Rang De Basanti

Plot

A young women from England comes to India to make a documentary about her grandfather's diary which was written in the 1920s about the Indian Independence with five young men.

Release Year: 2006

Rating: 8.3/10 (17,589 voted)

Director:
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Stars: Aamir Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Siddharth

Storyline
A young idealistic English filmmaker, Sue, arrives in India to make a film on Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and their contemporaries and their fight for freedom from the British Raj. Owing to a lack of funds, she recruits students from Delhi University to act in her docu-drama. She finds DJ, who passed out five years back but still wants to be a part of the University because he doesn't think there's too much out there in the real world to look forward to. Karan, the son of Industrialist Rajnath Singhania, who shares an uncomfortable relationship with his father, but continues to live off him, albeit very grudgingly. Aslam, is a middle class Muslim boy, who lives in the by-lanes near Jama Masjid, poet, philosopher and guide to his friends. Sukhi, the group's baby, innocent, vulnerable and with a weakness for only one thing – girls. Laxman Pandey…

Writers: Kamlesh Pandey, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Cast:

Aamir Khan
–

Daljeet 'DJ'
/
Chandrashekhar Azad

Siddharth
–

Karan R. Singhania
/
Bhagat Singh

Sharman Joshi
–

Sukhi
/
Rajguru

Kunal Kapoor
–

Aslam
/
Ashfaqullah Khan

Atul Kulkarni
–

Laxman Pandey
/
Ramprasad Bismil

Alice Patten
–

Sue

Soha Ali Khan
–

Sonia
/
Durga Vohra

(as Soha Ali Khan Pataudi)

Steven Mackintosh
–

Mr. McKinley

Madhavan
–

Flight Lt. Ajay Rathod

(as R. Madhavan)

Waheeda Rehman
–

Mrs. Rathod

Anupam Kher
–

Rajnath Singhania

Kiron Kher
–

Mitro
/
DJ's Mother

Om Puri
–

Amanullah Khan
/
Aslam's Father

Lekh Tandon
–

DJ's Grandfather

Cyrus Sahukar
–

Rahul

Taglines:
A Generation Awakens.

Release Date: 26 January 2006

Opening Weekend: $701,666
(USA)
(29 January 2006)
(61 Screens)

Gross: $2,197,331
(USA)
(2 April 2006)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

157 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

Aamir Khan was initially uncertain about taking on the role of DJ, as he was in his 40s and DJ was 25 years old Punjabi in the film. He eventually accepted, though, and hired a tutor to aid him in Punjabi speech and accents.

Goofs:

Continuity:
In the scene where Sue says 'Undher say awaaz aye gee' and the Sukhi burps, Karan throws his cigarette on the floor and steps on it (you hear him do it). Then in the very next shot he does it all over again and the 'under say awaaz' scene is still going on.

Quotes:

Sonia:
[Angry]
DJ, just stop it yaar! Shut up and get out!

DJ:
See… now you're looking like a complete freedom fighter!

User Review

Celebrate your Freedom …

Rating: 9/10


Paint It Yellow…. Oops….that's suppose to be Rang De Basanti….. Well
that's exactly the director tries to convey. Its about today, us and
our present, yet the similarities we have from the Pre-independence
era. The Gen-x who knows Mac-D but still prefers the Dhaba Paranthas
with sweet Lassi. However they restrict their national values only to
food and nothing more. Its not a run of the mill stuff with 6 six
romantic songs, couple of foreign locales and then finally some
emotional drama….. No no no….. Rang De…is a Cult movie. It is more of
an introspection, a food for our thought process. It makes us think, as
to how should we actually celebrate our freedom. I was really moved by
some of the ending lines by the narrator, "I thought there are 2 types
of people in the world, one who die crying and other who move away in
silence but today I learned there is third genre, people who go
laughing". That says it all…

Rang De… is definitely a very brave and innovative attempt by the
director and for that matter he has selected a near perfect cast.
However veterans like Om Puri and Anupam Kher looked disposed. All the
characters grow gradually in the film and make you think their way.
Everyone is given enough space to justify their talent. Rakesh
Omprakash Mehra is a director of the new emerging Indian cinema, he
always tries to bring in something very different. I was really
impressed by his last attempt in 2001 for Aks (Amitabh Bachchan and
Manoj Bajpai ), and he definitely has succeeded in making another
fabulous master piece. The highlight of the movie is the great use of
cinematography techniques. Its probably for the first time in Indian
cinema that juxtaposing has been used with such a great effect. The way
each character gradually immerses into scenes from the past leaves you
fantasizing about the hard work that has gone in the background to
create this, both technically and on the part of the actor.

The movie starts on a very high spirit reflecting today's youth mindset
who believe that patriotism is something that looks good in history
chapters and today's world is far ahead of all that, they would prefer
to go boozing and dancing rather than thinking on any of those lines.
The way the campus scenes are shown really makes everyone go down the
memory lanes of beautiful college days. This is followed by some
intriguing drama and events which turns the life of a group of buddies
upside-down altogether.

The film grows on you gradually. The director has made sure that there
is a clear message in everything he presents, even the group of boys
represents different sects of society and religion. Hence creating an
appeal for everyone watching it. Music is another high point of the
show, its foot tapping and very much with the mood of the subject. The
songs give you a sense of freedom from within, a freedom to think in
one's own way. A.R. Rehman doesn't need any introductions and he is
surely one of the most original music directors we have in the country.

The brilliance of Aamir Khan is something very difficult to narrate, he
has proved it umpteen number of times that he is truly the most
versatile actor in the industry. His comic timing in the first part is
better than anything seen in recent past. He is extremely fluent even
with difficult Punjabi tongue twisters and the acting prowess he has
shown would be very difficult to match by anyone around. He appears so
natural and his complete look with new hairstyle (which is now part of
his every new movie) gives a very striking combination.

Well the most wanting part of the whole thing has been the script to
certain extent, it appears very loose in the second half and at times
gives a droning feel. Few new ideas presented by the author looked
half-baked. However it has been the technical expertise of the director
who managed to save the things with some outstanding camera work and
editing.

Rang De … is for sure a must watch movie, it doesn't have any preaching
but still it will force you to think once. As they say it "There are
two primary choices in life, to accept conditions as they exist or take
upon the responsibility to change them". I believe most of us want to
bring about the changes without doing anything, so its time to think
again folks and take some responsibility, lets Paint It Yellow …