Ep 234- Rang De Basanti

Welcome to Khandaan: A Bollywood Podcast where we’re discussing one of the greats — RANG DE BASANTI (2006).

Directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, this movie stars Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Atul Kulkarni, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, Alice Patten, Soha Ali Khan, Waheeda Rehman, and Madhavan among others. With music by AR Rahman and lyrics by Prasoon Joshi, this is also one of the great albums of the past 20 years.

In this episode we discuss the impact of this movie and what has changed in the time since it released. We examine how we feel about this movie as a piece of cinema as well as a piece of politics after these many years.

Chapters

00:00- Introduction and Twitter Discussions

08:04- The Role of Rang De Basanti in Indian Cinema

13:51- The Changing Political Landscape and Social Media

30:22- Transitional Politics and Co-opting of History

49:51- Cinematography and Visual Aesthetics

56:31- Cost-Cutting and Filmmaking Choices

01:07:52- Queer Coding and LGBTQ+ Representation

01:09:15- The Impact of the Music

01:22:20- Political Commentary and Contemporary Relevance

Shownotes:

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