Rang de Basanti…..

Warning to the Readers: If you have not watched Rang de Basanti, then you may want to think twice about reading this post. If you read it anyways, i hope it will tell you which film to watch and which one to avoid.

I saw Rang de Basanti about 10 days ago, and have been meaning to write about it for a while. Believe it or not, the inspiration for this post came from this delightfully earnest bit of rambling about that disgusting, patronising commentary about relationships by the perennially single Karan Johar.

There was something about Rang de Basanti which struck me, apart from it being the best Hindi film ive ever seen. It was for me a film which made some pertinent comments about being grown up. The most telling events in the story came from grown ups. Every Peter Keatingesque character in the film – from the politician Mishra, to the defense minister (Mohan Agashe), to the new defense minister (who orders that none of the “terrorists” should be kept alive) was a grown up. Even DJ and his friends, even though of varying vintage, were students a long time ago. The only grown up character who was not Keatingesque was DJ’s mother, who played no significant part in the story.

It was not then the story of an exasperated youth – young revolutionaries in the image of Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqullah Khan, Ramprasad Bismil, Chandrashekhar Azad, but of the defeat of the spirit that is passed off for being grown up.

Roark after all, was Roark all his life…..

Life must lie somewhere in between the Roarkness of DJ and the Keatingness of Defense.

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