Rangeela

Rangeela is a great musical hindi movie. It is stylishly edited and directed by Ram Gopal Verma which helps quicken the pace between the seven or so songs throughout the movie.

But it is definitely Aamir Khan who steals the show in the movie as an uneducated but street wise slacker. Aamir always chooses challenging roles that are different from the mainstream hindi cinema. He has great talent a great range as an actor and this movie along with Akele Hum Akele Tum are some of his best.

The story is kind of light and predictable, but the songs and urmila will keep you happy.

The Plot idea of "Rangeela" is not original.. its Bollywood inspired by Bollywood itself.

Any guesses ? Well Year -1970 Movie - Mere Humsafar.. only difference here is in the old movie the director played by non other but Balraj Sahini has his eye on the lady and woes to win her, make her career etc., while the poor village boy (Jeetendra) almost looses her to the film world & glamor..

Plot very similar and identical..

Incidentally there is another Aamir Khan movie again inspired by an old blockbuster movie of 1971 and that's Caravan again starring Jeetendra, and the movie is "Mela", but that attempt was a failure, as the Original was too good.

Rangeela, released in 1995 was and will ever be one of the finest works of art by a complete team of cast and crew members. From among all the slew of films that were made at that time, this one was the topgun and the undisputed champion. This product is right from the top shelf and even exceeded the great expectations that reviewers have! It is the fusion of the Reel and Real which enables this film to stand on its own philosophy. There are some grand principles and ideas conveyed within the story in a style and manner which even a child can understand and enjoy. This is a terrific combined effort from the team of Aamir Khan, Ram Gopal Varma and AR Rahman. The application of the industry aspects and the in-film director, Steven Kapoor played by Gulshan Grover are so wonderfully plotted that all Jackie Shroff has to do is to fit into the in-film hero which he has done very well. Above all, this is a perfect showcase of Aamir Khan's colorful personality in a role which is almost contrary to his own "known" character. I wonder if anybody else could have pulled out such a performance the way Aamir has done in this film. His humor and style in this film are a display of pure brilliance and true talent. In one statement, this film has a touch of everything and the observant viewer shall catch the theme which he grasps. If the fate of the lovers gets painful, there is always the glamour and dance of Urmila to focus on and when that gets unrealistic, there is the jolt from the blue that transports the watcher out of the dream onto hard reality! A Classic work of art and science (The spectral recording of the soundtracks) from a gem of a team of artists- Rangeela has all the colors of the movie industry within it!

Rangeela, directed by Ram Gopal Varma (who has made very good and very bad films) is a pretty good musical movie to watch with the family.

Even though the movie had some faults, like a typical and predictable storyline along with some editing mistakes, there were still some good things in this film.

First off, the film itself is clean and more of a family film. It has some pretty funny comedic scenes and I'm sure a lot of kids would enjoy it.

Second, the performances. Urmila Matondkar, who the film is focused on, does a pretty decent and convincing job, and also danced well in the songs. Jackie Shroff had an average performance, his performance was a typical Jackie Shroff performance. Aamir Khan, however, did a great job. In this film he played one of the first tapori street thug type of characters in Bollywood history, and he did very well. He fit in to his character to the finest and maintained the accent and style of his character throughout the film, which is very hard to do. It wows me that this is the same man who was in Andaz Apna Apna the year before. He stole the show for me.

And last, A.R. Rehman's soundtrack. This was one of his finest soundtracks, and all the songs, from "Rangeela Re" to "Yaaron Sun Lo Zaara" were all very melodious, catchy, and overall good songs which helped the film.

Overall this film is a nice film to watch with the family and to watch for Aamir Khan's classic performance.

Rangeela was the movie that started a new era in Hindi movies - one where the heroines started wearing skimpy outfits without looking vulgar. Prior to this I remember shuddering at Karishma Kapoor's crass numbers in Raja Babu and Khuddar.

This was a movie that was the turning point for 4 major film personalities:

1. Ram Gopal Verma: He was a pretty good director with movies like Shiva in his repertoire, but Rangeela was the movie that really made people sit up and take notice. Subsequently RGV delivered several movies of style and substance, though he did generate some stinkers.

2. A. R. Rehman: OK, this is an unfair statement. Rehman entered the major league with his very first score in Roja. But Rangeela was his first score for a Hindi movie. And what a success it was! It had several foot-tapping numbers, a lot of which are popular even today.

3. Aamir Khan: I became a big fan of Aamir when I watched Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander. I later watched some of his earlier movies and really loved his performances. But his performance in Rangeela was mind-blowing. The ease with which he slipped into the "Munna" persona was really praiseworthy and marked a turning point in his career. Hereon he started picking up roles with more nuances and challenges and became a veritable hit as an actor and the industry started referring to him as a "perfectionist".

4. Urmilla: Oh Urmilla! I remember watching the trailers of this movie and thinking, "This movie will survive on the lack of Urmilla's clothes". It probably did, but while watching the movie not once was I thinking about what she was wearing. Prior to Rangeela it was customary for Hindi film heroines to dress up in a manner that did not offend Indian sensibilities. Actresses like Karishma Kapoor and Mamta Kulkarni were frowned upon and in general considered B-grade actresses. Urmilla blew the theory out of the water with this film and overnight established herself as a sensation after quite an indifferent start to her career (I am discounting Masoom, which she did as a child actress). Several of her scenes are referred to even today in reverent terms, albeit in a comical manner: Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Khan referred to the "Banian on a beach" while MC'ing for the Filmfare Awards in 2004, nearly 10 years after the movie. Urmilla in subsequent movies has proved that she can do a lot more than look sexy.

Does the movie have flaws? I would be surprised if it didn't. It stretched the limits of believability a bit thin and some songs didn't need to be present. But I am not complaining. For a ticket price of Rs. 15 those days, it was great value for money. And thanks for boosting four personalities who have, since, been a source for high-value and high-class entertainment!