Rang De Basanti

A British documentary filmmaker gets denied her funding at the last minute. But she has already sacrificed so much for the film, believing strongly in it. It is after all based on a story left to her by her grandfather. So she packs her bags and travels to India to film the documentary even without the help of her studio. There she recruits a bunch of college students to play the key parts and slowly introduces them to the history of their own country, which they have so far dismissed as corrupted and beyond salvation.

What I liked about this film the most is how it juggles its storytelling. We see the young rebels fighting for India's freedom, so in essence the film jumps between two timelines. But it's all channeled through the documentary. The college students play the characters and we're every now and then reminded that this is indeed a film. Which ties it all together very nicely.

The acting is also topnotch. Aamir Khan is as great as always, but all the rest of the main actors are also superb, and varied in the characters they're portraying. This film speaks strongly for an inclusive and all-encompassing India, and it does it well.

I was also surprised by the direction the plot takes. I cannot really speak about it without spoiling it, but suffice to say that the film takes a rather dramatic and even dark turn near the end of the second act. And it's a better film for it. Sure, there will be people that won't like it, believing that the film glorifies this kind of action, but I don't think the film makers intended it that way.

Strong film and one of the better Hindi movies I've seen so far.