Producer: Mukesh Bhatt
Director: Vikram Bhatt
*ing: Aamir Khan, Ranee Mukherjee, Deepak Tijori, Rajit Kapoor, Mita Vashist, Sharat Saxena, Guest App. Dalip Tahil
Music: Jatin Lalit
Violence and rage is the name of this movie, with a short love story twisted somewhere in the middle. Siddharth (Aamir Khan) is a Mumbai tapori, a boxing champion. His brother, Jai, makes money through a former boxing champion who now rules the community through terrorizing people and stealing money from innocent merchants. Siddharth saw his father's death when he was a child; this mentally effected him throughout his life. His father's words remained with him, though he had only been with his father for a little while. Siddharth meets a young woman, Ayesha (Ranee Mukherjee) who rides with a motorcycle gang and Charlie (Deepak Tijori). This is a flavor for some comedy and a brilliant scene in which Siddharth is running towards a train and as the train is only a few feet away he jumps out of the way.
Siddharth and Ayesha meet for the first time and fall in love, and the typical love story follows. Siddharth meets another person who reminds him of his father, Hari. He learns a bit more from this man of wisdom and helps him in his truth. How he does this and the how the message of Hari and his father is carried out should be witnessed in the movie.
Overall, the movie bores at times and excites at times. Aamir Khan is terrific. His emotions are more dramatic and exciting than any other actor in the industry, today. It's too bad that the movie was not as exciting as his acting. Ranee Mukherjee does a good job, and her acting has improved dramatically since her debut in Raja Ki Aayegi Baarat. All the other actors perform brilliantly, but the movie doesn't come to the actor's standards. The songs are perfect for the movie, even Aamir Khan's "Aati Kya Khandala" works perfect with the movie. The one thing that is lacking in this movie is direction. The use of a better director would have created a better movie. The same could have been said for Fareb, Vikram Bhatt's last direction venture, in which the acting was brilliant (for newcomers Milind Gunaji, Faraaz Khan, and Suman Ranganathran) and the direction was below par.
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It is rare that such a well-crafted and beautifully told story is seen in Hindi cinema.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s movie ‘Rang De Basanti’ is a must-watch for reasons that the length of this review may not suffice to express. More than just a technically brilliant flick, ‘Rang De Basanti’ has a story that entertains you, makes you think and stirs you deep inside in the end.
The plot of the movie straddles two different time periods – first one, the contemporary setting revolving around a group of friends. The second one is in the pre-independence India, revolving around freedom fighters like Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Ashfak.
Parallels are drawn between the characters in the two time periods and as the story moves towards its conclusion, the barrier of time begins to dissolve and the characters become one in spirit.
Parallels are drawn between the characters in the two time periods and as the story moves towards its conclusion, the barrier of time begins to dissolve and the characters become one in spirit.
Sue (Alice Patten) comes to India to make a documentary on some freedom fighters about whom she gets to know from the diary of her late grandfather who was a British officer in India before 1947.
After having auditioned many in vain for her movie, Sue, aided by Sonia (Soha Ali Khan), meets a group of friends in whom she sees the characters of her documentary. The group consists of DJ (Aamir Khan), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), Karan (Siddharth) and Sukhi (Sharman Joshi).
DJ is originally Daljeet Singh from a Punjabi family consisting of a loving mother (excellently portrayed by Kiron Kher). A beer guzzler who is never serious about anything in life, DJ starts hitting on Sue the minute he sees her.
DJ is originally Daljeet Singh from a Punjabi family consisting of a loving mother (excellently portrayed by Kiron Kher). A beer guzzler who is never serious about anything in life, DJ starts hitting on Sue the minute he sees her.
Aslam comes from a Muslim family and refuses to endorse the opinion that Muslims ought not mingle with Hindus.
Karan is the silent one. He is rich but has a dry, loveless life. He smokes heavily and seeks happiness among his friends.
Sukhi is full of fun and frolic. He has no girlfriend and rues (quite portentously) that he would die a kunwara.
Also part of the group is Fl. Lft. Ajay Rathod (Madhavan), the love of Sonia (Soha). He is the only one in the group who has dedication to serve the country.
None of the friends is serious enough to be a part of Sue’s documentary. To them values like patriotism, sacrificing oneself for the sake of country are just beautiful words they cannot relate to.
None of the friends is serious enough to be a part of Sue’s documentary. To them values like patriotism, sacrificing oneself for the sake of country are just beautiful words they cannot relate to.
But Sue can see the characters of her movie in them. In DJ she sees Chandrashekhar Azad. In Karan she sees Bhagat Singh and in Aslam she sees Ashfak.
Even as the five friends agree to be a part of her movie, they still cannot accept the virtues of the characters (of the freedom fighters) they play. But then, Ajay dies in a MiG crash and is labeled as a rookie pilot by the Defence Minister who is unwilling to accept shortcomings in the MiG aircrafts.
DJ, Aslam, Karan, Sukhi, Sonia, Ajay’s mother (Waheeda Rahman) and Pandey (Atul Kulkarni) lead the protest against the Defence Minister to get Ajay the honour he deserved. But they are beaten mercilessly by the cops. Ajay’s mother goes into coma.
