Rang De Basanti has dashed my hopes for relief from the prolonged drought of great movies in Bollywood.

This film will ensure the continued march of the mediocre parade down Bollywood Avenue.

After reading the diaries of her grandfather, who was a British police officer in pre-Independence India, Sue (Alice Patten) makes a trip to India to shoot a film on the famed revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaq Ullah Khan etc.
/> In Delhi, Sue meets five friends Sonia (Soha Ali Khan Pataudi), Daljeet Singh a.k.a DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan Singhania (Siddharth), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor) and Sukhi (Sharman Joshi). Saffron nationalist Laxman Pandey (Atul Kulkarni) joins the group later.

DJ has passed out of the university five years earlier but still hangs around the place; Karan is the son of a rich industrialist played by Anupam Kher; Aslam is a painter, whose family is not happy over his association with his Hindu friends. Sonia has a steady boyfriend in Ajay Rathod (Madhavan), an idealistic fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force, and Sukhi is a playful young man blabbing about girls.

Disillusioned by the corruption and decay of the Indian political system, DJ, Karan, Aslam and Sukhi are deeply cynical that things will ever change for the better in India. They spend their time partying, drinking and racing their bikes and jeep.

Sue prevails upon her new friends to act in her film as the Indian revolutionaries. Although they initially sport a flippant attitude, the five friends soon get into the role of the revolutionaries.

The movie juxtaposes the pre-Independence revolutionaries' valiant acts with the present lives of the five friends.

The rubber meets the road after Sonia's boyfriend Ajay is killed when his MiG fighter plane crashes.

The villain of the movie is the defence minister who besides conniving in the procurement of dubious parts for MiG fighters also slanders Ajay's reputation by attributing the crash to human error. A police baton charge on peaceful protesters makes a bad situation worse leaving Ajay's mother (yesteryear heroine Waheeda Rehman) in a coma.

In a reprise of the revolutionaries' attacks on the British, the enraged friends plot to kill the defence minister and shoot him down during his morning constitutional setting the stage for the final showdown.

Unlike pathbreaking Bollywood movies such as Paheli or the recent Hollywood hit Brokeback Mountain, Rang De Basanti doesn't tread new ground. Venal politicians are hardly new in Indian politics or for that matter in any political system. Several Hindi and regional language films in the early 1980s dwelt on the subject and Rang De Basanti hardly adds anything new here.

Also, the transformation of the party boys into revolutionaries seeking to awaken the country is poorly handled.

Rang De Basanti's music is very run-of-the-mill and lifeless. Loose control, Rang De Basanti and Roobaroo are passable songs. For sure, none of the Rang De Basanti songs will become super-hits.

There is not much to complain on the acting front. But a poor script can pull down even great actors like Marlon Brando (for proof, see that weird film Last Tango in Paris).

All in all, Rang De Basanti is dejavu at best and ennui at worst. ... More ... Collapse

I loved the movie.. ... Collapse

Inquilaab Zindabad! Fantasy meets reality, DJ meets Daljeet Singh meets Chandrashekhar Azad, and message becomes thought-provoking entertainment! Aamir Khan carries it through with one of his finest performances to-date, both as the young Delhi University student, DJ, and the dynamic Azad. Be it his comic timing, the Punjabi accent or the impish smile- Aamir plays his role to perfection. Hats off to the veteran actor!

DJ’s daredevil method of expression is introduced by director Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra to the audience with a beer-drinking session held at the edge of a parapet, where he challenges a young Sukhi (played by Sharman Joshi) to see who maintains a finer sense of balance under the influence of alcohol. With cheers and hooting from friends below, in a playful banter, DJ emerges the victor. The idyllic setting takes off from here and though these youngsters come from a diverse background, the bonding that they share is established very well through the story and the screenplay (written by Kamlesh Pandey).

So you have DJ, a true Punjabi, full of himself, loud but at the same point in time, sharp and witty, the leader of the pack. Then you have the youngest of the lot, Sukhi who over the due course of time, realizes that there is more to life than just fun and games. Interestingly he is given a line “main kuwara Nahin Rehna chahta” which is used as a screenplay ploy throughout in the lighter moments, and comes back in the climax (which one would not want to reveal in the review), at a heartbreaking moment. And you have Aslam (played by Kunal Kapoor) who comes from an orthodox Muslim background, a part of the group’s drinking and partying in every sense of the term, yet he stays true to his family ideals. His father’s (Om Puri) expectations of him are high, wanting his son to go beyond where his family has reached, yet truly retain what his faith holds for him. Also a part of the gang is Karan (Siddharth), son of an extremely rich businessman, Singhania (Anupam Kher), who feels that his being rich is the only reason why he doesn’t belong so much to the friends and the team, and he finds that his father’s love for him is limited to isolated conversations which consist of nothing more than, “what are you going to do with life?” or which “foreign university are you going to attend?”. Add to this mix a young girl, Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) who is just like one of the boys, and Flt. Lt. Ajay Rathod (Madhavan), her love interest, and you have an eclectic group unlike any seen on the Indian screen.

In their intertwined lives enters Sue, a young filmmaker from UK who is in India to make a documentary on revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh. Trying to find the perfect actors, she realizes that this mixed bag of friends fits her need to the ‘T’. The film from then on moves between the present and the past, seamlessly introducing the revolutionaries of yesteryear and coming back to the ‘new’ generation that the director tries to create parallels with. The moving back in time is in sepia tone, wonderfully shot by cinematographer Binod Pradhan (the ace lensman behind movies like Devdas and Mission Kashmir) and these images beautifully juxtapose with the present Delhi, may it be the University campus or a simple dhaba run by Kiron Kher. The humour is smart, the one-liners sharp, penned by adman Prasoon Joshi. This light tone is injected with a degree of seriousness wherein questions about finding a meaning in life are thrown at the audience.

Rang De Basanti is essentially a post-modern interpretation of freedom as it throws light upon the true identity of the Indian and at the same time has an entertaining and interesting narrative style, which declares what the filmmaker’s own stand is on the present political and social scenario. Be it corruption in higher places, be it arms deals, or be it his personal opinions on the wheeling-dealings that go in the higher defense level, all are brought out in the film, making it contemporary and relevant. Yet, the film doesn’t get too jingoistic, and doesn’t delve too much into the aspects of corruption of past history, keeping the proceedings entertaining. (for example, more cerebral parallels are made to General Dyre and the Defense Minister, which is best left for the viewers to discover).

Over the period of the film’s play time, through playing these revolutionaries this band of friends become revolutionaries themselves, but revolutionaries of today’s time. Towards the end, as the film races to a climax which is a bit weak as it is staged in a limited scope in and around a radio station, the film voices its true message: Sacrifice, which is why the title, ‘Paint it Yellow’. The film succeeds on many of its ambitious levels, which is an achievement by itself, due to the treatment and the actors. And not just the lead actor, Aamir Khan, but a very formidable cast, with Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, Soha Ali Khan and Atul Kulkarni, all understanding their characters, and playing them, just like they would have been in real life. The colours speak in Rang De Basanti. ... More ... Collapse