I couldn't agree more with you. I am ready to respect someone's ideas if they are sincere and worth thinking about, even if I do not agree with them

RDB gets a resounding 10/10 from me. Sunny, you are talking about the last minute snips from the film obviously. I'm sure you can tell the difference between that and simply bad cuts by the editor. For eg, the Sarfaroshi song was abruptly cut from the Singapore print. Don't know if you experienced that.

Rang De Basanti is one of the most refreshing and original films to come out of India in years. It manages to capture the spirit that Yuva tried to, but couldn't quite.

Sunny, I will disagree with you (a rarity also, considering your views are well balanced abt many aspects of Indian movies !)
We just came back from watching the movie in Kansas City ! The desis were well behaved and the movie had a proper DD 5.1 sound system.

Now for the movie :
1.) A very nice movie, indeed very very nice movie, that is not suitable for ABCD's, CBCD's and other XBCD's .... This is a movie that is very much India centric

2.) After watching the crap of a movie called Garam Masala...this movie was a refreshing change. The author has done a very good job at blending two different era's (1920's-1930's) with a time at 2002 !

3.) This movie does not have songs as fillers..Unlike some recent movies. The acting is very natural...Whoa ! It was impressive watching Siddharth (I think he is the same guy from the iDream DVD called Sri Anjenayam)

4.) The message that was conveyed through the movie was quite unique... (sorry..u have got to watch the movie for that)

Sanjay would have said.."Just go, run and watch the movie"....

Sunny, there was no jeering in the movie. I suppose the crowd matters

As a side information..
UTV is releasing
Taxi Nau Do Gyrah ..( Suspect it to be a remake of Collateral )
Chup Chup ke (Kareena Kapoor, Suneel Shetty, Paresh Rawal) &
Kkrish...(now why do I think it resembles X-Men..Hugh Jackman ) ??

I think Mehra came across to me as one of the most 'sure' filmmakers around, I really have to disagree with you on that. And everyone I know loved Soha in the film. Madhavan was right in his role for once in a Hindi film. And that 'Boys' guy was fairly suitable, even if he looks rather common.

the film is different, unique, yet flawed. The story was quite lacking as if the screenwriter didn't really know what he wanted to convey on the screen. It starts off as a docudrama, turns into a comedy, followed by romance, tragedy, finally ending as a political thriller. It was quite jarring to say the least....

The acting was atleast quite well with both Siddharth and Kunal Kapoor coming across as the most talented of the bunch. Sharman Joshi did quite well and same with Madhavan. Aamir Khan was horribly miscast and even his last tragic scene at the end, was just plain bad! A far younger actor in his place (such as Emran Hashmi, John Abraham, or even Jimmy Shergill) would have done much better because they simpy suit the character more than Aamir.

I think the movie would have been better off in the hands of an editor who's just not completely in love with every single word in the screenplay. With a tighter story and better casting, this could have been one of the most powerful films in Indian Cinema. However as it stands, it is neither patriotic like The Legend of Bhagat Singh nor is it politically moving like Yuva or Dil Se.

And don't even compare this movie to the masterpiece that is Ayuda Ezhutu or Yuva....

Sunny, you obviously went for the wrong film. Did you check your tickets properly?

Darius, I agree that the film isn't without its flaws. However, I didn't feel that the various elements of the film were jarring - as you said "docudrama, turns into a comedy, followed by romance, tragedy, finally ending as a political thriller." I do feel that film tends to 'jump' at certain parts and things happen too quickly (e.g. the candle vigil scene) but I think that's probably due to some censorship problems as I said in my reply to Sunny earlier.

I don't know if you are saying that Aamir was miscast simply because he's getting too many accolades of late, and you are simply reacting to that - as people did with Shahrukh's (over)popularity - but come on, Emran Hashmi? Jimmy Shergill? You must be joking.

I do admit however that Aamir looked a little too old for the role. On the other hand, Aamir looks younger than quite a few 28-30 year old Indians I know...lol

The Legend of Bhagat Singh was shown a few days ago on TV and I had a chance to catch it again. It's not even worth talking about. A shoddy loud piece of work if there ever was one.

As for Yuva, don't get me wrong, I loved that film. It's not a masterpiece by my standards (neither is RDB), but a very good film nonetheless. Yuva just doesn't have what it takes to grab the mainstream audience's attention. Rang De Basanti has that, and that's all that I meant.

I disagree. Looking the 'part' and performing the 'part' are two different things. I doubt this three you've mentioned would even be able to pull off.

