Rang De Basanti

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Rang De Basanti
Directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Produced by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra,
Deven Khote,
Ronnie Screwvala
Written by Renzil D'Silva,
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Starring Soha Ali Khan,
Alice Patten,
Aamir Khan,
Waheeda Rehman,
Siddharth Narayan,
Kunal Kapoor,
Atul Kulkarni,
Madhavan
Music by A. R. Rahman
Distributed by UTV Motion Pictures
Release date(s) January 26, 2006
Language Hindi/Urdu
Budget Rs. 300M (estimated)
IMDb profile

Rang De Basanti (Punjabi: ਰਂਗ ਡੇ ਬਸਂਤੀ (Gurmukhi), रंग दे बसंती (Devanagari), رنگ دے بسنتى (Nasta'liq), Raṅg De Basantī (IAST); English: Saffron of Colour) is a 2006 Bollywood film. It was released on 26th January 2006; it was directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (of Aks fame). The film stars Aamir Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Madhavan, Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth Narayan, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni, British actress Alice Patten, Waheeda Rehman, Om Puri, Kiron Kher and Anupam Kher. The music is by A. R. Rahman and the album went on to become a chartbuster. The movie was well-received all over the globe.

While the film was India's entry for the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film Category, it did not make the shortlist for either ceremony. Rang De Basanti won the best movie award at the 2007 Filmfare Awards.[1][2]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Struggling British filmmaker Sue (Alice Patten) comes to India after she reads the diary of her grandfather, who served in the British Force during India's struggle for Independence. She plans to make a short film about some of the unsung revolutionary heroes of the Indian Independence Movement. Her friend Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) helps her find four young men to act in the film: Daljit a.k.a. DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan Singhania (Siddharth), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor) and Sukhi (Sharman Joshi).

They aren't enthusiastic at first, but Sue wins them over. Laxman Pandey (Atul Kulkarni), a political party activist, later joins the group -- although he is initially unpopular on account of his Hindutva beliefs and contempt for Aslam, who is a Muslim. As the young men learn more about the history of the Independence movement, they lose their cynicism and start to consider what they can contribute to society.

Then Ajay, Sonia's fiancé, (Madhavan) an Indian air-force pilot, is killed when his plane crashes. The government proclaims that the crash was caused by pilot error. Sonia and her friends know that Ajay was an ace pilot and don't accept the official explanation. Instead, they claim that he sacrificed his life to save hundreds of other lives, which would have been lost had he ejected from the aircraft safely, leaving the aircraft to crash in an overcrowded area. They investigate and learn that the crash was due to a corrupt defence minister (Mohan Agashe), who had signed a contract for cheap, spurious MiG aircraft spare parts in return for a large kickback.

Not content to accept this as "just the way things are done", the group decide to protest peacefully. Police forcefully break up their protest. The young men then decide that they must emulate the early freedom fighters and resort to violence. Tragedy and a shocking ending follow.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Box office

First week box office receipts were Rs. 51.07 crores, or 510.7 million rupees. It was one of the most successful Indian movies in 2006,[1]. The film has made just under $9 million at box offices worldwide.[3]

[edit] Trivia

  • Alice Patten is the youngest daughter of Christopher Patten -- the last colonial governor of Hong Kong before its handover back to China. [4]
  • There are cameos in this film from Abhinav Batra, better known as Indian rapper Abs-T, model Mandira Singh and British born director Mousir Syed.
  • A line spoken by the character Daljeet was later adopted by Indian university students protesting against an increase in reserved university seats for Other Backward Castes [5]:
Devanagari: ज़िंदगि जिनेके सिर्फ़ दो तरिके होते हे । एक जो होताहे होने दो, बरदाश करो और दुसरा ज़िमेदारि उठाओ उसको बदलने कि ॥
Nastaliq: زِںدگِ جِنیکے سِرف دو ترِکے ہوتے ہے ۔ ایک جو ہوتاہے ہونے دو، برداش کرو اؤر دُسرا زِمیدارِ اُٹھاّو اُسکو بدلنے کِ ۔ ۔
Translation: "There are only two ways to lead your life -- one, let things happen in their own way and tolerate it, and second, take responsibility to change it."
  • The scene in which the male cast jumps to the sky with the plane overhead is said to be inspired by the 1992 film, Deewana, in which Shah Rukh Khan and his friends do a similar sequence in the song "Pyar Karne Wala".

[edit] Controversies

  • The film is critical of the Indian government, and touches on some recent political scandals [6]. Indian films must be cleared by a censor board before they can be shown, and the production crew worried that the film might not pass the censors. They invited Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee to a private screening of the newly-finished film in hopes of forestalling a crisis. The film was cleared; whether or not the screening had anything to do with it is unclear.
  • Some scenes had to be removed from the movie after animal activist and Lok Sabha MP Maneka Gandhi protested. The scenes had been filmed before the production had applied for and received the necessary permission from Animal Welfare Board of India (of which she is president). However, the photo of that scene, where Aamir Khan rides on a decorated horse was nowhere questioned.

[edit] Cast

Actor Role
Aamir Khan Daljit Singh/Chandrashekhar Azad
Soha Ali Khan Sonia/Durga Bhabhi
R. Madhavan Ajay Singh Rathod
Siddharth Narayan Karan Singhania/Bhagat Singh
Alice Patten Sue McKinley
Kunal Kapoor Aslam/Ashfaqulla Khan
Atul Kulkarni Laxman Pandey/Ram Prasad Bismil
Sharman Joshi Sukhi/Rajguru
Kiron Kher Mitro
Anupam Kher Rajnath Singhania
Om Puri Amanullah Khan
Mohan Agashe Defence Minister
Waheeda Rehman Ajay's mother
Cyrus Sahukar Rahul

[edit] Soundtrack

The music is composed by A. R. Rahman and lyrics for the songs are written by Prasoon Joshi.

[edit] Awards

Rang De Basanti won many awards at the major award ceremonies. The awards it won (in bold) and were nominated for are listed below:

[edit] 2007 Filmfare Awards

[edit] 2007 Star Screen Awards

[edit] 2007 Stardust Awards

  • Breakthrough Performance Award (Male) - Kunal Kapoor

[edit] 2007 GIFA Awards

  • Best Director - Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
  • Best Supporting Actress - Soha Ali Khan
  • Best Music Director - A. R. Rahman
  • Best Background Music - A. R. Rahman
  • Best Screenplay - Rensil D'Silva and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
  • Best Editing - P. S. Bharti
  • Best Art Director - Sameer Chanda

[edit] External links

[edit] Reviews

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Financial Express: RDB too ‘foreign’ for Oscars
  2. ^ Variety: Award central - Foreign Oscar list down to nine
  3. ^ "Roobaroo-ing All the Way to London", Nirali Magazine
  4. ^ Alice Patten interview on Rang De Basanti in BBC
  5. ^ Quota stir gets Rang De hue. CNN IBN (2006-05-17). Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
  6. ^ South Asia Tribune interview
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