Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Rang diya basanti

You choose to be silent (or forced to be) when you have nothing to say, or when there are so many things to say and you don’t know from where to begin. Or sometimes you just don’t feel like saying anything. A bit of each of these applies to me, and hence such a long, unplanned break.

The first thing that struck me this morning was, it's already more than 2 months into the New Year!! Man, where did all these days go? I sit down, take a moment to clear my thoughts and check out.

***
I don’t remember much of January at all. Except for our much-awaited vacation in the last week of January.
Yeah, yeah...I will write about it in an independent post.

***
February was work, work and work. Same for A.

The highpoint of February was to watch Rang De Basanti. The movie which you can’t ignore. Right from the moment the screen comes alive with the words

"Ab Bhi Jiska Khoon Na Khaula, Khoon Nahin Voh Paani Hai,
Jo Desh Ke Kaam Na Aaye, Voh Bekaar Jawaani Hai"
,

You sense that this is no ordinary movie. You better be prepared for the impact which is going to knock you off.

Writing anything about the actors, the way they have lived their characters, the way the story is told and all those sepia images of Bhagat Singh, Azad, and Bismil will just be running out of superlatives. So, I'll not try to do that.
I'll just say that go, watch for yourself.

There are so many moments in the film which stay with you for a long time. The carefree friendship of DJ, Aslam, Suki, Sonia, and Ajay warms the cockles of your heart. You see your friends in their faces. You shrug your shoulders at their indifference. You laugh with them. Their grief makes you cry, their anger makes you angry. Their dilemma is very much the dilemma we all face today.
And then they do what they feel is right. They think it's their only chance to make a difference. Their only shot to awaken a generation.

Whether the film is realistic, whether it sets the right example, I don’t know.
But I know that it stirs you and urges you to "Be the Change" that you so desperately want to bring about in the system.
When the film ends and the credits start rolling with the strains of “Rubaroo...Roshni" ringing in your ears, you realize that it was not just another movie.

6 comments:

Deepak said...

I've been having the same kinda thoughts. The first two months of this year just whizzed by.

About RDB: The first half was really refreshing, but I thought the script lost its way at the end. Felt the folks were overreacting a tad.

pals said...

I was wanting to write a Rang De Basanti based blog for a while but somehow never got down to doing it and when I finally got down to blogging again, I forgot about writing about that. Anyway it was good to see the blog since it was as if I had written it ;))

Kavs said...

Hi Deppe! When are you coming back? Abt RDB, I completely agree with you. But I loved this movie coz it shows Bhagat Singh as Bhagat Singh, at least not like those movies wherein he says his goodbyes to tearful Aishwarya Rais or Amrita Raos. :)
Hi Fountainhead! I know exactly what you mean by that. ;)

Kavs said...

Welcome Kiran and Trupti!! Chiranjiv has not changed one bit when it comes to praising his Aai so generously.
And RDB was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the candle bearers marching for Jessica.

Deepak said...

Hi kavs. I'm back in india tomorrow :-D but for a short vacation.
I must agree on what you say about Bhagat Singh shown as Bhagat Singh and not some love struck romeo running after damsels.

Aroop M Cherian said...

Hi Kavs:

I guess RDB is one of the most discussed blog of late ... I went for a second time to watch the movie and strongly felt that the movie could have had a happy ending. It gets sad by the end of it all !! All the guys getting killed was a little hard to imagine - atleast not in India !