Rang De Basanti
A film made for idiots, by an idiot

It is not a film for the better informed. It is a typical jingoist Indian film. The slogans and shenanigans have changed though. There is no more of Pakistan bashing. It is everyone’s whipping boys, the politicians and the saffron brigade, who are at the receiving end here.

It also is a typical ‘Hindu-Muslim Bhai Bhai’ film where a Hindu does not tire of saying ‘sorry’ to a Muslim as if he is responsible for all the woes of this community. How come in our films Muslims and Christians are not heard expressing regrets to a Hindu for what they did to him for more than 800 years? Why is a Hindu made to feel so guilty? And he is guilty of what, of being liberal and accommodating, of having allowed the minorities to survive and flourish, of not wreaking any vengeance on them for trying to destroy his belief and lifestyle for ages, of being tolerant to all kinds of intolerant assaults on his institutions and symbols, and of wishing to build a temple in the holiest of his places?
 
The filmmaker may even nurse a feeling that he is paying tributes to revolutionaries like Ramprasad ‘Bismil’, Ashfaqulla Khan, Chandrshekhar Aazad, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Durga Bhabhi. Bull shit. What he does is just the opposite. He trivialises their struggle by comparing them to a decadent brat pack who turn into killers to avenge the death of their friend, an Indian Air Force officer, who dies in a MIG crash.

The film exhorts the youth to become IAS and IPS officers or take to politics to purge ‘the system’ as if they were ‘Gaazar ka juice’ and ‘Julaab’. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra presumes that politicians and bureaucrats of today had nothing to do with academia. He does not know that the fine tradition of students spearheading political and social movements, driven by ideological zeal and fervour, and finally joining the political mainstream, is an old one, as old as the history of such movements in India.

And what do the students of universities in Delhi do but prepare for UPSC exams to get into various Indian Government Services (IAS, IFS, IES, IRS, IPS, etc.) and to preside over the destiny of our nation and partake in the open loot of our treasury. Surprisingly, JNU and DU students have never been in the forefront of any student movement in post-independence era, exceptions notwithstanding. Yet they register a dominant presence in Dilli’s corridors of power as political fixers, lobbyists, arms dealers and agents, public relations experts, media kings and queens, celebrity social activists, armchair thinkers, all knowing economists, political philosophers, opinion leaders, well connected lawyers, party big wigs and spokespersons, etc. after they finish their studies and come out of the capital’s prestigious colleges and universities. They create an impenetrable web of relationships and contacts and control the power establishment; whatever be their political leanings and affiliations. This is the character of Dilli. It has not changed a wee bit over hundreds or may be thousands of years of its existence.

Our filmmakers have been repeatedly showing kids from well-heeled, upper class, well established and connected families as the most angst-ridden lot. ‘Yuva’, ‘Hazaron Khwahishein…’ and now ‘Rang De Basanti’. Where from, how, and why has this falsehood emerged? Blame it on Hollywood. Its films are the only knowledge base most of our new age public school educated filmmakers and writers have. They lift their characters from a whole lot of Hollywood ‘angst’ movies, plant them on Indian soil, and create designer activists, student leaders in ‘Castro’ uniforms, young bikers in leather jerkins, and beer guzzling riffraff revolutionaries.

And what is the ground reality? It is these upper class kids who play havoc with the system as they have scant regard for it and know that they can get away with anything. The whole lot of them, from Dutts to Khans, and from Yaadavs to Nandas and Gandhis, are all beyond the laws of the land applicable to ordinary mortals and have no qualms about circumventing and abusing the system. It is this kind of youth who actually cause huge losses to our Air Force by carelessly handling expensive fighter planes bought with public money as their ‘Baap Ka Maal’ for romantic joy rides and actually crashing them in the process.

One wonders if Mehra has a university degree or not. Our film industry is full of uneducated and illiterate English speaking Khandani filmwallahas. They hardly have any sense of history or destiny. They use serious socio-political issues casually as their core theme to create buzz and hype. ‘Authenticity’, ‘truth’, and ‘research’ are far from their minds as they entail hard work. Mehra emulates Anil Sharma, who made ‘Ghadar’, and Mehul Kumar, who created ‘Tiranga’, both blockbusters but bad films.

