The Return of the Anti-hero

RDB is amazing, I love this movie, The movie has some impacts on my Life and they are as follows.
1.I join a MultiNational Facility Providers as an experienced engineer, At that facility we have to live for 14 days means our working days are 14 days and off days are 14, so there we have got an induction hall where we use to induct new comers or to those who are not aware of site, using projector, so it behaves like mini cinema hall, there i suggested this movie one night, everbudy planned and at 9.30pm ppl starts rushing towards the So-Called induction hall and Now you know how the RDB starts DeeJay and Bhangra shangra,,,,then suddenly it changes its pace,,,As a regular Movie watching person I am use to it or sudden changes like AJAY died and movie changed,,,,After Movie everybuddy was yelling at Me,,, it was very very very very bore movie,,,, so on no body complains that much coz before that I have shown them Munna Bhai MBBS and Fannaa and they all liked both movies.

It happens with two more times,,,, can you tell me why that change was there or if it was part of RDB then whats the good answer to explain others about,,the same.

Re: # 5
her Bj......i love your review lol....its so ultimately hilarious!!!
But listen to saima baji too.....she is making a point...
Good review Saima baji.......the moment i saw its promo.......i knew RB is my type of movie......
are u tryign to say that the new age kids look upto teh voilent heros rather then the peace loving ones?

#4 Mantolives:
`You are in the gutter... as a human being... just like the tarapti hui aatma who your young people are rejecting for genuine people like Bhagat Singh.`

Our yong people are rejecting Gandhi if that is what you meant by `tarpati hui aatma`?
No big deal, but why and how does that put Gandhi and BJ in the gutter?

By the way were there any genuine people like Bhagat Singh among the Muslims, who were not in the Congress party and followers of Gandhi?

#5 BJ: That is an amazing review of a movie, you have NOT seen.

``(Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie. So what’s it you gonna do?!! Go ahead, make my day! Dock my wages!)``

That is funny.

Saima Ji,
Your articles generally are so heavy and packed, it is a delight to see this movie review for us low brow folks.
No I have not seen the movie yet, so the review is very helpful in making up my mind.
Compared to the violence that goes on now in the world, the Indian revolutionaries look pretty tame in comparison. They were unorganized, disoriented, always shot the wrong guy and had no end game plan; more like keystone terrorists.)
But that is all we had and we need to milk them for all we can along with our other illusions. There was a brief interlude of Hindu Muslim unity in Amritsar after Jallian Wala Bagh. The Sikhs did not join in even then. General Dawyer was actually presneted with a Siropa at the Golden temple.
From then to 1932 when Bhagat Singh was hanged, there were more than 25 H/M riots far bloodier than Gujrat.
Bandini, in my opinion, was the best movie in the genre. Acting, direction, story, songs were superb but it was low on entertainment value and the `seconds` scale.

Saima:

I have seen the film and it`s no Apu trilogy and Omprakash Mehra is not a patch on Satyajit Ray.

That said, it`s not a bad film. The first half is quite enjoyable but the film goes into the usual bollywood off-the-top stuff in the second half.

Still, it`s worth the price of admission. The British girl, played by the daughter of the last governor of Hong Kong, Christ Patten, does a commendable job. Aamir Khan is sincere but lacks in the talent department. Other actors are quite good, especially Kulkarni who plays the hindu fundamentalist and Soha Ali Khan who plays the romantic lead.

Hi Saima

Nice review. For me the movie was fascinating not only in its (re) packaging of the Bhagat Singh et al but looking at the grey area of freedom fighter/terrorist.

The same movie could have been made for ULFA which was set up by young men in Assam or JKLF in kashmir ;)

Seconds ...loved the movie but dont think it holds the seconds from me. Go for TAXI NO 9211...a fantastic Bombay movie.

aditya

Beej @ 5

Dynamite review :)

Is RDB screening in Pakistan? My impression was that Indian movies are banned, but Indian actrors (dilipkumar) may sometimes get sarkari awards..that is so weird..ban the movies but give actors awards.

RDB is a great movie.After a long time I have watched such kind of a movie.Full Paisa Wasool kya.Great Fun,entertainment with a social message.It has something which my generation can relate to.
It also gives a message what we can make a commercially successful Hindi movie without copying from hollywood or resorting to the standard formula.
A must see for all CHOWKIES.

Saima sahiba,

Kindly pay no attention to mian Manto (#4) – because of some unknown reasons, he has fallen madly in love with this interactor and is pursuing the same from board to board – and making wisecracks regarding the same – but I have no intention of responding to him – it’s more fun to talk to walls instead!

And of course Saima sahiba, you realize that my comments in #3 were on the mark, and of course mian Manto’s characterization of the same – just like his same of many other topics – is not!

Having got that out of the way, I do feel that your style of writing this review is a bit on the flat side. Instead of making inane suggestions which nobody believes and even more importantly, which you will most probably promptly disregard, I decided to write a review of the same movie as an example. Here it is for your consideration.

---

Rang De Basanti (2006)
A Review by BJ Kumar
Yo, chowkie! Lookee – over here!

Well, now that I got your attention – let me tell you this! You look sooooo…. sleepy!

