Rangeela Movie Review- The Reason I Love Bollywood

Rangeela really does represent why I love Bollywood and what I love about it!

When one wants to make a film in Bollywood, there are a few beaten tracks one could consider… Rangeela pretty much has all of them and just proves that it’s not the story that matters, it’s the way it’s told.

Here’s a few of those clichés that are worked so well into Rangeela:

1. The underdog who puts sweat, blood and tears into trying to make that girl happy.

2. The ambitious girl (ok, maybe not so much a cliché, seen as she doesn’t want to become a model)

3. The love triangle (anyone who says this isn’t typical, BRING IT ON! “Mujhe karate aata hai”=])

4. The person in the love triangle that seems to have it all easy and the girl appears to only be interested in him.

5. The last minute running, panicking and searching.

6. The we’re-just-friends attitude.

The performances really are amazing, what more can I say? I never knew Urmila Matonkar looked so pretty before… I’ve really only seen her in her Om Shanti Om avatar:

Nothing compared to her in Rangeela.

One issue I had with her character was that she never seemed to be in love with Munna; but then again, she might have only realised how strong her feelings were *SPOILER* after he’d gone *SPOILER*

Aamir was really perfect, right down to the last ‘apun’. I found him quite winning while slightly repulsive but always endearing. I always like to watch Aamir films, old and new because you always see a different person onscreen, that’s not something you see with many other actors. Nonetheless, his character occasionally seemed a little obnoxious and arrogant but maybe that was just to impress the pretty lady ;)

Jackie Shroff delivered quite a restrained performance *SPOILER* expect for when he jumps about in his house yelling he’s in love. They really could have missed that out seen as you could tell from his face, his eyes, how much he loved her, no need for the prancing. It spoilt his restrained, slightly tormented character in a way *SPOILER* Also, normally one of the two men vying for the girl has obvious flaws, like, say, in Jab We Met, but here he really was a character with a holographic heart of gold, which made vying for Munna harder.

The music was above average (well it would be when A R Rahman composing) with one track really sticking in my head, the title track, Rangeela Re.

For some strange reason it reminds me of the title track from Hungama, not that I’m implying the makers of Hungama have copied this song…

This was, as far as I can remember, the first film of Ram Gopal Verma’s that I’ve seen. Actually, that’s one of the main reasons I watched it… seen as I’ve often read his blog and got to know a bit about the kind of person he is. He’s entertaining on his blog but nevertheless, I’d never comment because I have no wish to have my words ridiculed, which must be slightly embarrassing to say the least. As far as I know, he used to be really popular around the time Rangeela came out but then he just kind of died out and no one wants to watch Rann. It really makes me wonder what went wrong…

Rating: 3.5/5 A sweet film that’ll make you fall in love with Bollywood all over again!

P.S. I’ve been trying out these ‘modern classical’ films as I call them that are from the late 80’s and 90’s that were popular at the time or are popular now. I would love recommendations… Do you have any suggestions of such films that I haven’t already reviewed? I’ll be reviewing Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin and will watch Raja Hindustani but any except for them two? Any SRK or Salman ones?

Dil Se Movie Review

I started watching this knowing nothing about it, I didn’t have a clue what to expect. I knew Shahrukh Khan was in it and I thought Kajol was in it too, my bad. I guessed that it had a serious tone from the way people spoke of it on forums but didn’t know the theme… Of course I was in for quite a surprise!

Pros

-The first pleasant surprise came when I saw Mani Ratnam was the director, that is always a sign of a good movie. Although I’m not a huge fan of Ram Gopal Verma’s work, I love his sarcastic blogging, the kind of attitude you can only have if you’re famous.

-The plot, not the kind that will lose you if you’re paying attention but it can if you leave your brain at the door.

-The acting, especially by Manisha Koirala, was top notch for most parts. I felt there was a little hamming coming from Shahrukh but overall he shone in the emotionally charged bits. Manisha is like a supernova, an amazing star while she was around but had to die out soon, I thought she was superb in this.

-When AR Rahman and Gulzar are combined the music has to be good, and it didn’t disappoint. I found myself singing along to Chaiyyan Chaiyyan, but one question, who was the girl dancing in it meant to be? Was it Manisha? I couldn’t tell.

 

Cons

-The major plothole I could find… why did the Indian soldiers do what they did? I don’t want to say anymore and give the game away but anyone who’s seen i knows what I mean. The thing is, none of those questions near the end would arouse if it hadn't happened. At the beginning the locals were complaining about how they had been ignored because of how powerless they are, but they never mentioned the shootings did they? So why did it happen? No country shoots its own innocent civilians unless some psycho like Hitler is in charge and that wasn’t the case in India.

- Manisha seems to constantly have too much make up on in the first half which was annoying the hell out of me.

-Preity lookd pretty bad compared to what she looks like now, her teeth looked liked she had been chewing paan for the last five days and in general, her chracter hit me more as annoying than bubbly

-I liked the songs but hated the cinematography in some of them, I can understand and appreciate they were trying to try out something new but it looked ok at first but more and more cheesy as time went on.

 

Overall: I’d say the pros outnumber the cons and so its definitely a good film

Rating: 4/5