Aasif Ahmad Shah
Rang De Basanti is a film directed by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra and Released on January 26, 2006. The meaning of the film is ‘Paint me Saffron’. The film revolves around the Characters of Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Soha Ali Khan, and Alice Patten. The movie is based on a story by Kamlesh Pandey and Scripted by Rensil D’ Silva and Mehra.
The movie is a powerful masterclass; it reminds me of the text of Thomas Kuhn’s work on the discussion of paradigm shifts. This movie has achieved a similar level of work in Bollywood Cinema. This changed the film industry’s perception of youth consumption. I’m telling you that this movie was like a paradigm shift for a simple reason: it takes you to the Pre-independence era, then to the contemporary period, and the future of our Society, particularly in India.
The story of the film unfolds through the journey, which begins with Sue McKinley (Alice Patten), a British filmmaker inspired by her grandfather’s journal, a collection of his experiences serving as an officer during India’s struggle for independence. The reason for her visit to India is to work on a documentary based on her grandfather’s diary. She sets the auditions, etc., and selects DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan (Siddharth), Sukhi (Sharman Joshi), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), and Sonia (Soha Ali Khan); these selections occur accidentally, not by her intention. She may not have given much thought to the roles she assigned to the characters mentioned in the documentary, including those of Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajguru, Ramprasad Bismil, and Ashfaqullah Khan. Mixing the young group into the documentary play and assigning them roles that might have never crossed their minds, as they are busy with their lives on campus and feel like the king of their campus. The group had been selected without an audition for the Documentary, and they began discussing various aspects of the country’s ongoing corruption and other topics. They felt it was worthless to make a documentary on Sue’s grandfather’s diary. However, things changed for them when they heard about their friend’s MiG21, which crashed in the air, and this led to a new reflection on their seriousness about changing their society. With this incident, they felt that it is the youth, ‘us’, who have to take charge of transforming society; there is no one coming from outside to change it.
By examining the film ‘Rang De Basanti’ sociologically, it becomes clear that the film portrays the youth as both a reflection of the State and a catalyst who can change society with their energy. The film revolves around young people continuously measuring the ideal standards of developed nations and feeling the need for the same for their country, which involves the production and reproduction of material within their country, thriving based on an inclusive policy for all.
The non-seriousness of the youth, which they reflect in the movie, and then the planned death, which is shown as an accidental death to the people through media, sparks the fuel within all the members of the group, which Emile Durkheim describes through his Concept of ‘Collective effervescence’ this is the surge of shared feeling that Propels a group to act in Unison. The group in Unison pushes back against the political narratives that control the paradigms of state progression. The concept of “collective effervescence” is best illustrated through the movie.
Another aspect of the movie highlights the post-colonial part. In the film, this part starts with the ‘Brown Sahibs’, who are homegrown Politicians and officials who perpetuate Corruption and emulate the practices of the sameness which Britain left are now followed by ‘Brown Sahibs’ the group says that nothing has changed; it was Britishers during the colonial time which was imposing worse on us. Now, it is our state which is doing the same thing to us.
Rang de Basanti flips patriotism on its head, ditching Chest-thumping nationalism for a sharper, questioning stance. This film digs into how identity takes shape. The work of Benedict Anderson’s ‘Imagined Communities’ fits here; the nation can’t be a fixed thing; it is always a story we keep rewriting with our sweat and blood. The transition of the group from passivity to taking action regarding the nation’s problems is the best indicator of how this film links the past with the present and then the present with the future.
The title of this film accurately reflects what is shown within it; the young group is prepared for anything for a cause. The movie has shown the extreme steps that youth have taken. They are not afraid of ‘Brown Sahibs’, and they stake their life in the cause.
The film also highlights a divide, as college graduate students are living the urban life and have a limited understanding of rural life and how they are perceived by the ‘Brown Sahibs’. One more thing about Aslam’s part in the film is how his family inquires about his religious identity and tends to make him understand that he doesn’t belong to the group with whom he constantly roams in society and college, and excludes him from their friend circle. Despite these things, he prefers to be part of his group’s union. He justifies himself, along with other group members, by referencing legends and freedom fighters who fought against the British Empire. Max Weber’s concept of social unity is relevant here, as common aims can bridge divides, although the film doesn’t linger on this tension.
The Concept of the “public sphere” by Jürgen Habermas is highly relevant to the film, mainly when the group takes over the radio station, illustrating how media can influence the masses. By spilling their story over the airwaves of the Radio station, they started jolting the sleeping public. It is bringing consciousness among the masses. The film ‘Rang de Basanti’ blurs the line between art and life, demonstrating that stories can inspire real-world action.
‘Rang de Basanti’ blends showmanship with soul-searching depth. It empowers us to question our place in the world by recasting patriotism as a fight, not a salute. Through its projection through the college students who don’t have a collective consciousness about grouping for the exact cause and then how the air crash got them into an idea of fighting back with ‘Brown Sahibs’ and they get into some seriousness and into the collective consciousness about to fight for the cause for the better future, for the better present and to glorify the freedom fight of India.
Author is an Independent Researcher, Alumnus of JMI University, New Delhi. He can be mailed at Pirasif@live.com
