Rang de Basanti
Oh no. This is not yet another review of the movie. There are a zillion reviews out there slicing and dicing it. In fact, the following would make sense only after you have seen the movie. So it is not a review to help you decide if the movie is worth watching. Anyway, in case you haven't seen the movie, spoilers ahead.
This is a take at how those guys took some drastic decisions. In a very stupid manner. The characters are shown to be pretty irresponsible. The way they were drinking standing at the edge of a wall, driving the bike and jeep, etc etc were testimony to the fact that they were not thinking too much about the consequences of what they were doing. And then, their close friend dies and they want to do something about it. Why? Because the friend's fiancee, who is also their friend, wants them to. She just lost her life partner. Her dreams are shattered. Obviously she would like someone to pay for it. And that someone was there in flesh and blood. She seeks revenge. Given the insensibility of the characters, they decide to act for her, and themselves.
Nothing surprising. They are shown irresponsible and they act irresponsibly, deciding on the spur of a moment, under duress. The defense is, they are not mature enough. Heck if they are not mature enough, they should not be taking responsibility to avenge for the death of their friend. They should not take on the responsibility of attempting to solve problems beyond their capacity. Jumping to solve something before understanding the problem is outrageous. Any math teacher would cringe at the thought of it. I am pretty sure they sat through some math classes in school and they would have been told a million times "understand the problem first".
The worst part is, while they are kind of shown to be repenting for what they did and acknowledge that what they did was not a good solution, they are not really shown paying a price for their actions. Yes they get killed mercilessly at the end. But that dint come out as a consequence of their decisions. It came out as a consequence of the evils of the society. The fact that they died at the end does not mean they paid a price. To me, it means they were also victims to the evils they were trying to fix, albeit in a stupid manner. How does that become a punishment in any manner?
And these characters are shown as being inspirations to college students all over the country. Excuse me, when did such immature irresponsible people become inspirations for out youth? The hero of Swades is a good inspiration. Someone who understood the problem, and proposed and implemented a solution working along with people who were directly affected by the problem. Thats maturity and responsibility.
My point is this. I don't care for the decisions they took. I do care for the way they took it. It was a very bad decision making process. That should not be glorified or shown in good light. They are not shown paying a price for it. They are shown becoming victims. It doesn't matter that they repent for their actions. I would be equally pissed if they had decided at a moments notice to do something that might be completely ok - like investigate the nexus in the deals. That would still have been a very thoughtless decision, albeit a not so stupid one. They are not shown repenting for how hasty their decisions were.
This is a take at how those guys took some drastic decisions. In a very stupid manner. The characters are shown to be pretty irresponsible. The way they were drinking standing at the edge of a wall, driving the bike and jeep, etc etc were testimony to the fact that they were not thinking too much about the consequences of what they were doing. And then, their close friend dies and they want to do something about it. Why? Because the friend's fiancee, who is also their friend, wants them to. She just lost her life partner. Her dreams are shattered. Obviously she would like someone to pay for it. And that someone was there in flesh and blood. She seeks revenge. Given the insensibility of the characters, they decide to act for her, and themselves.
Nothing surprising. They are shown irresponsible and they act irresponsibly, deciding on the spur of a moment, under duress. The defense is, they are not mature enough. Heck if they are not mature enough, they should not be taking responsibility to avenge for the death of their friend. They should not take on the responsibility of attempting to solve problems beyond their capacity. Jumping to solve something before understanding the problem is outrageous. Any math teacher would cringe at the thought of it. I am pretty sure they sat through some math classes in school and they would have been told a million times "understand the problem first".
The worst part is, while they are kind of shown to be repenting for what they did and acknowledge that what they did was not a good solution, they are not really shown paying a price for their actions. Yes they get killed mercilessly at the end. But that dint come out as a consequence of their decisions. It came out as a consequence of the evils of the society. The fact that they died at the end does not mean they paid a price. To me, it means they were also victims to the evils they were trying to fix, albeit in a stupid manner. How does that become a punishment in any manner?
And these characters are shown as being inspirations to college students all over the country. Excuse me, when did such immature irresponsible people become inspirations for out youth? The hero of Swades is a good inspiration. Someone who understood the problem, and proposed and implemented a solution working along with people who were directly affected by the problem. Thats maturity and responsibility.
My point is this. I don't care for the decisions they took. I do care for the way they took it. It was a very bad decision making process. That should not be glorified or shown in good light. They are not shown paying a price for it. They are shown becoming victims. It doesn't matter that they repent for their actions. I would be equally pissed if they had decided at a moments notice to do something that might be completely ok - like investigate the nexus in the deals. That would still have been a very thoughtless decision, albeit a not so stupid one. They are not shown repenting for how hasty their decisions were.
posted by d'na | 1:08 PM
4 Comments:
Irresponsible they would have certainly been if they had just sat by and just watched their friend's fiance's death. People who did just that by just watching quiet a few of our young tester pilots die due to MIG-21 flying coffins are just that. So, aren't we all irreponsible?????
