Sunday, February 26, 2006

Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti is one of Bollywood's recent offerings, and a pretty good one at that. It is running in the Regal Theaters in North Brunswick, NJ; there are decent English sub-titles for the non-Hindi person. It is a well-made movie, with no dead moments. You can read more about the movie at IMDB and at the official website.

I mention the movie here because it has one of the scariest scenes in movies, that I can remember. You might have to understand some Indian history to understand - at least about Jallianwala Bagh. The massacre there was a pivotal moment in Indian history. Prior to that a widespread Indian view was that the British Empire could be reformed to be a good thing; post-massacre, the Empire had to go.

There is a reenactment of the events of 1919, and the scene I found scary is one of General Dyer morphing into a Minister of the Indian Government. It is scary, because should it ever represent reality, it would mean that the efforts of many, many people, some celebrated, some unsung, would have been destroyed, their idealism betrayed. People who keep the faith, like this, and this, and this.