I think John Abraham is very talented, however he still needs to prove himself with a simpler character first. I 've seen most of his film but he didn't really come off as a great actor. I've not seen Water though. Of course the director can work wonders but Aamir Khan is still Aamir Khan.

Jimmy Shergill, I don't know ... he usually plays very pathetic and troubled characters...maybe he could've have played siddhart's part but DJ no way!


Emraan Hashmi....what! haha is that a joke

lol

Sadly, it was the same film. Don't get me wrong: RDB is one of the better films when compared to present releases like Garam Masala, Family, Dosti and anything presently produced by Mahesh Bhatt! But somehow I don't find RDB the masterpiece most peeps say it is. But then again I am the same idiot that also didn't find DCH and Swades great, dispite some wonderful scenes, songs, and moments.

Actually Siddharth is the guy who was in NONV and Boys, the one in Sri A was Nitin.

Darius, HE gives the answer in the film itself
"Apun toh college se 5 saal pehle hi pass kar gaya par abhi tak college mein hi hain"
"Apun ka yahan pe ijjat hai, koi naam hai, koi humko poochta hai.College ke baher apne ko kutta bhi nahin poochta"

SO technically, he is not a college student ! (as was rumored in the press)

Imho, Swades was good, draggy, too thematic film..that might have worked better if not made for commercial purposes and be of 90-120 minutes length..but Ashutosh has problems..beware he can not tell his story in concise matter.but still would have been better choice at oscars as 90 minutes director's cut!!

Yuva..was incoherent, bunch of mni Ratnam's artistary..and lacked grabing audience in rightful manner!

Mangal..was simply atrocious attempt at period film after Kisna!! People called that Master piece too, Aamir was OK as an actor but shameful imho as protagonist!

DCH..was simply some thing fresh and contemporary and did work with certain class of audience very well.

Aamir Khan is capable of appearing younger than his age as he did in DCH, but life/time has taken its toll, I saw his recent pics, even, clean shave, trendy style, does not mask age now. But still, his shorter hight might help, he looks younger than Sanjay Dutt though!

Since Rangeela Pandey, I am scared of watching Aamir in theatre!

But will give RDB a try just to see Binod Pardhan's camera work, that is always delight!

Just a few thoughts:

I am wonderfully surprised that films like these are allowed to be made in India. The message, if I understood it correctly, is quite revolutionary--I didn't think you could get away with such ideas in a film that so many people are going to see. I enjoyed the BJP/VHP/RSS etc. potshots immensely.

The songs were perfectly interwoven into the narrative, and even those songs from RDB that I didn't like (ie. Paathshala - Blaaze version) seemed to fit well.

As Aarkayne already noted, the use of the documentary as a method of telling the story was exceptional, and I didn't predict the way the documentary would affect the present.

I also enjoyed the attention paid to "filler" material like the clips from newscasts where they got the views of the common people. These parts were done perfectly and convincingly, and you didn't feel as if there was acting going on.

One thing I didn't like:

Too many characters--I didn't really empathize with Madhavan's character/his mom's character. I think one mother character would have been enough.

In the end, though, it will be hard for the industry to top this film this year.

And don't worry arsh, RDB is MUCH better than Mangal Pandey. Who had the guts to call Mangal Pandey a masterpiece?

Theon the documentary style of film making was the highlight of this film. As I mentioned before, the way they interleaved two different era's into one film...
"Some ppl die silently, some die shouting...and then there are the third kind"... ! That line had quite an effect !

Just got back from the movie. Please ignore some of the comments here and please go watch this in the theatre. If there's one Indian movie you can see this year, this is it.

On a personal level, this is the most moving film for me since Swades, but a lot more polished product; it's probably the most well made film since Lagaan with the genius documentary technique. And I take offence to SK's comment about this film not being for ABCD's etc. The two movies that have moved me most in the past 2 years have been RDB and Swades so it's not like all of us enjoy the stupid K3G's etc.

Yuva had a similar theme of awakening the youth and RDB just does this in a much better fashion. After watching Yuva, it was Abhishek's performance that lingered on, but I'll be thinking about the issues brought up in RDB for days to come.

I'm not attempting any sort of review here, but a full 10/10 endorsement to please watch this movie for yourself.

Hey MF pardon Moi the ABCD's here were giggling and making some funny noises when those Flashback scenes were coming on screen. I guess they thought an Aamir Khan film = a typical Bollywood film (Yash Chopra film etc...K3G etc. , )