RANG DE BASANTI is a story about the youth of India today. A young, London based film- maker chances upon the diaries of her grandfather, who served in the British police force in India during the freedom struggle. Excited about these memoirs, she makes plans to shoot a film on the Indian revolutionaries mentioned in the diaries. She comes down to Delhi, and casts a group of five friends to play the pivotal roles of these revolutionaries. However, products of modern India, the five youngsters initially refuse to be part of the project, as they don’t identify with these characters from the past. Not surprising, considering that they’re part of a generation of Indians that believes in consumerism. To them issues like patriotism and giving one’s life for one’s beliefs is the stuff stuffy text- books are made of. They would rather party than be patriots. In the film both the 1930’s British India and the India Today run parallel and intersect with each other at crucial points. As the film reaches its resolution the line between past and present blur’s, as they become one in spirit.
