Why Rang De Basanti is Non-sense ..

RDB , Rang de Basanti a 2006 production is a fine a movie by cinematic standards . I adore the director Rakesh Mehra from days of movie Aks and RBD is most probably his finest work and finest work of the team involved it . In fact it is

land mark film for most of the Actors involved in it .

And its is also a landmark film for The Indian youth. That should be considered biggest success of the director and the movie . Recent 26/11 protests or the Jessica Lal case bear the testimony of this . The fervency  with which images of public participation of these 2 cases were circulated bears the testimony of this claim .This is where RDB gets elevated from the status of a super hit movie to a cult movie . Its like every Indian youth had this movie on his hard disk !!

RDB in a way introduced patriotism to current generation . Or may be this generation was always patriotic and RDB  gave them the manner to express it in . We might differ on the precise shade of the impact RDB caused on the masses but it is undeniable that RDB  made patriotism relevant to Gen-X ..Y and Z of India .

A story of few free spirited friends ( all north Indian !! ) whose belief on society , justice and patriotism gets shaken and altered with death of their friend . That’s the shortest way to express  the plotline . And if you agreed to how I described the plot of RBD you just agreed with me J .

Showing intellectually dysfunctional characters is the main characteristic on Hindi movies . A phenomenon  I could do PHD over 🙂 . Oh yes such thing does add hell of a drama to the plot   .

But we are not talking of any movie . RDB was for the first time the mobile generation in India actually spoke patriotism . Its was like RDB made it relevant to  them . All of sudden . RDB kind of laid out the structure of practical or may be unpractical nationalism .

I have no doubt that none will get shot for a national cause like its shown in RDB  . For in peacetime the citizen are know to be more practical and patriotic .

Moreover if there is indeed a person shown as care free as any one shown in the movie . Chances are in real life even he wouldn’t do something so scarifying ! . Nopes its not about someone’s love for nation  but its about the belief system . It can get shattered  and altered with one event , I have no doubt about that . But a complete change of value system and most importantly a sudden intellectualism .That’s something too short and too sweet for the process of problem solving . Whether it’s a character in the movie or the audience its not that realistic to happen that all of sudden anyone can come up with solution of problems at feeling of pain. With that RDB give us a pop shot of everything people (mis)understood RDB with .

Standing for a cause for a common man is a tough exercise . Its outright dumb to believe that a person struggling with life  doesn’t stand for a something as  grand as environment or nationalism .Its just that in normal circumstances people find how much they are going to ignore and how much they would fight against . Call it  practical Activism . It takes unusual circumstances or unusual conviction for a long time period for common man to turn crusaders  .Its here and how a complete change of character can happen.

We need to clearly differentiate between the process of doing an Act , Making a decision and Solving a problem . The thing that is common to these 3 is taking  a stand .But these 3 differ a lot in their genesis .

Doing an action at spur of the moment is sum total of the feeling that go on in ones mind .They may or may not effectively solve the problems . And while we do need to own these acts these are not what we call as decision .

Taking a decision is , on the same lines , is sum total of the thought you have . Conscious , unconscious and circumstantial . We are always making some decision in life .Times when there is plenty of time available the process of decision taking is felt and that is why we call it decision making .Even other wise when we make fast decisions the foundation is always there in our minds . But the short time that we do it in makes it feel like Gut feeling or sense of direction as we call it . What differentiates decision making  from doing an act is the occurrence of thinking .Right or Wrong we always think while we make a decision .

Problem solving as contrasted to above to is act of decision making done with reasoning out everything . The emphasis is not on reasoning out , that we do even in making decisions . The main differentiator is reasoning everything that one can think of about the problem .This is a detailed and conscious process and the time taken depends on how much one is clear about the topic at hand.Its this detailed and not necessarily lengthy process that can bring about a change in character . Such process can be triggered in one moment but its complete only when all the known details are covered . Else it cant be called a change of character .

RDB mixes acts with decisions made with problems solved . Its actually a revenge story colored in shades of nationalism .

I have no problem with the movie , its great . But a cult status it has, RDB at max gave people a way for token nationalism .A false sense of problem solving  for anything you feel you wish to stand for by just doing some act  .

Something that doesn’t make sense to me.