer this chat a different direction as always living my name. First would the real face of this Neo India one is an article in Indian express- http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=79591&spf=true# and the other is a Nagesh Kukknoor Film Iqbal. There few places where you can see display of pride being an Indian and one of them is a cricket field. Kunal Kapoor is a New Delhi Kid who was a MTV India VJ, a constant chatterbox.
Yipeeee… I demand royalties from SM! Mucho delighted to see a RDB review on SM that carries the same title as I gave to my psuedo review from a week ago! Well, almost, I guess. But hey, I couldn’t resist a plug since I drew inspiration from the same source as a SM regular! Now I will go and read the peice and come back!
its good that a movie like Rang De Basanti came out. the messages were pretty good overall. Amir Khan though I thought was miss-cast. Plus there was very little chemistry between him and the enlish woman. it was actually awkward to watch that part of the movie. The british woman was actually totally surprising in her hindi. That was pretty cool, to see that she came to India and it was taken seriously. I feel like there should be movies in which non-desis interact with desis like that. Soha Ali Khan was awesome, and the interaction between her and Sue (I think that was her name) was pretty cool because they were both total equals. That said I didn’t think it was totally without flaws. For a bollywood movie though….wow.
I propose a moratorium on banal cultural posts by Manish, our resident movie connoisseur 😉
i have to check out this movie, i’ve been told by many friends to check this out. and with the theme song, can’t ignore it! 😉
so – you haven’t heard of jesus of montreal. look it up on imdb.
I was wondering how ABCDs reacted to it…interesting to know that the most real parts of the films were completely missed ..The film has touched a chord because it captures the whole feelign of being a university student more beautifully than any recent film…the diaspora-Karan Johar films which u guys seem to like a lot are about rich ppl…not the real India. The film does raise a real issue, when do you commit to India by participating in its society, politics.Some of my friends have already taken than choice ,not going to Amreeeka to be a code jock but becoming an IAS officer in rural India…but I guess that is to be expected….I mean the film is experssedly about not choosing something not because of money, and a better lifestly.It is a choice which mnay ABCDs have also made when they left India…..
The film has touched a chord because it captures the whole feelign of being a university student more beautifully than any recent film.
touché.
one of those movies that has multiple layers. different people will come away with different personal impressions after watching it. beneath all the fun and humor, you get a glimple of the real india, a glimpse of the good ol college days, friends bonding, the attitude you see about day to day life in india. and by the end of it, you can’t help but feel that nationalistic fervor rise in you.
one of the things that might be different for people born and raised here (unless they have made a conscious effort to learn about these things) as opposed to in india, when they watch the movie, would be knowing the stories the movie talks about. most folks who grew up in india would know the stories of chandrashekhar azad and bhagat singh and sukhdev and lalaji and the train robbery and how azad killed himself rather than be taken alive etc. moreover, having spent at least a part of their lives in india, maybe it’s easier to truly identify, corelate and follow along. the minute the jalianwallah bagh scene comes up, all these memories come rushing back. of stories heard and read…you know exactly what’s going to happen. those stories bring back long forgotten memories of high school “patriotic song” singing events and what not….
the cheesy “Cool, yaar, stop pressurizing me, letÂ’s freak out” combined with the “slick music vid cuts” is a perfect example of the almost split personality evident in india today.
the actors were brilliant. i thought it was really cool that amir khan was treated as just one of the 5 in the latter half. not given any special treatment/camera time because of his superstar status. there were quite a few instances where the movie could have turned pretty cheesy and melodramatic but i thought the director did a great job of preventing that.
ok, enough copy/pasting from my blog. after all the adulation this movie has recieved, it’ll be interesting to see what the wise folks who frequent this blog have to say (if anything) about it.
Out with it. You and SG just need to admit that you don’t watch Bollywood. The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem. Then you need to find this crazy delicious button on your keyboard called Page Down. Whoah… other posts! Finally you need to sit down with a DVD of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, one with subtitles.
He’s too old for the part, and yeah, no chemistry with Patten.
I try to stay away from both Jesus and Montreal.
Do university students ride expensive dirt bikes and hang out in cavernous party spots with pools and panoramic city views?
Um, the AB stands for American-Born.
yay! I was wondering WHEN Sm would come out witha review on it since people were wanting to see it since over a week! It’s the kind of movie that quite a few people either loved or hated, and I actually wonder how of that variable had to do with age. They really portrayed very Indian college life, mostly Delhi stuff with the dhabas and open ground and all that. But Indian students still derive insane amounts of pleasure from 80’s-90’s rock music and they are really that apathetic.