What do you mean by they were not punished for their sins?
Where is the punishment for the defence minister who let the young patriotic airforce pilot die???
I don't think the killing of defense minister was irresponsible, it was not a right solution but not an irresponsible one...I said it was not a right solution because of the death of a defense minister but because there are too many to kill!!
So again why should they get punished?
Deena I am sorry to say this but you sound like one of those human rights activist who are alway more symphathetic to with culprit than the victim:)
Renuka
PS: Swades was just a preachy frankly cinematically nothing to talk about film while RDB certainly created on its own a cinematic genre. As for the solution in Swades would not have in anyway helped to avenge for the MIG crash pilot's death nor it would have helped solve the corruption problem in India.
a. a lot of times, not doing something is better than doing something hasty or stupid. so not doing something does'nt equate automatically to irresponsibility and doing something, anything to being responsible.
b. they were victims of the system they were trying to correct. they were not given a chance to defend themselves. if they were tried in a court of law and hanged, then that would have been punishment. though in both cases they would have died, its not the same. in the former, they were victims, in the latter, they were punished for their actions. (note that this is just an example. i dont support
capital punishment.)
no body denies that the defense minister should be punished. the problem is the way they decided how he should be punished.
their act by itself may or may not be irresponsible. its the way they decided on the act that pains me.
they should be punished because they took the law into their own hands, and also because they made hasty decisions.
i am not sympathetic towards the culprit. if that was the case, i would have said they should't have done that. never do i say that. all i am saying is, they should'nt have decided what they should do while under the circumstances they were in.
i repeat. i dont care for the decision. all i am critising is the way in which they reached their decision.
I don't believe killing of defence minister was morally wrong, just that it was not a wise thing which is what the movie says too.
When you are talking about 20 somethings growing up in India faced with such a tragedy, we can imagine and accept and believe that normal 20 somethings will react like that.
Look at the chain of events. Their friend's fiance sacrified himself to save several other people from dying due to a mechanical fault in the aircraft. i.e He could have still saved himself by using the parachute but that would have resulted in the death of too many civilians.
The defence minister tries to cover up his ass by blaming the very pilot's inexperience. The protoganists do first believe in the system and try to organize a big protest march, in a truly indian democratic spirit government does a jalian walla bagh. The mother of the pilot goes into a coma, quite a few people badly injured - all this for asking justice.
A normal 20 something would like to kill the defence minister not follow a system that in 99.99% let the defence minister scot-free.
So, they kill the defence minister.
After this is where the movie's brilliance shines thru. Their utopian solution does not work, the defence minister gets termed a martyr - a lesson to the youth... I am sure anybody with half-brain would have noted carefully their dialogue "kiten logen ko marange".
Having realized the futility of their exercise. They want the whole world to know what happened how their friend was wronged, how his sacrifice went unhonoured.
They capture the radio station tell the whole world what they did, this is where the movie takes it parallel from history. (Chandrasekar Azad - please read about him - after all this moralistic talk it is pretty sad if you can't understand the parallel).
Their death by the government again proves how your indian system would never be able to do any justice to those wronged.
Now after all this if you are still wondering why they should be termed martyrs enough to be provoke the youth of india, simply because they choose to do something about a wrong action ensuring that it comes to light and in the process losing their own lives. They brought in light the wrong that was done to the airforce pilot.
While the normal you and me choose to remain mum about Satyendra dubeys and abhijeet gadgil. Even worse, go further and give moralistic crap...:)
For 58 years, we have done nothing and look at where it has resulted.
Renuka
PS: Even gandhijis make loads of mistakes and learn from their mistakes. Please read "My experiences with truth".
I dont want to say anything moreee abt RDB :)
but renuka.. oops... Ms. Anon ;).... swades was a reely good movie. not commercial - but a v good movie nevertheless. which commercial movie would u say the hero... esp. whe he is SRK... openly say tht India has faults - its has the potential to become great... but is not great now.
and when u say it wont help avenge.. I disagree.... tht clearly shows tht these ppl are responding to a personal tragedy if they want to "avenge"it! if they did it for the country - then they should do wht the country needs... live and help fight the system - not take a personal vendetta against one def. minsister. what was shown in swades is a more sensible solutions ... and of late with more and more talks of of R2I... I dont think its entirely impractical either....
ok.. now I gotto go see RDB premiere on indiaglits for my fav Hindi star .. Aamir :)... so cya'..
Amen to all the RDB talk!
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