“Rang De Basanti”

Akila Weerasekera

I recently received a Hindi Movie DVD from my friend Damith Rozairo. He mentioned that the movie is rather different from other Hindi movies. Even though I'm not a big fan of Hindi movies, I pushed my self to watch it. Now it ranks one of the best movies I've ever watched. The movie was titled "Rang De Basanti" (translation: Let's revisit India). It was directed by Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra and produced by Ronnie Screwvala, two young Indians.

The movie begins by the arrival of a British filmmaker in India after she reads the diary of her grandfather, who served in the British Force during India's struggle for Independence. Excited about these memoirs, she makes plans to shoot a film on the Indian revolutionaries mentioned in the diaries. Upon arrival she casts a group of five friends to play the pivotal roles of these revolutionaries. However, products of modern India, the five youngsters initially refuse to be part of the project as they don't identify with these characters from the past. Not surprising, considering that they are a part of a generation of Indians that believes in consumerism.

To them issues like patriotism and giving one's life for one's beliefs is the stuff text-books are made of. They would rather party than be patriots. As the young men learn more about the history of the Independence movement, they lose their cynicism and start to consider what they can contribute to society. In the film, both the 1930s British India and the India today run parallel and intersect with each other at crucial points. The story takes a turn when one of the friends, a patriotic Indian air force pilot expires in an air crash.

The government proclaims that the crash was caused by pilot error. But the friends know he was an ace pilot and don't accept the official explanation. Instead, they claim that he sacrificed his life to save thousands of other lives, which would have been lost had he ejected from the aircraft safely, leaving the aircraft to crash in an overcrowded area.

They investigate and learn that the crash was due to a corrupt defence minister signed a contract for cheap, spurious MiG aircraft spare parts in return for a large kickback. Not content to accept this as "just the way things are done", the group decide to protest peacefully. Police forcefully break up their protest. The young men then decide that they must emulate the early freedom fighters. The film was released on January 26th, 2006, which is the Republic Day of India and it was first shown on television on Aug 15th, 2006, which is celebrated as Independence Day in India.

Throughout the movie I couldn't stop my self from thinking why can't our so-called award winning movie producers create such a movie. I do not remember watching a Sri Lankan movie which made me get goosebumps or tears to my eyes of our national pride as this movie did. I don't know if our movie makers have the slightest thought of making a movie other than always depicting an unreal sorrowfullness and misery of the Sri Lankans and putting down the morale of our soldiers in their so-called movies on war. How can we fight a war when our soldiers are portrayed as mentally handicapped and their spouses as prostitutes?

How much do we know about our roots? What kind of awareness do we have about our culture? Do we have all the knowledge about our past? Are we truly aware about our freedom struggle? Or are we just staring from the peripherals? These are just some of the questions that director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra asks from the Indian youth while our directors are busy destroying our youth's nationalism and patriotism.

Could Vimukthi Jayasundara, Mahadivulweva, Asoka Handagama and Prasanna Vithanage give a positive message to our youth? Is patriotism and spirit of changing the world only restricted to the history books and philosophy of life? Or is it something that should be an intrinsic part of our own self? The movie "Rang De Basanti" is a film about awakening, about standing up for ones beliefs and country, where desire to protect the nation becomes a priority. So, when are we going to be awakened by our movie makers? That's some thing for our movie makers to ponder about. Let's revisit Sri Lanka, soon.

"If yet your blood does not rage, then
it is water that flows in your veins.
For what is the flush of youth,
if it is not service to the motherland"
(Rang De Basanti)