Do university students ride expensive dirt bikes and hang out in cavernous party spots with pools and panoramic city views?
no, to the first part (i’m gonna have to watch the movie again to find those expensive dirt bikes. seemed like regular indian bikes to me). the rich university kids sometimes do ride expensive sports bikes though. sometimes, to the second part. also, as noted on another blog…
its not a bad effort at all,even though slightly mis-directed,
the reasons i liked the movie, 1.delhi and the college life….as someone said,the mix’n/match…the gali ke paranthas and the lounge hangout,the cynicism,the irreverence,it was a trip back in time for me. 2.soha ali khan 3.soha ali khan 4.the music, methinks that ‘tu bin bataye’ was one of the most evocatively filmed songs recently……and the other songs were not bad either…….oh yeah, the ‘khoon chala’songs been playing in my head ever since as well. 5.the shot of harmandir sahab 6.titbits of reality,like amir khan asking his friend to put off his smoke when his sikh grandpa is aproaching and the scene when he breaks down in front of sue. 7.amir khans one liner in the lounge…’one foot in the past,one in the future and pissing on the present’…that is so,so North Indian-ish.
what i did not like about the movie 1.got oversimplistic at the end. 2.amir khans punjabi……i would tend to agree that he is miscats but given his limitations(age,lack of punjabiness),he did a fairly good job 3.some un-eveolved characters ,like om puri,wahida rahman.
Not ‘cheesy.’ More like… “classic.”
granted I did not know about the train robbery, but growing up in America I was well aware of many of those stories. actually at times i’m more exicted about those people then people i’ve met from india.
not being in college in india but knowing people that were, i can totally see that Rand De Basanti brought out the college experience. actually, its somewhat similiar in the US among college friends. But in india from what I know its even more about enjoying life in college. Like the characters say in the movie. to me this brings out american desis and indian desis are cousins but we’re not the same
Manish, you know me by now and you know I don’t mean this to sound rude, but are we going to have more movie reviews like this? I mean, some of the films you mention are off-beat and I wouldn’t hear about them easily elsewhere (and Mangal Pandey HAD to be reviewed by the Mutiny), but this is a mainstream Bollywood release and there have been a million reviews around for a few weeks. Sorry if I sound petty.
BB, half this isn’t written for you. Many readers are Bollyilliterate, so you have to explain backstory and summarize plot.
I’ve read the other reviews, this is a different take (City of God, All My Sons, Thelma & Louise parallels) and writing style.
You’re right on timeliness, but you have a scroll bar.
Indeed I do Manish and the last thing I’d want to do is tell someone how to run their
shipMutiny. Late or not, your review is more insightful than most anyway.I finally saw it this weekend… was pretty blown away, I’m a Bollywood fan, so it wasn’t what I had been expecting from all the Namaste America promos 🙂 Just speaking as an ABCD, I didn’t grow up learning about the historical nationalist heroes outside of my Amar Chitra Katha collection, so it was a very interesting premise that I thought was well carried out, especially for what’s being marketed as mainstream Bollywood.
The youth nationalism in this film was really fascinating. I know that it’s all fantasy, but it was nice (?) to see the disconnected-apathetic attitude about government shared here and there.
Sure, it’s cheesy, but it’s not unrealistic. When I went to India last year, my cousin actually said to me “Yaar, we’ll go to clubs and totally freak out, ok?” No joke. I am a huge Hindi film fan, but even I can admit the cheesiness of Bollywood. And while that sort of music and dialogue can be cringe-worthy for someone like me who grew up in the US, I don’t find those scenes to be jarring or make the movie any less effective, because the fact is a lot of college students in India act that way. And I’ve always felt that India is one or two decades behind when it comes to western pop culture. Plus, this is a country where the majority of the people went ga-ga over a song entitled “Just Chill, Chill”.
Also, Aamir Khan may be 40 but I don’t feel he was mis-cast. His performance was proof of that. There are several reasons as to why I thought this was such a great movie, but for me the best thing about RDB was the character development and the chemistry between the friends. Unlike in DCH, the separate stories were dependent on their friendship.
Nope! Thats what first half of movie was all about… The youths dont associate themselves with Azad, Bhagat or even Mahatma Gandhi.
The movie had a very fresh feel for Bollywood level – especially the execution of train robbery incident. Loved it – good dose of nationalism. But I dont know why the SM community shuns nationalism, however mild,… it is the only thing that unites Indians together.
I feel that the violence shown in the movie gives youths a wrong message. It should be avoided, until it is absolutely necessary. Especially when the youths were motivated to take ‘revenge’ for their friends death, govt. violence during the vigil, and that they held the defence minister responsible for nations losses – rather than being motivated to by the cause itself. That way, even Ghodse could be justified for he held Gandhi responsible for Indias partition and its aftermath.
If the movie was based on historical facts and events, then there are serious mistakes in the plot. For instance, a prof. from IIT-Kanpur expalined that “we can say that the losses whilst regrettable do not reflect any sudden decrease in quality..”. He also points out that crash % of planes, however unfortunate, is also seen in other developed countries and has been seen in India in early 90’s. Defence miniter (George Fernandes) was also popular among army troops at the front, otherwise shown in the movie. Last year there was some news that some fact finding commission had cleared DM off any wrong-doings?
finally saw RDB yesterday, thought it was a very very good movie. If it was a bit more compact and less preachy in the end, it would have been a great movie. I thought the juxtaposition of the historical and contemporary characters to be a pretty cool idea, and well-executed when they were planning the assassination of the minister.
