Rangeela (1995)

Fantastic!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

A street-toughened orphan by the name of Munna (Aamir Khan) is befriended by some kind folks, whose effervescent daughter Mili (Urmila Matondkar) soon grows to be his best buddy. Both gravitate toward the Mumbai movie industry. While Mili finds occupation as a movie extra, Munna earns his livelihood selling movie tickets in the black market.Mili has ambitions of becoming an actress. Fortune glances her way, when she dances her way into a movie star's attentions. This actor, Raj Kamal (Jackie Shroff), arranges for her to be auditioned for the heroine's role in his upcoming movie called Rangeela. Mili's shortcomings amount to distractions, but thanks in no small way to Munna and Raj, she lands the role.

I didn't know I was missing something until I saw this movie. Ram gopal verma has changed his genre often from love triangle, crime, horror and documentary but Rangeela has a special place among them. Urmila was seduction personified, she danced live a swan while great styling and cinematography added to the charm. Amir khan showed his early shades of tapoori(low-life bum) acting in this movie which was funny at the same time heart warming, later he acted in Ghulam on the similar lines. Jackie can't dance but this is more than compensated by his acting. Another aspect of the movie are songs and their execution which is even more pleasing to watch than the movie itself. I must watch for any Hindi movie buff and also for a peek into early works for Ram Gopal verma.

This film was sorely in need of a ruthless editor, not unlike most Bollywood movies, and ran far too long. The musical numbers were too many and largely uninspired or, like the desert scene, made no sense. Additionally, Urmilla Matondkar, the star, is not a very good dancer. Rangeela was also sloppily made; in my copy, one scene was clipped before Jackie Shroff had finished speaking. While the three principal characters were sympathetically portrayed, the supporting cast, especially Mili's father and brother, was largely dreadful. For this American viewer, who has seen some powerful Indian dramas and some delightful musicals, Rangeela proved a great disappointment.

'Rangeela' means 'colourful' or 'colourful one' in Hindi but this film was entitled Bollywood Dreams at my local library where I rented it. I liked it but felt that some scenes should have either been edited out or have not been included at all. Once the premise was set and all the characters fell into place, at times the movie just seemed to drag on.Okay, here's the story. Urmila's character is a girl with a great bod and big dreams. She wants to be a star. She dreams it every night and one day, her dreams come true when she is spotted dancing on a beach a a big Bollywood action hero (played by Jackie Schroff). But this sucks for her longtime pal and childhood bud (played by Aamir Khan) because he is secretly in love with her and now that she has her big break, he knows that her being with Schroff's character all the time will complicate things. But, if you know your Bollywood sappiest films, then you know how this is going to end. Everything is pretty much predictable but it's a nice, cute film.The songs are exceptional for its time, especially the Asha Bhonsle addictive 'Rangeela' number. I also liked the Kavita Krishnamurthy number too. AR Rahman did a good job as usual on the soundtrack.But let's just try and forget about that flying sofa above the NYC skyline scene. :(