Rang De Basanti

Many a year ago, there was a small kid who asked his father – “Papa, why do people cry?” – His father replied solemnly, “It is sometimes such a joy to weep – to let tears flow unrestricted – to cry your heart out. It cleanses you – your soul.”

That kid grew up - scared of the system, scared of the politicians, scared of the rowdies and gundas in the neighborhood, scared of not being able to perform well in EAMCET, scared of campus interviews – scared of going up the ladder – scared of marriage of kids of companionship of many many such things.

And one day that kid decided to see Rang De Basanti. In his last thirty years of life, the kid didn’t cry even once in movie halls. Sometimes there were tears in the eyes but those stray incidents did not prepare him for what was in store in Six Degrees Cinema on January 27^th between 11:30am and 2:30pm.

I, the kid, am still dazed by the experience. I am yet to come out of the trans. I am typing all this as soon as I got home so that I would be able to translate into words the incredible experience I have just been through.

Don’t ask me what the storyline is or how the actors performed. That doesn’t matter. Leave all the peripherals aside. When you look at the big picture, in its entirety without dissecting it into unnecessary aspects – Rang De Basanti truly has the capability to influence you – to make you think – think seriously about all of us, the country, the armed forces and the irony of present day India. It is capable of brainwashing you. It is what Swades tried to do but failed. Rang De Basanti, as the Rediff reviewer comments, pulls of the stunt rather remarkably.

Rang De Basanti makes you cry; makes you laugh; makes you think and makes you love your country. I had to fight with all my might to stop the tears from flowing down freely. The girl sitting next to me however was smiling in tears and the guy sitting in the other side had forgotten himself fully and was staring at the screen without even batting an eyelid.

To describe the stunning effect the movie had on the viewers today in Chennai, let me just tell you this. – Seven or eight times during the course of the movie, the entire theatre burst into claps – once or twice people actually rose from seats to laud the effort.

I have never seen such a reception to any movie in my life. Period.

It is pointless to describe the negative points of the movie because in the emotional tsunami generated by the saga – you tend to forget everything and come out a transformed person. There are three or four loopholes or weak spots in the script but I deliberately refrain from discussing them.

Movies like this come once in a decade. I am not sure if this movie would succeed because a significant portion of the movie is in English and there are no commercial elements. However as a fan of good movies, I pray to God that this movie should succeed so that people in the film industry are encouraged to make such movies.

This film is an advertisement of what a good bound script can do. Generalizing this as a Coming of Age movie is doing a great injustice to the writer.

Kudos, Claps and Three Cheers. I hate to give this movie a rating. It is an insult on the movie. Decide yourself.