by Subhash K Jha

Three months after its theatrical release Rang De Basanti continues to be one of the most hotly discussed films of all times.

What is it about the film that makes it such a favourite topic of debate and discussion among even the most cynical sections of movie-going audiences?

Even those who had given up on patritiotism as a cinematic affectation that went out of style with Manoj Kumar, have woken up to the reality that Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra so pungently projects in his part-history, part-fictional depiction of the Great Indian Post-Independence Depression.

Why are we so smug in our belief that nothing can ever change? Rang De Basanti is a reformist drama with a rhythm of storytelling that's as syncopated as it is sublime. You really don't know what you're getting into. To get fully into it we need to re-live the film's lucid dialogues and scenes in more detail than affordable to us in a movie theatre.

This is where the newly released DVD of Rang De Basanti (Sony-BMG) comes in. Here at your finger-tips, is the indescribable magic of the film.

The film's unique design and format whereby the seven protagonists (Aamir Khan, Sidharth, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Soha Ali Khan and the delightfully unselfconscious Alice Patten) merge into a historical pastiche without becoming lost in the rites and ranks of historical stock-taking, is indeed a unique moment in Indian cinema.

Add to that the consistent effort to tell the story in ways that avoid the pitfalls of clichés...and we have a film that never ceases to create a stir of echoic references and counterpoints.

Like all true works of art, Rang De Basanti has layers upon layers of meaning that become apparent on repeated viewing.

The film's greatest virtue lies not in its synthesis of history and headlines but in the way the director bends the rules of cinema to create the most iconoclastic and original work of art since Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai.

...Except that Aamir in Farhan's film didn't care a damn. In Rakeysh's film he's forced to look beyond the intimate and immediate allegiances of love and duty. Post-Basanti Aamir cares a damn...and about issues such as the dam.

Look beyond yourself.. This film creates spaces where patriotism nudges cyncism out of the frames. Belief replaces flippancy and the cinema of escapism finally escapes into a reality that doesn't seem selfimportant.