The film is getting an iconic status, of a level that I have not seen in my life. Yes, I saw people come out of Rang de Basanti, and swearing to do something for their country. That was an immediate impact, but beyond that, there was no real road for them, to get down to actually doing something.
As against that, the Lage Raho theme has the Gandhigiri franchise and that is taking off, like nobody’s business. Amazing.. now here is a real winner, for the film makers. When the product can have such a huge impact on the masses, the society, then you have really created some magic. Perhaps without even intending to create so much of an impact.. !
My own impressions of the film, in general:
I enjoyed it thoroughly. A few thoughts on the film are:
– Good, clean comedy can still work. We don’t need to be slapstick or sexist to have a laugh!
– There is serious potential for the sequel business in India too, when there is good effort behind it; Krissh was also a decent follow up to Koi Mil Gaya. Of course, a phenomenal commercial success.
– A 45-year old Sanjay Dutt and his not-much-claim-to-fame sidekick can still hold the audience for 2-1/2 hours,
– Raju Hirani, I believe, is an FTII product; also the producer Vinod Chopra is a class filmmaker (1942 a Love Story, Parinda, Mission Kashmir to name a few of his fab films). They make a great combine to deliver a really good product. Clean comedy, a nice face (Vidya Balan), some take home value (like the jadoo ki chhapi factor in the first one, here we have Bapu’s principles doing the trick) – things we would have thought to be passe in films, actually working for the audiences!
An aside..
I truly believe that Vinod Chopra has a way with presenting women well, on the screen. I am sure he has a role to play (besides the camera persons and the make up team). Manisha Koirala has never looked as good as she did in 1942, a Love Story. Likewise, I still remember the magical change in presenting Preity Zinta in the Bhumro song in Mission Kashmir (Preity of course, has had many more opportunities since then, and has looked good in several other films thereafter). And this time, its Vidya Balan. A far cry from her Parineeta presentation – which of course, was
also a Vinod Chopra production, but which was a film based in a different decade.
Random Musings 