Rang De Basanti

Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Cast: Aamir Khan, Alice Patten, Kunal Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Siddharth, Soha Ali Khan Pataudi, Atul Kulkarni, Mohan Agashe, Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher, Waheeda Rehman, Om Puri, K.K. Raina, Steven Mckintosh, Lekh Tandon, (R. Madhavan)

9/10

Take a bow, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. At this point of time, it may sound too inquilaabi and raise too many eyebrows to prop Rang De Basanti right up there near Black, but let’s stick our neck out: go ahead, you can put the black hood over our head, but in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is another Sanjay Leela Bhansali. After Black, it’s Basanti.

Mehra’s film isn’t just about history; cinema history in the years to come will also read Rang De Basanti as another masterly written chapter.

A decade back, music magician A.R. Rahman had come out with a modernday version of Vandemataram and which had blazed its way up the charts. The kneejerk reaction was that it was sacrilege, catering to the rising trend of remixes. But very tellingly, Rahman explained that it was necessary to jazz up the great old Vandemataram and reach it to the younger generations. And he was bull’s-eye right.

Mehra has done exactly that in film format and interestingly, Rahman is also the music director of Rang De Basanti. At the first level, it is the story of Bhagat Singh once again. But using technique and technology, he transforms it to the story of Daljit Singh aka DJ ? and pagdis off especially to Mehra, Rensil D’Silva, Prasoon Joshi and Kamlesh Pandey’s jaw-dropping script/screenplay/dialogue; and Binod Pradhan’s awesome cinematography. Mehra puts his arm on the shoulders of the young guns of India and talks to them in their tongue, yaaaar, and brings out the Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Bismil and Chandrashekhar Azad in them.

Mehra is a man of guts and his conviction and passion also make him a willing shaheed to his art and craft. By adopting a film-within-film format, that too partially, and not in the conventional format as we have seen in so many of our art filmmakers, leading up to a kind of political thriller, Mehra hands over his safe and smooth ride ticket and treads instead a creative minefield. And comes off with absolutely flying colours, Basanti being only one of them.

Then, there is the starcast. Each one of them fits the mould so snugly that you feel like snuggling up to each of them, whether it is the best Brit in Bollywood, Alice Patten (Tumhaari maa ki aankh, Alice!), or this unknown entity (soldier, we nearly said), Siddharth; whether it is the nothing-particular yet so herself Soha Ali Khan Pataudi, or the totally adorable Madhavan; whether the as-natural-as-nature Kirron Kher or the little-over-the top Atul Kulkarni (who looks a little older than perhaps required).

And then there is Aamir Khan. The overplayed intensity of Mangal Pandey is, thankfully, all gone, along with the handlebar moustache. So easy, so relaxed, so ‘it’, just like the chemistry among the pals and the gori mem.

What else can we say, Mehra man, behn de takke?

Anil Grover