What’s the matter – your wife keeps nagging ya!?

I got just the right recipe for you! And no, I ain’t talking divorce! You gotta go see Rang De Basanti!

Rang De Basanti – now THAT is a film about awakening! It’s about standing up for your own beliefs – where your spirit of rebellion always hangs around – whether you do or not!

It’s about this baby-faced, green-behind-the-ear goree moviemaker Sue, who – because of absolutely unfathomable reasons, except perhaps for a secret crush on an academy award or two, decides to make a movie on Indian freedom-fighters. Little does she realize that Indians are STILL not free – for most are still married!

As expected, because of the high cost of travel tickets to India, she promptly goes broke and ends up with slave-labor-wage “actors” from Delhi University – dragging them away from their favorite pastime of smoking cigarettes and watching captain Kangaroo!

For example, there is this guy called DJ (Aamir Khan), who graduated a decade ago (how else can one fit an aging actor into the role of a student?) but still hangs around the campus because of his unmitigated love for those first semester calculus lessons!

There is Karan (Siddharth), the son of some Hindoo baniya, who – as Hamidm2 and Tahmed mian will enlighten you ceaselessly – is bubbling all over with that Hindoo baniya animosity and therefore shares an uncomfortable relationship with his father, but continues to mooch off him – even though his heart is really not into the act of the mooching off!

And there is Aslam (Kunal Kapoor – they had trouble getting a real Muslim for the role – you know how it is, real Muslims are in such short supply!), who is a middle class – you guessed it – Muslim young man – and being a Muslim young man, is extremely good at poetry, philosophy, and providing guidance (and let’s face it, what else IS there?) – and being Muslim, of course lives near Jama Masjid – where else would one find a Muslim young man?

Then there is Sukhi (Sharman Joshi), the innocent and vulnerable baby – who has a weakness for girls – but being innocent, hangs around with boys instead!

And Laxman Pandey (Atul Kulkarni) is a fundamentalist who – like some chowkies – actually believes that talking about politics makes a difference. And then there is Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) – no not Mrs. Gandhi (who probably would have declined the role) engaged to an air pilot – although what that has to do with anything is anybody’s guess!

So there they are – the whole self centered gang only stuck to their own materialistic existence with no concept of what patriotism is till this goree comes around to show them. And because the impetus comes from a goree woman – they actually pause and listen and reflect and after careful consideration – return to what they were doing!

So the film doubles as a narrative on the actors. And the scenes from the past and present get juxtaposed in a very unique manner – but don’t ask me to explain – I was dozing off when that happened! Suffice it to say that all the characters evolve into a brave new world – and the brave new world closely resembles the brave old world!

Rang De Basanti is a youthful drama – so, all you old geese – forget about it! The rest of you, go see it! You’ll have fun – because it has a LOT of light-hearted moments (no, I’m NOT going to tell you what they are!)... until it takes a serious turn...which ends in the climax (and no, we are not talking about THAT kind of climax!).

Therefore chowkie – this stuff is absolute dynamite – but not the kind some of your bhai-loags specialize in! Go see it!

(Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie. So what’s it you gonna do?!! Go ahead, make my day! Dock my wages!)

BJkumar...

You are the most abusive person on chowk. Recall what you said about Farzana Versey simply because she wrote her point of view? And yet you have the balls to turn around and claim nonsense about Saima Shah ?

You are in the gutter... as a human being... just like the tarapti hui aatma who your young people are rejecting for genuine people like Bhagat Singh.


Saima...

Good article... Looking forward to watching the movie.

A side point about your loose usage of the word ``Politically correct`` for the drama... I know by now you must have come across his writings in South Africa and he is the farthest thing from politically correct.

This review seems to be written for someone who has already seen the movie. For individuals who have not - like this interactor - it ends up as a cruel collapse into cluelessness.

Who are the actors/characters? What happened? Who performed well? Who flopped? Who are these ``anti-heroes``? Where did they return from? Why the heck did they return? And will they be hanging around here long? And what does one have to do to get their rears kicked out?

[..as the smouldering rage of fu*cked up and exploited civil society…]
How smoothly chowk ladies transition to the language of the gutter!

Also, do you REALLY get a brand new thought every day? And what the heck did you do to all those other thoughts from all those other days?

Somewhere out there lies a secret kabristaan of half-formed, never-given-a-chance-to-life thought-babies. So carelessly conceived and so easily discarded!

Alas, it`s a cruel, cruel world! There is so little that`s square about it.

I`d go so far as to say that the last movie of this calibre was either the `Apu Trilogy` or `Salaam Bombay`.

Saima, you missed `Bhaji on the Beach`. That was the best of them all.

Saima,

As such, I have to concur with you in saying that RDB was great - in the sense that, it was a fresh concept, it targeted the youth and showed youngsters with a conscience who take an interest in civic responsibilities. What irked me though, was the final scene. It was made to seem to outrageously easy and the drama level was a bit excessive then - the final scene just wrecked it for me. You can`t just stroll in to a radio station`s offices and take the place hostage like that.

I fear youth movements aren`t as popular in India as they used to be.. and most importantly, RDB shows that it`s without reason. I`d definitely recommend a watch, but no seconds for me..