Rangeela

For some strange reason, the Bollywood flick of the mid-Nineties Rangeela had a very deep impact on me. As wiki rightly describes this movie, "Rangeela is considered a landmark in Indian commercial cinema; it features breakthrough performances, a superlative music score and streetwise direction, despite a predictable and weak plot."

I loved the film very much, complete from Aamir Khan's role to Urmila's acting, from A R Rehman's music score to Ram Gopal Verma's direction. And by impact, I mean, there were some scenes in the movie which were dealt with such clear-cut precision and aplomb and gut-hitting scenes that even after a decade, I just cannot forget them although I havent seen it that many a time as one would to go to the extent of remembering dialogues.

Like that scene in which Aamir Khan tries to talk to Urmila about 'settling' down in that 'a/c' hotel; the one in which he shares a drink with Urmila's father when the father talks about his 'bus-mate'; the one in which Urmila looks dazedly at her brother, mother and father when she gets the call for audition; her first audition itself; Aamir's conversation with Jackie Shroff in Goa hotel room about him being a black-ticket seller; Aamir wanting to present her a humble gift but awed and silenced by Urmila's new-found celeb friends and gala party with expensive gifts; the director appreciating his own creation when the applause breaks out at the end of the premier screening; Urmila's acting when she reads Aamir's letter of parting; Aamir's friend's tear-jerking narrative about how much Aamir loved her and how she had neglected him.

And the befitting cheering scene of Aamir, true to his tapori style, sleeping stylishly on a truck and traveling on the highway, away from Mumbai; the way Urmila runs to the cliff edge, full of anger, for him running away; and then, Aamir, with his face registering shock and daze, unable to really fathom that she really loved him, unable to fathom that he really got what he always wanted, places his palm on Jackie's left chest, as if a grateful and thankful gesture for letting her be his, walks to her and fights her for not letting him know about the whole enterprise, and then, like a magic, with Rehman's tipping score, the movie ends with the hero and hero-ine hugging....