Courtesy of Tallenge

Rang de Basanti was the seventh highest grossing Hindi film in 2006, the year it was released.

In world history classes, teachers show a variety of documentaries and movies throughout the year to keep students engaged and give them a sense of various eras and movements. However, quite a few of the films are equivalent to lullabies, slowly sending me off into dreamland. 

Now that I’ve seen a majority of the documentaries, I can confidently say that the movie that left me both the most educated and emotionally distressed was “Rang de Basanti,” from the sophomores’ Imperialism unit in World History. A 2006 Hindi movie, it follows the story of four young men and a young British woman rising up against their unjust government.

The film opens in England, where British film student Sue McKinley (played by Alice Patten) discovers the diary of her grandfather James, a former British officer in colonial India. 

Through his writings, she learns that he was responsible for the execution of three of India’s most famous revolutionaries. Despite his role, James expresses deep admiration for the unwavering courage these men showed up until their deaths. 

Moved by the diary, Sue travels to New Delhi, India, to create a documentary based on the freedom fighters’ legacy. She recruits a group of disinterested college students — Daljit “DJ” Singh (Aamir Khan), Karan Singhania (Siddharth Suryanarayan), Sukhi Ram (Sharman Joshi) and Aslam Khan (Kunal Kapoor) — to portray the revolutionaries in her film.

Initially, the students — believing that the sacrifices of the past have had little effect on modern India, which is plagued by corruption and religious conflict — don’t take the documentary seriously. After their friend Ajay (R. Madhavan), a fighter pilot, dies when his plane crashes due to the government’s ignorance, the group is racked with grief. When officials shift blame onto Ajay to avoid accountability, the group becomes enraged. Inspired by the revolutionary figures they are portraying, they begin a revolutionary journey of their own to expose government corruption and restore Ajay’s honor.

The movie is filmed in such a way that it switches between the journey of the Indian freedom fighters and the current college students, drawing parallels between both journeys. It frequently alternates between color and black-and-white, capturing the moment both groups decide to stand up to the system as well as the timings of their deaths, showing that even though the underlying issues were different, the heroic spirit was the same.

“Rang de Basanti” taught me a lot about the Indian freedom fighters and also created a connection between the events of the past and their translations into the present.

I found “Rang de Basanti” inspiring because it isn’t a typical documentary filled with soporific interviews and information. Instead, it is action-packed, romantic and tear-wrenching. 

For another thing, I absolutely loved the music choice — particularly “Roobaroo” by A.R. Rahman — because it aligns so well with the emotional scenes in the movie. I have never been more glad to have sat in the back of the class, because I was ugly-crying through a good portion of it, and after class, I walked out with my face red and swollen.

Entertainment aside, it was very exciting to see a foreign film covering key parts of history that have relevance to many students, and it was much more immersive and interesting than just listening to a lecture. I hope that it never leaves the curriculum and we see more of these types of exciting films to help us better understand the periods we’re learning about.