Manish, college kids in India DO have a lot of fun, and go out on bikes and everything. The only reason I didn’t do it was I couldn’t afford a bike and was too proud to ask for a ride 🙁 But I had classmates who went to the Western ghats every so often on groups of bikes (with babes in tow). As you said, the jocks are usually not allowed into the US, so people here, including my friends have the misconception that Indians don’t really do anything fun.
And I do find the overuse of the word ‘cheesy’ for Bollywood a tad annoying, a very west-centric concept. But oh well, that’s what it is for you guys. I actually thought most of the movie was far less cheesy than most of Bollywood.
Frankly, I am glad that people are focusing on the revolutionary aspect of the freedom movement in a realistic way, getting away from the whole Gandhi-Nehru dominated sense of history. Call them terrorists or freedom fighters or whatever, they deserve their pages in history. We read about them in school history textbooks, but it was the first time I’ve seen an execution of the Kakori conspiracy.
And did I say that I was totally won over by Alice Patten? That gal’s a good actress. A few minutes into the movie and I’d totally forgotten she was a gori. Yes, there should be more interactions like this between Indian and other actors. In fact, I wish Hollywood learnt a lesson in inter-cultural relations from this.
ahem. there is only one SG. i believe you are referring to “SIG” in the above sentence. 😉
I havent seen the movie, but if there is a comparison made between the killing of Saunders by Chandrashekhar Azad and other revolutionaries to some revenge killing of a minister … that is a slap on the face of the vision of the revolutionaries such as Azad, Ramprasad Bismil and even Lalaji. The solution in India movies is always kill the elected politician. “Da man keepin us down” … Thats why these type of MIS-GUIDED themes dont help India’s fledgling democracy.
BTW, how dare anyone compare to their little revenge action to Chandrashekhar Azad?? People should read about Azad-ji. He is my fav. revolutionaries of all time.
huh, why? please explain…
Azad, his protege Bhagat Singh, Pandit Ramprasd Bismil, Ashfaq -ul- khan were fighting a foreign occupying force, for starters. I will put more reasons later.
Here’s Wiki write-up about Chandrashekhar Azad
More reasons – Azad was fighting a opressive foreign power with limitless resources, almost single-handedly, and had no real legal ways of removing the British from expoiting India. – Azad had a vision for how he wanted to achieve Independance and then how the country would look like. – Azad had developed a network for covert activity for resistence and printing literature (very important part of educating masses) – He became mythical in death. – There is a story about him, that he had vowed not to get caught alive, while being questioned by a judge, at the age of 15. – He mentored Bhagat Singh and others.
So the reasons are many, why a simple act of revenge cant be compared with a visionary, almost mythical revoluitonary.
Aplogies for lots of typos in my earlier comments…the ABCD baiting one…! Some important questions have been raised which need to be answered. Do university students ride expensive dirt bikes and hang out in cavernous party spots with pools and panoramic city views? The bikes were ordinarly 100 cc bikes customised by the local mechanics in Delhi. You can get it done for 10,000 rupees….nor so expensive. I did not see any “party spots” . The RDB gang hang out in old ruins and the ” pool” was an old 500 year old step well , I think somewhere in Rajasthan and Gujarat ThereÂ’s lots of cheesy Â’80s rock guitar, very Karate Kid. Cool, yaar, stop pressurizing me, letÂ’s freak out. I love 80s rock music….lot of people here do. I do say words like freak out yaar…so it is totally real in that way …But these things are totally culture specific . I mean I find 50 Cent and Madonna cheesy but they are big in the promised land … Amreeeka…
“Amir Khan though I thought was miss-cast.”
Yes, he is a little old and needs a face lift. But when I watched DJ (his character in the movie)I didnt see aamir at all. Thats perfection, he was just one with the group and wasnt trying to steal scenes or lines. RDB needed his charm and wisdom. Brilliant movie!
This is one of the most memorable Indian films i have ever watched
I agree with comment #29
Late to the party.
Just finished watching the movie. Loved it despite the obvious flaws and can’t believe Bollywood could make something so well. Of course, with Bollywood, my standards are always considerably lowered. All the actors were great. Soha Ali Khan ooh, OOOOH!
Story – the beginning was kinda weak, the middle was strong with the transformation, esp. the BJP/RSS guy etc. The endgame was pathetic. Assasination was the solution! Pathetic! This is the always lazy Bollywood answer. What was the need to violently take over the radio station in the end. Their friend could have easily put them on the air. They could have announced that they are no armed and except for the dude making the speech on air, everyone else could have been out with their hands in the air quite early since the media was at the scene long before the cops. So all that didn’t make any sense.
Riot police being let loose on peaceful people with candles in front of India Gate – not realistic. But it was great to see a movie that wasn’t about arranged marriage or its opposite or a bunch of songs with some talk between them.
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