Rang De Basanti

So at last I watched Rang De Basanti. Don’t really know what colors it gave other than the color of blood. The film did provide some cherishable feelings to start with. It always feels great when a foreigner comes and says “Payi Lago Maaji” and believes in “Mera Bharath Mahaan”.

We could visualize Indians getting united against the Brits. But here, the Indians were united for the sake of a Brit when Lakshman and Aslam acted like being together before the foreigner’s eyes. The style of getting the past and the present on parallel was great. Yes during the climax or in the scenes when they die or get caught it is emotive. But when they mix the scenes, sometimes the emotions are lost in the comics of the next scene.

The story starts with, Then I met the third type of men verse and ends with the same. Bhagat Singh and Karan Singhania are on the same plane. Without much of criticism about the comparison, Bhagath Singh who handed himself to the British and was ready for death then was laughing when he approached death. But how could Amir khan after seeing the death of his friend and Siddharth afford to laugh at that moment. They came to surrender; they did not expect to be shot dead. Probably to get the comparison through the director wanted them to laugh rather unfittingly.

Not much of time has been devoted to the MIG crash, and even the last clip about MIGs crash is out in quick time, before we could finish reading it. Probably political pulls would have been detrimental to the film from showing some more parts of it.

Comparing General Dyre and the Defence Minister was like hitting at the Bull’s eye. Truth to the core, what difference exists between the Brits and these self centered politicians of India? And the VHP was shown in some full light. True at the grass roots there are people who really believe in the ideas and at the top are the money makers. And these people deceive the grass roots. But why does every patriotic film want to arouse Hindu-Muslim unity rather than nationhood.

It was good to see that youngsters who are just drunkards and irresponsible could suddenly turn it on and take on the government. The sense of confidence was great.
But strange for every foreigner who comes here believing in our great tradition we only destroy their hopes and awaken them saying all those that you read were not about us. We are not in anyway resembling our past. We are not even aware of them. If we believe this is our society of the day we really owe a lot to change it.

Sachin is Out!!!

So, at last Yuvraj and Dhoni led us coast to victory in the 3rd ODI in Pakistan. With India at 191/5, chasing 289, how well Dhoni and Yuvraj managed to get India to Victory. What a tough ask from them it was, 98 runs from 90 balls in the last 15 overs. (Pak scored 89 runs in last 10 overs).

How well they managed this, and how could Sachin afford to leave us napping at 189/4. With a 100 runs required to win, how Sachin could desert the wicket. How could Sachin afford to squander away the great fielding efforts by Gambhir and Kaif? How could Sachin afford to squander away the stupendous and impeccable bowling performance from Sreesanth and Zaheer? How could Sachin squander away the great batting effort from the Captain Dependable (a face saving 22), and how could Sachin squander away the efforts of Dravid to keep Pakistan down to 288/8 from 160/6.

What a great effort from Team India, and how Sachin could afford to destroy all the efforts from those men around. If not for a Yuvraj and Dhoni what would have befallen Team India. How Sachin could shed away his responsibility to take the team to victory. Because his greatness means, he should bear the brunt for all others’ mistakes.

Pillar Sachin; Hurl your swords at him. Thanks Dhoni and Yuvraj because playing the last 15 overs to get 98 runs was the toughest task in the world. Sachin has not played when India was on a crisis. Between when did India get into a crisis with Sachin at the crease. The crisis is normally when he gets out. If the youngsters perform at that time they become heroes, if they don’t Sachin is the villain. The other men have no responsibility for Team India. And the man who is responsible should be targeted.

If not for Dhoni, Moin khans’, men who could blindly swing and get the bat to the ball would have written obituaries for Sachin for the greatest batsman of this era. If not for Dhoni taking India to victory, it would have been Sachin’s mistake to get out, and if Dhoni plays on Sachin’s foundation, it is Dhoni’s heroism.

How well we try to outplay greatness. How an immortal’s art is expunged by mortals who seek defeat of greatness, by mortals who want immortals out. How well we tend to make Dravids the superstars and idolize them with their mistakes and corner the ones who are above these. Acceptance or Irritation on seeing greatness shows to us who we are. Heroes look for the real warriors and men who cannot be that high look upon the pedestals to look up to. Look out where you stand.