Watched Rang de Basanti in Chicago this past weekend. A good movie to watch with decent performances from all involved. The story is typical of the Yuva Bharat Jagran theme that seems to be a solid formula for success the last few years and, apart from a few minor blemishes, plays its way neatly to the end. Tight tanktops, Aamir Khan, patriotic pilots, sacrificing mothers, apathetic and fun-loving youth, fiery and innocent patriot, college atmosphere, Delhi, Bhagat Singh and the revolutionary drama in the backlights, tight tanktops - pretty much all anyone could ask for to start a neo-Patriotic movie. I even shed my usual weekly quota of 30 teardrops all in one sitting and am not too sad about it. Just that it all had to come to an end.
It is a movie that raises questions and that is always one good thing about any movie. Only the questions that this movie raised shamed and frightened me. And the one question that has remained with me is: Why are such movies made? And the only answer I could come up with is something that Aristotle talked about all those long years ago: To provide a catharsis of feeling. In more understandable terms: So I can go about the next whole week without shedding any tears for the thousands who will die in India of the same irrational causes that they died of last week; so I can earn my comfortable living in a land a few thousand miles away and attempt to bridge the gap by attending Bhangra Dances every third Friday night instead of the usual disco; so I can wipe off the debt I owe certain individuals and institutions back home by calling India 'Home' and sending a few dollars every other month and purge myself of pity and kindness; so I don't feel bad about myself for doing all this and feel good that I sympathise with the patriotic and the good who throng theaters in Chicago and New York to watch the premiere.
Of course all this does not mean the folks back home are not without their share of patriotic feeling. They drive the production of these movies after all. And what do they do? They feel happy they did not go to America; they feel satisfied and smug knowing they are contributing to the growth of a resplendent India by the mere fact of their six-figure salaries; they feel their struggles and woes are what makes them Indian: their Indianness in the face of adversity and their perseverance inspite of their Indianness. Solid lumps of popcorn gets stuck in their throats and that is true feeling; the Cokes they drank in the interval leaks out of their eyes and that is true feeling; an indignation rises up at the people cracking obscene jokes near them and that is true feeling. What is not true feeling indeed?
Are we to believe that there is no patriotism except that engendered by rhetoric? Are we to believe that a few hours of big-screen entertainment will make better people of our youth? What history do I know? Who was Bhagat Singh? Or Azad? Or Bismil or Ashfaq? What did it mean to them: this idea called freedom, all this talk of revolution? What was India in their eyes? What have I done that I shake my head in appreciation and wonder at what the actors do?
In every sense of the word, RdB is a very necessary movie, no mistaking that; but the question is about how it is perceived, how ingested in the age we live in. When a country starts hating itself, it destroys itself; but when it starts loving itself too much, it forgets itself. RdB is an offering at the altar of a country that loves itself so much it does not know that the apathy of its children is the harbinger of skepticism or, worse, hatred; a country that believes every passion expended for her sake is an expression of love; a country that is yet to realize the fact that if last year was Bhagat Singh at Bollywood, next year will be the Rani of Jhansi. And India is happy with her youth, with people like me, who merely write and talk and spout nonsense. Right she is to be happy for she has forgotten herself but there still are the millions who need to be fed and clothed and brought to the theatre to watch RdB and others of its ilk.
Questions abound and one way of answering them is to turn the other way; another is to try and make the best out of every situation. So I will try and learn what it is Bhagat Singh attempted to do; learn what the characters in RdB mean to me and to that nebulous, glorious thing I call my country India. And then to act on what I have learnt and that before it is too late. There are people who have appreciated the movie better than I could and who took more out of watching it than I have and I hope I will learn what it means to empathise with people who find purpose in life greater than personal profit.
All in all a movie worth the watch.
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5 comments:
Finally someone who doesn't think the movie's "ideals" were wrong! Am happy :)
And a very well-written piece too (Can't call it a review, can I?)
A wonderful movie, am going to watch it again this week, such experiences are hard to come by :)
And for those who say the movie preaches wrong ideas and sit on their pedestal of "high thought" and feel very smug about THEIR views of patriotism, I only say "Get a life!" :D
i dont think that the movie's "ideals" were wrong. but i dont think gandhi's time is up either. i believe some actions are forced by society and non-violence is not always an option especially to people who want to see change in their own time. it is a painful decision for me to choose violence but i doubt if i will be strong(or weak) enough to let certain things take their own course. and my biggest point is that the movie itself is not only inadequate but also dangerous rhetoric in the sense that it stokes certain unnecessary passions without really creating a mature understanding. people seem to be telling themselves they are patriotic because they like and identify with the movie and the characters.
I agree with Shyam when he says this movie invokes misplaced and misconstrued and misunderstood 'patriotism'..true,it moved me to tears when I watched it..but then,apart from the commercial aspect of having made millions,what was the entire point of the movie at all..a touch and go on'pseudo'feeling for the nation..people who feel should do something..if people who really felt that they ought to do something to better their country after seeing this movie,then it is worhtwhile.. So Gandhi's ideals and the example of his life never can take a back-seat to such minute-long emotional tearjerkers..
as for the lighter aspect of all this,just enjoy the roles,the actors,the scenes,the music and feel the 'enlightenment' that does not come out of watching mushy romances or nerve racking action flicks..:)
malu,
depends heavily on who the actresses are in those tearjerkers and actionflicks ;).. as for patriotism, i am very leery about it as most people either use it to gain stuff or tend to spiral out of control into militant narrow-mindedness. any organized movement for reform usually tends to degenerate into silly propaganda or surly protestation. individually we could all help and i hope the work u and the others are doing from ur other blog does make a difference.
I do think so,too..Shyam..that's the genesis of MYINDIA..shall i send u an invitation..u can drop ur pearls of wisdom there,too and many more would benefit:)
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