DJ and friends decide to bring the truth to light. But they choose a very extreme way to do it.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra deserves full praise for making a movie that certainly raises the bar for filmmakers in Bollywood. There is not a single dull moment in ‘Rang De Basanti’. The movie begins on a light note and there are humourous moments aplenty in the first half. The second half gets serious after the death of the character played by Madhavan. From then on, the story takes a grave turn and ends on a tragic note.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra deserves full praise for making a movie that certainly raises the bar for filmmakers in Bollywood. There is not a single dull moment in ‘Rang De Basanti’. The movie begins on a light note and there are humourous moments aplenty in the first half. The second half gets serious after the death of the character played by Madhavan. From then on, the story takes a grave turn and ends on a tragic note.
The most remarkable part of the movie is the parallel that Mehra draws between the freedom fighters and DJ and his group of friends. The movie keeps transposing the same actors into characters from the past. And then, as the story draws to its conclusion, even these differences in the characters disappear. The modern, city-bread ‘young guns’ of the twenty first century become one in spirit with the revolutionaries who sacrificed themselves for the country’s freedom.
Very interestingly, Mehra has even kept the same locations in the two time periods. The DAV college of Lahore in pre-Independence India becomes the radio station in the contemporary setting.
Only Aamir Khan could have enacted the role of DJ, the good-humoured, bike-riding ex-graduate who is afraid to go beyond the life of college campus and friends. Aamir speaks his dialogues with a Punjabi accent, spicing his lines with an expletive here and there. Particularly notable is his performance in the scene after the protesters (him included) are beaten by the police and he weeps helplessly in Sue’s apartment.
Alice Patten is perfectly cast. She delivers a flawless performance and even shows that she can swear in Hindi.
Kunal Kapoor, Soha Ali Khan, Atul Kulkarni are up to the mark. Sharman Joshi is a delight to watch. Siddharth gets his moments of acting at the movie’s end.
Cinematography by Binod Pradhan is top notch. The editing is slick. The songs in the movie are so indiscernibly placed in the narrative that they don’t hamper the pace at all.
For the sake of concluding this review, let it be said that ‘Rang De Basanti’ is an impressive movie that definitely ought to be seen once, if not more.
For the sake of concluding this review, let it be said that ‘Rang De Basanti’ is an impressive movie that definitely ought to be seen once, if not more.
A Must-Watch.
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Producer: Gordhan Tanwani
Director: Indra Kumar
*ing: Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla, Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Sadashiv Amprapurkar, Dalip Tahil and Johnny Lever
Music: Anu Malik
Can a film with an old-as-the-hills story be redeemed by mesmerizing performances and engaging treatment? Indra Kumar's Ishq replies, "Of course it can." Like Mr. Kumar's previous efforts Dil, Beta and Raja, this flick too is very implausible. Yet I would lay a bet, that like the others, Ishq will also be very big at the box office.
Ishq scores over the earlier hits of Indra Kumar in its appeal to the intelligent audience. Why so? The film, as the director proudly admits, is unabashedly commercial; in true Indra Kumar style, it suffers from an overload of melodrama, slapstick comedy, and stereotyped, overweight and handicapped caricatures. On the other hand, there are also two colossal redeeming factors; a talented foursome of lead-actors-cum-stars, and a slowly maturing director who has at last delivered some memorable, cinematic moments.
The story is a melange of the poor guy/rich girl, poor girl/rich guy theme. Poverty-hating fathers play barriers, trying to rearrange the situational dynamics to rich girl/rich guy, poor girl/poor guy. The film starts off on an irritatingly high note, making one reach for the emergency Tylenol bottle. But as soon as the romantic foursome enters the scene, you relax, sit back and enjoy these great artistes excel like never before.
Kajol and Ajay (self-titled characters) are the quiet, intense, brooding lovers, while Raja and Madhoo (Aamir and Juhi) are the 'I will kill you before I love you' confrontational type. The characters are well-defined, and take full advantage of each actor's talents. If Aamir and Juhi excel at comedy in the first half, then Kajol and Ajay - I never knew he was so talented - steal most post-interval dramatics. Of course, both pairs also have an innate chemistry, and the team is co-operative, rather than competitive.
Indra Kumar will never apologize for wooing the audience with tried-and-tested formulas. Luckily, he possesses a latent desire to become more creative and sensitive in the future: Aamir and Kajol's 'sibling' sequences are novel, moving and quite simply, brilliant. Kumar acknowledges the importance of family in Indo-Pak culture, and makes two statements overlooked in all the recently unending, Bollywood love-triangles. First, platonic relationships do exist between individuals of the opposite sex. And second, family relationships are not always based solely on blood. Human beings without 'families' need emotional support also.
The song and dance sequences are above average. (Only "Humko Tumse Pyar Hai" is vulgar and offensive. I though Aamir Khan said he would not participate in the current bump and grind trend.) Like the songs of Raja, "Mr Lova Lova", "Neend Churayee Meri" and "Ishq Hai Ishq Hai" are each worth the price of admission. (Remember, however that Raja was a really bad movie.) Baba Azmi's cinematography and Saroj Khan's choreography make "Mr Lova Lova" one of the best dance routines of 1997.
Ishq is a simple film meant for children, the young-at-heart, and people wanting to see great actors at work. It proves that the story need not be new or novel, to make a movie really good. Ignore the cliches because you will love the performances of Aamir, Juhi, Kajol and Ajay. I feel that this foursome has as much, if not more, talent than the overhyped stars of yesteryears. Anyone willing to repeat this team in another movie? Just give them interesting characters; the story is optional.
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