Hello Friends,
This blog is my response to the task assigned to us by our Prof. Dr. DilipSir in thinking activity about Post Colonialism and how it can be understood in a better way through studying the film Rang De Basanti. So read, understand & enjoy. Happy Learning!
Rang De Basanti (transl. Paint it saffron) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language drama film written, produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, and co-written by Rensil D'Silva.
The film follows a British film student traveling to India to document the story of five freedom fighters of the Indian revolutionary movement. She befriends and casts five young men in the film, which inspires them to fight against the corruption of their own government. It features an ensemble cast consisting of Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Atul Kulkarni, Soha Ali Khan, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor and British actress Alice Patten.
A major point of criticism the film faced was regarding the possibility of the Indian Army attacking students in a radio station. When Rakeysh was questioned about the same in a scriptwriter's conference conducted by the Film Writers Association in the year 2008, he said the following, "So, in 2005, in Allahabad, a bunch of 4 students took the TV station there, and they were shot dead. Everything I did, it was kind of borrowed, as I said right here. Obviously, what I am also learning is the way I tell a story is not real; you can term it as a-real. For maximum impact, for the message to go through, I felt—since the story was against the establishment—let the establishment do it. After all, the establishment did hang Bhagat Singh. After all, the establishment did come down on the innocent, innocent students in Mandal Commission. After all the establishment did come down on Tiananmen Square. After all the establishment did come down when the whole concept of Flower Power emerged in America. So it's all there. It's borrowed, maybe not as realistically, but it is definitely there in the society. During emergency, there are horror stories. If we have to go back to Kriplani and his movement in Bihar, the stories are absolutely horrific."
Reading resources on Rang De BasantiThe central objective of this thesis is to explore whether the consumption of RDB stimulated citizenship among young audiences and caused an expansion of the public sphere in India.This essay sets out to explore the relationship between violence, patriotism and the national-popular within the medium of film by examining the Indian film-maker Rakeysh Mehra’s recent Bollywood hit, Rang de Basanti (Paint It Saffron, 2006). The film can be seen to form part of a body of work that constructs and represents violence as integral to the emergence of a national identity, or rather, its recuperation. Rang de Basanti is significant in contemporary Indian film production for the enormous resonance it had among South Asian middle-class youth, both in India and in the diaspora. It rewrites, or rather restages, Indian nationalist history not in the customary pacifist Gandhian vein, but in the mode of martyrdom and armed struggle. It represents a more ‘masculine’ version of the nationalist narrative for its contemporary audiences, by retelling the story of the Punjabi revolutionary Bhagat Singh as an Indian hero and as an example for today’s generation. This essay argues that its recuperation of a violent anti-colonial history is, in fact, integral to the middle-class ethos of the film, presenting the viewers with a bourgeois nationalism of immediate and timely appeal, coupled with an accessible (and politically acceptable) social activism. As the sociologist Ranjini Majumdar noted, ‘the film successfully fuels the middle-class fantasy of corruption being the only problem of the country’.
https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2021/07/postcolonial-studies-and-bollywood.html?m=1
INTERPRETATIONS OF THE FILM RANG DE BASANTI
In this film, we see how when a foreign girl comes to India to shoot a film based on Indian Freedom struggle and from the notes of her grandfather's diary. At first she never finds seriousness in any of the characters. Film is based on freedom fighters of India against Britishers. But that spirit is not seen as they've to act without having real emotions and feelings.
On the death of Ajay Sinh Rathod who was a pilot, died in a plane crash due to cheap parts used in making of the aircraft, at this all friends of Ajay are shakened and awakened. Now the real spirit comes in them to fight. Ajay is wrongly blamed as an unexperienced new pilot, not fit to fly aeroplanes and all such false things are said about him in media. This is truly unbearable.
Now with the real spirit of nationalism in their hearts and minds, as if they are awakened from a deep sleep, all of them, friends of Ajay come together to fight against the political leaders and their wrong deeds. They do protest at a place by candles, and give speeches to media and so they are beaten by police as they are speaking against government but on the side of humanity, justice and truth. They just wanted to show the true picture of the government to the public. The ugliness behind the fake beauty. They just tried to remove the cloth from the eyes of the people to see the reality of the society we're living. In this protests, mother of Ajay Sinh is injured and is in comma and many are killed and injured. This is the reality of our current times also. Police, government and political leaders won't allow the truth to be revealed, they only want their own benefits and power. So they suppress all common people through violence.
When they, friends of Ajay Sinh found all doors shut then they had to take the things, justice, law in their own hands. They killed the defence minister but not only that but they also revealed their truth to all over the world through radio station. They told that how corrupt and selfish are the government people. This is based on the real incident which took place in 2005, in Allahabad, where a bunch of 4 students took the TV station there and they were shot dead. Here also all were killed in radio station, but they tried their best to awaken the citizens to fight for their rights, to see the real picture behind the curtains. Political leaders, government doing corruption at the cost of the lives of common people.
★ This is also seen in the play "All my Sons" by Arthur Miller, where the defective parts are used for the planes.
☆ Here we see the common people are like puppets in the hands of government to whom we might have selected.
☆ The core message is that we have to change ourselves, and this is not an easy task. But can be done with unity among us. We have to awake and fight against corruption and not to support or involve in it by being silent about it.
"International Anti-Corruption Day is observed on 9 December every year to highlight how corruption affects health, education, justice, democracy, prosperity, and development. Human Rights Day is celebrated on 10 December."
Quotes From Rang De Basanti That Will Swell You Chest With Pride
Rang De Basanti isn’t just a movie, it’s a revolution.
It inspired the youth to come forward and speak for what is right and rebel for what is wrong. Rang De Basanti’s powerful characters were identifiable, realistic and genuine. And that is the reason it was able to invoke the pride for the nation among everyone who saw the movie.
Let’s relive the spirit of Rang De Basanti with some of the most well-written dialogues that will make you feel proud again.
It’s important to work hard, no matter what you do.
We have forgotten to live in the present.
Nothing is perfect, you have to work to make things perfect.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Rebel for a cause.
It’s hard to change something that has been rusty since a long time.
Be an insurgent but, for the right things.
All you’ve gotta do is have courage.
Don’t ask what the nation has done for you, ask what you have done for the nation.
• Goyal, Shikha. "Important Days and Dates in December 2020: National and International." Google, www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/important-days-and-dates-in-december-1574940741-1&ved=2ahUKEwi1luH1gs7xAhXLzTgGHfUGDrEQFjAHegQIKxAF&usg=AOvVaw2pPqtHXSVTUqUOwtzRFfIX.
• MKBU, Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad Sir. "Postcolonial Studies and Bollywood." Welcome, blog.dilipbarad.com/2021/07/postcolonial-studies-and-bollywood.html?m=1.
• Shrivastava, Lavanya. "12 Quotes From Rang De Basanti That Will Swell You Chest With Pride." Storypick, 18 Oct. 2016, www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.storypick.com/rang-de-basanti-quotes/amp/?espv=1.