Mangal Pandey at the US Club: Review of The Rising and a brief word on our “independence”
Saw Mangal Pandey: The Rising at Inox yesterday with my wife and two friends.
I loved the film. No two ways about it. Loved it from start to finish.
I know the history of the period reasonably well, since I’ve researched it extensively for a while, for my “Epic India” series of historical fiction books, which I intend to start writing next year.
Mangal Pandey’s story actually ends before the revolution begins. Which is why it’s a tough subject to adapt to a big-screen adaptation, because in a sense, Pandey didn’t really get to do very much before he was executed.
But the film manages to take this severe limitation and turn it into a beautifully made, gripping, and emotionally involving film.
Aamir Khan, of course, is the heart and soul of the movie, and rightly so, with his intense eyes, realistically achieved ‘look’, moustache and all, and his heartfelt performance. There’s no question that he’s now the most committed, talented and mature actor of his generation, and he deserves all the acclaim and awards and commercial rewards that are due him.
I thought Toby Stephens was brilliant too. What a performance the man gives, despite his Angrezi Hindi and difficult role – torn between being one of the villains and the hero’s best friend.
It was a performance that reminded me of the great turn that Stephen Boyd did in Ben Hur, playing the Roman friend of the hero. That dynamic was very similar to the one shown between Toby and Aamir’s characters in Mangal Pandey and it’s credit to these two fine actors that they were able to create a screen relationship with the resonance and depth of that legendary one, with much less dramatic material.
Thirdly, Rani Mukherjee was magnificent in a tiny, almost irrelevant role. I didn’t care much for the natchnewalli mujra scenes, where she has to play the usual seductive sultry siren, but in her more realistic moments, as at the auction in the mela, or when she’s brought before Kiron Kher (also very good in a very tiny part) at the kotha, and in her brief scene with Aamir at the temple, she shows a fiery depth that makes me long for some film maker to take this gifted actress and cast her in an author-backed role like Rani of Jhansi that would display her huge range of talents.
Rani is a hero in her own right, and can carry any film on her shoulders, without even the benefit of a Bachchan (as in Black) to prop up the film commercially.
I liked Ketan Mehta’s direction too. He was suitably epic when needed, yet knew when to rein in the grandiose and capture the human emotions too.
A. R. Rehman’s music, as he himself has commented, was not used as effectively as it could have been. Partly because Mangal Pandey is a hybrid product, somewhere between a Devdas kind of film (rich, sumptous, period drama) and a Lagaan (intense, involving, offbeat but entertaining period drama) with glamour as well as grit, patriotism (a tough subject to convey on screen without becoming ridiculous or jingoistic like Manoj Kumar), friendship, romance, and most of all, a powerful sense of the bonds that unite and divide us all.
In a sense, the bond between the Angrezi captain and the sepoy Mangal Pandey is the core of the film. View it as such and you will see the film in its true light.
As for the critics and naysayers, let them go see Dus and bite their popcorn. I’d rather have one Mangal Pandey every four years than a Dus every Friday.
And to the media, who hypes up films like this needlessly, then condemn it for being “overhyped”, well, why don’t you shut up and let people decide for themselves.
On a footnote, an interesting incident happened on the same day I saw the film.
My friends and I decided to go to the US Club at Colaba, Mumbai, for tea and pakoras after the movie. (One of us was a member.)
When we reached there, we were told that because one of us, my friend, was wearing Indian garb, it violated the dress code of the club and so we would have to leave.
(My other friend, who was a member, had forgotten about the dress code, and apologized profusely for it.)
It didn’t bother us much, since we just upped and went to another place and had our tea and a lovely chat for the next few hours, and quite forgot about the incident.
But it did make me think later how curious it was that even today, so many years after Independence, we still have places in our own country where Indian dress is not allowed, whereas casual western dress of any kind – I was wearing jeans and a tee shirt and sneakers (and I saw kids in shorts and tee shirts) – is quite welcome.
It makes you wonder: How independent are we really from western rule even today?
Having said that, let me take a moment – or an entire day – to wish you a very happy 58th Indian Independence Day, today, August 15th 2005.
Even if you’re not an Indian.
Which is unlikely, because 1/5th of the world population is Indian-born.
And most of the remaining 4/5ths are influenced by Indian culture in some fashion, whether you realize it or not!
Vandemataram…
Mera Bharata mahaan…
Jai Hind!
This entry was posted on Monday, August 15th, 2005 at 12:01 pm. It is filed under Ashok.
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