BNA INDIA January/February 2015

FILM REVIEW
RANG RASIYA
A Film you have to watch
before you die
Hindi Cinema has never been keen on making
enlightening biographies, especially of any talented
creative artists born in our part of the
world in the last century. Thankfully, “Rang
Rasiya” is one of those rare and important
biographical dramas based on the life of 19th
century painter Raja Ravi
Varma, who was the pioneer
artist, painting the divine
Indian Gods and
Godnesses on his canvas
with an exceptional grace
and beauty. Directed by
Ketan Mehta the period drama
stars Randeep Hooda
and Nandana Sen in the
lead but unfortunately remained
in the cans for six
long years since its completion
in 2008.
Now where a few blame the
internal disputes of the makers
as the cause of this long delay in its release,
others mention its extremely bold scenes as the
key reason for getting stuck in the censors, in
order to avoid any communal unrest among the
people. Anyway, whatever the reason might be,
the sad irony remains that despite being a rare,
courageous film made on one of the most famous
Indian painters (who earned a world acclaim
too), the project could found no takers till
recently, when Randeep Hooda became a part
of some highly successful films at the box
office making a name of his own.
Based on the biographical novel by Ranjit Desai
the film passionately talks about Varma’s
obsessive art and the struggle to practice his
free artistic expressions depicting the mythological
characters creatively. And many would be
stunned to know that though his exquisite
paintings were getting famous all over the
world in that particular era, the artist was
arrested in his own country on the charge of
obscenity and offending religious & cultural
sentiments of the public by painting in an
indecent manner.
Frankly, “Rang Rasiya”
was an eye opener for me
too as I was also not
aware of such astonishing
facts about one of the
greatest Indian painters of
my own country. And that
is exactly why bio-pics
need to be made like an
effective means of spreading
awareness in the
present generation to be
precise.
Yes, technically it can easily
be called an artistically
inclined film made with a sincere motive accompanied
by a decent cinematography, average
soundtrack (which could be much better)
and impressive performances by the entire cast
led by Randeep Hooda and the gorgeous Nandana
Sen.
However it’s not the technical qualities for
which the film is being included here in the list
of must watch movies, but it’s the informative
value of its shocking as well as educative
content which essentially needs to be told to
our younger generation and not to be slipped
under the carpet as some forgettable part of
our history. So ignoring all the controversies
and unnecessary delay over its release, I would
like to recommend watching “Rang Rasiya”as
a must.
BNA INDIA January / February 2015
31