IMDb #157 Review: Rang de Basanti (2007)

Source: Wikipedia

A posse of hard-partying Indian college students concede to play their historical counterparts in a documentary about Indian freedom fighters. The experience transforms their aimless lives into recreating the past. Not by being like Gandhi, who is safe and respected; but morally ambiguous young people with more passion than self-preservation.

A British lady travels to India to shoot a documentary, despite having no funding, no knowledge of the culture, and no cast or crew. By movie serendipity and a sequence of shitty auditions, she stumbles into the ideal candidates. Singing, rapping, muscle-flaunting college students, who've effectively adopted the cynical hedonism of western culture.

Probably her biggest obstacle is the negativity instilled in India's youth. This country sucks, the government is corrupt, it's never going to get better, there's nothing we can do, we have to worry about our futures, I just want to stay in college forever and drink and screw and party all night.

Only natural that the older generations grouse that young people are useless. Generally, they are quite useless; not that the old farts are doing much more.

With this mindset, the big kids have a hard time donning period costumes (and mustaches) and regurgitating cheesy patriotic dialogue -- without cracking up.

Fed up with their waffling, Brit lady says, Fuck it, I'm out.

But a sense of purpose brings her back. Guilt brings them back. Guilt, and sudden unexpected tragedy.

Bollywood did it again. They got me. After a couple hours of dicking around, I was ready ready to write this one off as a waste of space. Then SNAP. Right outta nowhere, everything becomes FRIGGING AMAZING. The characters rocket into maturity at blistering speed; the music swells from obnoxious to overwhelmingly amazing; the tone jolts into deadly seriousness; and all the events from the dicking-around phase accumulate sobering significance.

These overgrown kids confront corruption head-on, and discover how complicated it can become to convince India to fix their crappy planes.

While I can't in good conscience condone the events of the climax, I confess it felt legitimately inspiring. (This must be how entry-level jihadists break in.)

157 minutes.