The Risings and Their Fallings

Elephant is regarded as being among the laziest animals. Even such an animal has risen (stood up) and ambled around the town to spread the word of ‘independence’. With those words, not just the trees, but also their shadows have risen (to fight for independence). And so brilliant was the rise (beginning) of the film: Mangal Pandey. But what happened, as the film proceeded towards the end? Let’s see…

The Stories and their Facts:
The person, who hangs death-sentenced criminals, ran away on the day when Mangal Pandey was to be hanged. Gordon, a British officer, recalls how he himself became the reason for a lone Sepoy to rebel against the British Empire and the bloody Mutiny thereafter.
In an out-dated fashion of infertile fiction, four years ago, friendship sprouted between an Indian sepoy, Mangal and a British officer, Gordan. Good understanding led them to carry their friendship for four years.
The British (except for Gordan), as usual, are shown mindlessly ‘brutal’. And all Indians are shown as innocent and faultless. The Brits exploit Indians to an extent where an Indian mother breast- feeds her mistress’ baby and no milk is left for her own child.
Mangal’s distress, on seeing all the exploitation, is cumulated until the cartridge-incident happens. Gordan, out of innocence, declares the gun-cartridges clean for Indian sepoys to use. Mangal trusts Gordan’s words. When the truth is revealed, Mangal feels betrayed. And the cumulated pain breaks open and a rebellious attitude takes birth within him. With the help of his companions, he plans an attack against the British. But unfortunately, he is caught and thereafter, sentenced to death.
But this rebellion of one man was, supposedly, the beginning of the Indian Revolt against British rule.

The Actors and their Acting:
The zenith of ‘The Rising’ is the brilliant performance of the British actor, Toby Stevens. Playing a British officer, Gordan, his every expression was memorable. It was through his able performance that the strength of Mangal Pandey was expressed. The way he conveyed, with his eyes, the fear of Mangal’s revolt, was awesome. His dialogue towards the end of the film, where he warns the British authority about the impending bloodshed, has successfully elevated the stature of Mangal Pandey’s character (and also this would be among the best scenes on the Indian silver screen). Ketan Mehta should be appreciated for choosing Gordan’s character to emphasize the extent of Mangal’s rebellion. The best attribute to be appreciated in Toby’s performance is his spontaneity. He was highly efficient in deriving the best from within himself at the right time.
And this is where Aamir Khan failed. No doubt, this is among the good and sincere Bollywood performances in recent times. He, in fact, should be appreciated for the preparation he has done to get the Mangal Pandey look. There is a jewel of an expression, which he displayed towards the end of the film. When Gordan warns the British authorities about the impending danger if Mangal is hanged, a victorious expression comes across Aamir’s face. This expression was well prepared but the glory of the scene is the ‘timing’ when it comes on the screen. Kudos to Ketan, Toby and Aamir! But to his misfortune, his best expressions in the film were already printed on the film-posters and shown umpteen times in the film-trailers. The insipid script and weak characterization did not allow Aamir to go beyond those poster-looks. He ended up tottering within the confines of his narrow range of histrionics.
Rani Mukherji, playing a prostitute, showed a spark of her talent when she pushes back the man who sells her in the market. Her role, Heera, anyhow offered very less scope to exhibit her acting skills. Had ‘Mein Vari Vari’ song been picturised well, it could have put Rani among the top ‘mujhra’ girls of Bollywood.
I read the following words in some review: “The only thing in ‘Mangal Pandey’ which met my expectation was Amisha Patel. She was pathetic.” I am forced to copy the same words.

The Makers and their Making:
There are three awesome scenes in the film: first, the elephant standing up in the opening scene of the film; the second, the Indian mother breast feeding the British woman’s baby and later using the ‘black paste’ (I don’t know what it is called literally) to control her own child’s hunger; the third, one man (Aamir) standing against the whole British empire. These three scenes showcase Ketan Mehta’s talent as an astute director.
Ketan Mehta has got a very good concept to create a period-classic. But the bad thing was his choice of writer: Farookh Dhondy (the tactless script-writer behind the pathetic ‘Kisna’). Farookh, like in ‘Kisna’, is short of new ideas for this film. I repeat my words: the story is ‘an out-dated fashion of infertile fiction’. The small facts researched about Mangal Pandey are knitted with fictitious stories. But, these created stories have been happening through a lot of Bollywood films (‘out-dated fashion’). And neither do the dialogues induce inspiration or education or realization or creative gratification (‘infertile fiction’).
Fine! The script had no great shakes! But, neither did the cinematography! Except for the ‘one man against the empire’ scene and a very few more, the shot making was uninteresting. The final hanging scene did not do justice to the back-ground score. Now, that doesn’t mean, that the background score was interesting. A.R.Rehman, except for ‘Mangala Mangala’, looked out of form. No special compositions for the larger-than-life theme!!! The songs in the film were just attempted to be adjusted along with the flow of the film. And the bad thing was that the attempt got too obvious.

The Audience and their Expectations:
Now the most unfortunate factor about big releases is the sky-high expectation of the audience. After ‘Lagaan’ and ‘DCH’, an Aamir Khan film will be searched for the perfection, the media boasts his films to have. But, ‘Mangal Pandey’ has heavy shares of imperfections.
Fortunately, Aamir has very few bashers. His sincere efforts are more respected than the same by other star-actor. Many people take for granted about the niceties in Aamir’s films. So this could be an advantage for the commercial success of the film.
And this film has its share of mass elements, like songs, skin show, hero’s character elevation and some ‘masala’ dialogues. These are necessary since the budget is high and Indian crowds wouldn’t support much of ‘art-cinema’. But these elements appeared to have been forced in; consequentially, they gave a pretentious look to the film. The songs are disinteresting on-screen (even ‘Mein Vari Vari’ lacked the proper situation); the skin show was unnecessary (for revealing cleavage, a National award winning actress like Kiron Kher is not necessary); the heroic look of Aamir was not able go beyond the whiskers and tresses; and the dialogues rendered by him sounded out-dated and tired (inspiration was lacking in the script).

Me and My Verdict:
I confess that whatever has been written above is just restricted to my perception and perspective. I recommend this film to only those people who like to watch Aamir Khan in films. For normal audience (esp. families), this film will not be worth-watching.