A well directed movie

I won’t describe the plot of the movie in detail here because its already been done by the other reviewers. But in brief, this is the story of the legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, portraying how a young boy who considered Mahatma Gandhi to be his hero get disillusioned with Gandhi’s way of the freedom struggle, and gradually create his own highly effective way of fighting for India’s freedom.

The movie casts Ajay Devgan in the title role of Bhagat Singh, Sushant Singh as Sukhdev, and Santosh as Rajguru. They are supported by Raj Babbar, Farida Jalal, and Amrita Rao. Ajay Devgan, as usual, was quite convincing in his portrayal of the title character. The character of Chandrashekhar Azad, played by Akhilendra Mishra, however, lacked the charisma that we have come to associate with this another legendary freedom fighter. Overall, although most actors did well, I don’t think any of them is going to win an oscar for their role.

The thing that I liked most about this movie was its direction. Rajkumar Santoshi has done an excellent job of keeping the movie focussed on telling the story without getting distracted by emotional hijinks, as most Bollywood movies are apt to do. No extraneous, melodramatic scenes. The movie moves at a very swift pace. Every scene in the movie has significance to the story. Well, almost! The song and dance sequence where Bhagat Singh’s fiancee (Amrita Rao) is dreaming was totally out of place - I can’t think of any reason for that sequence except to bring another great Rahman song to us!

The scene that, in my opinion, was the most powerful is the one where Bhagat Singh convinces Jatin da (I hope I got the name right - its been a while since I watched the movie) to join their efforts - how he convinces that their style of violence is not violence per se, but self-defence. A highly effective portrayal of Bhagat Singh’s true mettle! It sure did convince Jatin da and it sure did make a lot of sense to me.

The music for this movie has been scored by none other than A.R.Rahman. Needless to say, it is once again outstanding. In addition to the new songs, the movie also features a couple of well known songs associated with Bhagat Singh, Mera Rang De Basanti Chola and Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna but with new tunes. Desh Mere should be a welcome addition to any connoisseur of desh bhakti songs. Its good to hear Rahman produce music which has such a punjabi flavor to it - very different from his past music. It just goes to show what a versatile composer he is.

To sum it up, this is a must-see movie for everybody.

(Originally posted on MS on June 5, 2003)