Rang De Basanti

Wow. How did this movie get past the Indian censors?

The basic premise is that a white British woman, Sue, is inspired by her grandfather's diary from when he was a jailer in colonial India and came across important freedom-fighting political prisoners. She wants to make a movie about these freedom fighters so badly that her production company's budget cuts don't stop her from paying her own way to India to make the film. She finds the perfect group of young-ish folk to cast. They're outta college but still hanging around college, not ready to face the world types. Problem is, they don't relate to the history at all and just fool around most of the time. But when their lives become directly affected by the corruption and bureaucratic mess of the Indian government, they suddenly start to make the connections between past and present, history and today.

In some ways the film was so revolutionary. Right at the outset we are told that funding for Sue's film is cancelled because "Gandhi sells" and folks like Bhagat Singh don't. When the group of friends begins to get politicized, they hold a demonstration where they face severe police repression, which then compels them to put their lives at risk and take direct action. By the end of the film, the film-maker makes very explicit connections between past and present oppression. There's even a scene where an image of a white officer shouting orders to shoot at unarmed peaceful gatherers at Jallian Vala Bagh shifts into an image of an Indian officer shouting orders to shoot at unarmed peaceful gatherers. The message is very clear: the face may have changed, but most of us are still looking at the barrel of the same gun.

Ofcourse the revolutionary message gets diluted; this is no surprise. We are told that we all have the potential to make change, and the ways we could do it are to join the civil service, join politics, etc. Officially the movie posed very individualistic solutions like these that merely encourage folks wanting change to become part of the system ofcourse, but while that is the articulated message, it is not the route that the group of friends choose for themselves. The movie has an agitational ending...it feels like the actions of these few young, formerly directionless friends, are radicalizing youth all over India.

I'm not saying the film doesn't have problems.
I find it interesting that the company Sue works for is World Vision. The whole premise of the movie is rather white-man's-burden-ish in a way because it's not the youth of India who are interested in their revolutionary history, it's a white woman. The youth must be taught by the white woman to appreciate their history; they require politicization from an outsider. Not just any ol' outsider, mind you, but the descendant of a colonial enforcer and employee of a Christian saviour-mentality charitable organization.

And then there's my favourite topic - the sexism. In the demonstration scene, two of the Indian female leads hold their ground and continue to sit on the street in protest while the police enact their brutality on the protestors. They continue to sit when even they themselves begin to be beaten. Except it looks like they're cowering. I just kept thinking, "hit 'em back, hit 'em back". Their inaction reinforces the image of the sati-savitri (pure goddess) peaceful demure Indian woman, and i hate that. I mean c'mon, ever heard of self-defense? The worst part is it's not even true. There were and are women all over India ready to stand up and fight back. It's funny how no matter how progressive a movie can get, representations of militant Indian women are still just too radical for the mainstream audience.

In general, though, what i really like about 'Rang de Basanti' is that it speaks to students and youth and has the potential to fuel young people into political action for change.