The jingoism of ‘Rang De Basanti’ is more problematic since it ‘Bollywoodises’ a serious issue that has been in the headlines in the recent past. It also casts unsubstantiated aspersions on political outfits and individuals as a ‘below the belt’ punch. We know now why the Censor Board, and Pranav Mukherji cleared the film; clearly, it serves the propaganda objectives of the present political dispensation that prefers to perpetuate the false impressions, created by a flippant, and sensationalism-driven media, to malign and maul its political opponents. ‘Rang De Basanti’ tries to turn that falsehood into a popular filmi fact and a prejudged indictment.
 

Should the film have been banned and censored? No. As artistic products, films should at the most be certified and not censored. Why is khullamkhulla even against the censoring of films that spread falsehood? Because khullamkhulla knows that the censoring authorities will invariably be selective. Censorship will be misused as an effective tool by the ruling establishment to implement its partisan agenda and to suppress contrary opinions and POVs. Censorship also takes away our right to challenge and counter falsehood and tell the truth. It cuts both ways. Abolition of the Censor Board is a must to have a level playing field and to unleash the creative and intellectual potential of our filmmakers. For instance, we can make a world-class film on the Bofors scam. However, it would never happen as long as film censorship exists in our country. Can you believe that the Censor Board has banned films based on the autobiography of Gandhi?
The Censor Board of Film Certification murders Gandhi again

‘Rang De Basanti’ professes to deliver a message to the youth of the country. They should not sit and complain about problems. They should act. And how? Mehra’s protagonists take the easiest path, the ‘D’ gang path. ‘Uda do sale ko’, ‘Maar dalo’,‘Laga do RDX aur daba do remote ka button’. They are intolerant and impatient upper class kids who brook no opposition and are ever ready to get into a gang bang act. They turn into killers, not out of an ideological fervour but for the flimsiest of reasons and motivations. This is Rakeysh Mehra’s revolution and revolutionaries.

And the language of the revolution is interesting too. ‘Hamara ek paon past mein aur ek future mein rehta hai, aur beech mein mootate rehtein hain’.  What is ‘Maa ki aankh’ by the way? Is it slang for ‘cunt’ or what? These are the laughter lines. Bawdier the better, is the new success Mantra of Bollywood. Bawdy dialogues and gestures are included in films to raise laughter in cinema halls. These are the obvious tricks of the trade now. And all this is being done in the name of Bismil, Aazad, and Bhagat Singh, great revolutionaries and visionaries. What a bizarre, far-fetched, and fucked up comparison? Or is it that very soon we will be seeing leather jacket wearing, and motorbike borne neo-revolutionaries from well-heeled families roaming the streets and killing all those traffic policemen, they have been bribing in the past, for being corrupt?

Mehra uses all the familiar ploys of Bollywood to create some touching moments too. It does not work though. What works effectively in emotional terms is the evergreen Bismil poem, ‘Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai, dekhna hai zor kitna bazue quatil mein hai. Waqt aane de bata denge tujhe ai aasman, hum abhi se kya bataein kya hamare dil mein hai’ delivered with some conviction by Atul Kulkarni.

The film has a predictably contrived plot. Its characterisations have also become clichéd as we have seen so many of the Indianised versions of ‘buddy’ films of ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ and ‘West Side Story’ variety by now. Only the title music and song work in ‘Rang De Basanti’. Rahman has come out of the rut and created something dynamically beautiful after a long time. The ‘Rang De Basanti’ track and some of the dynamic shots and sequences compliment each other. That is the only spark of directorial genius in the whole film. Almost fifty percent of the film’s footage is devoted to its theme song. Yet, the director claims he has been working on the script for five years. He is certainly an idiot. A person with an average intelligence could have written a script so hackneyed and commonplace in its structure, content, and impact in five days flat.

Now, if ‘Ghadar’, ‘Tiranga’, and a whole lot of jingoist films can be considered landmark cinema, ‘Rang De Basanti’ joins their rank too. However, it brings no hope to those who would like Indian cinema to transcend its idiocy, and mediocrity to set new standards of artistic achievements.

And here is an important information. The headline of this review specifically suits those who are singing paeans to this film and going overboard in decorating it with stars.

RKS