Easily, two movies unianimously emerge as the best movies of 2006 – Rang de Basanti and Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Each of these movies approaching contemprory India from two different poles, merge at the equator of basic principles born out of the struggle for Indian independence. 2006 brings together the two group who never saw eye to eye on the fundamentals but still strived for the same goal – moderates and the extremists.
Rang de Basanti – the last movie I saw before leaving India, through a mix of imagery, excellent editing, weaves two tales – one of the freedom struggle and one of current problems. What could be a utterly despicable act – murder of the minister – doesnt look so bad when juxtaposed against the Bhagat SIngh’s story of heroism. A critcally acclaimed and a commercially success movie brought out interest in the martyrs who died for the struggle.
Freedom struggle in my mind is a critical period in Indian history not just because of the hackneyed ‘driving away the british’ argument but because it created ‘India’ which was a mythical concept. <More on revolution>. The movie also draws subtle parallels by potraying wayward youth converging on a goal and achieving it comparing it of times where the none had imagined the nations destiny and small principalities came together to launch a successful struggle. Not to mention the good quality comedy that keeps the movie warm all along.
Lage Raho Munnabhai – Its a subtle irony that a man who shunned materialism and spiritually led a national movement is a proxy for materialism thanks to his face printed on the currency notes. I have read Gandhi’s global gyan read out out-of-context, displayed on the public urinals not understanding how to apply it. By attributing fixed meaning to words, we make them mortal. Words become immortal when their meanings evolve and interpreted according to the context. $$$ immortalised Gandhism by applying them to the modern day context. the movie enhances the value of gandhian ideals by decreasing the unipolarity of the gandhian way – either this or nothing else. The fundamental reason the movie hit the right chord is that it potrayed Gandhism as a possible option to solve a problem, not the only way. I am myself a Gandhivadi while taking sides on the nature of freedom movement, but LRM very delicately convinced me that ‘Gandhism is not THE way but a good first coption’.
Never before a comedy movie was so pregnant with meaning since the days of Charlie Chaplin and never had a precedence in conveying a moral.
