Feb 03, 2006
Source: Deccan
You may love it or hate it but you certainly cannot ignore it. Looks like director Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra's Rang De Basanti scored where Mani Rathnam's Yuva failed. On one hand, Rang De Basanti has found immense appreciation amongst the critics and the masses, but on the other hand there have also been opinions that do not go hand-in-hand with the majority.
G-7 theatre owner Manoj Desai admits that Rang De Basanti is definitely doing well in Gaiety theatre, "The tickets are not available. My theatre is running housefull for a change," he laughs, adding, "Those who have seen the film have told me that they could not relate to the past and the present parallels shown in the film. Also, the transformation from colour to sepia tone and vice-versa is something that did not go down well with the masses. I guess the director had to do it to give a feel of the pre-Independence era."
Talking about the main characters of the film, he says, "People were also confused about the characters of Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad. Since Aamir played the lead role in the film, the obvious expectation was that Aamir Khan would be Bhagat Singh and not Chandrashekhar Azad. Some have felt let down by that too."
Trade analyst Vikas Mohan maintains that the film is a hit with the youth. "But the family going audience has chosen to stay away from it. The theatres were full on the first day and on Sunday. But Monday onwards the collections have dipped. The trade pundits will get to know the real picture only by the end of this week," observes Mohan.
A distributor, on condition of anonymity, said, "Though the film has been made beautifully and the actors have dished out excellent performances, I have a problem with what the director wants to say. Does he want to convey the message that we should take the law in our hands to fight corrupt politicians? It is a far-fetched solution that can be easily portrayed on screen but difficult to implement in reality."
Another distributor felt that the chemistry between Aamir Khan and Alice Patten was not up to the mark. "Rang De Basanti is a landmark film that has rewritten the history of Hindi cinema. It will have a repeat audience and we can easily call it the first hit of 2006," said the editor of a trade paper, on condition of anonymity.
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