Still Awaiting the Great Indian Epic

An objective review of Mangal Pandey is painful. For an Aamir fan, to look beyond the prism is but an ardous task. Four years is a long time. There was hype, there was Lagaan and there was Aamir himself. But there also was Ketan Mehta who of late has been stuck in a morass and then there was the tricky subject of a little known but much revered national hero.

If you forget the hype, forget Lagaan, forget Aamir's pedigree Mangal Pandey is a very good film. To be able to stitch together a story around Mangal Pandey about whom very little is known is in itself a commendable task. There was a certain humanising of a national hero which is rarely the hallmark of hindi films. We find the character so over hyped that they become too mythic to be true. Mangal's transformation from an average foot soldier who feeds from the British to one of the very first symbol of our Independence struggle is but sensitively handled. I found that to be the biggest strength of the film.

Then there was the performances of the two leading men Toby Stephens and Aamir Khan. This was the other good thing about the film. It did not allow itself to be Aamir centric. Yes, there were the jingoisms around Mangal but clearly he was not the end all and be all of the film. Its a trap on which many films have failed me before. The focus was not just on Mangal but also on a discerning British officer at pains with his circumstances.

Then there was the recreation of the period. In any period film this is but the biggest challenge. Time and again I have baulked at a village scene where all the villagers looked to be decked up in new clothes all the time. I admit at all times Mangal was not free from this defect but there were times where the period looked brilliantly recreated.

We have had the occasional Mughal-e-Azam or Mother India but no true great Indian epic. Lagaan and Sholay were magnificent films but none of them were epics. To weave an epic you not only need to tell a brilliant and mind boggling story but you also need to showcase it on an audacious and magnifcent scale. Besides, apart from quality an epic needs a whole of lot of quantity. Gandhi truly reached epic proportions. But we needed a Richard Attenborough to tell the story of the father of the nation. Even the prowess of Shyam Benegal and the rivetting story of Netaji (whose life reached epic proportions) could not give us an epic.

Mangal's story was against the backdrop of India's first war of Independence - an event which was epic in its proportions. The impact of it stretched across the span of the country and involved equally revered heroes like Tantia Tope, Bahadur Shah and Jhansi Rani. The film fails to recreate the magnitude of this happening. The war in Afghanistan, the arrival of the Rangoon regiment and events beyond Mangal's death cry of Hulla Bol all cried out for an epic treatment. The ingredients were all there but Mangal fails here. Unfortunately no Indian film maker has had the vision to create one. Some say Shekhar Kapur is making a film on Buddha. But his film will not be a truly Indian product.

So, overall did I like Mangal Pandey? Yes, I definitely liked Mangal Pandey. However I was left yearning for more. I wish there was no hype around it and we did not have to wait for 4 long years. That way I would not have had unreasonable expectations around it.

And would I recommend it? Yes I would definitely recommend it to all those who are not fed on false moustaches, starry histrionics, hammed speech delivery and the same old hairdo, people who go to theatres to watch a film for performances and not just the stars being themselves.

P.S. - Wondering why there was no word about Aamir's performance. One, I promised to be objective and two, watch out for my post titled Aamir, Mangal and Us

Another friend of mine has a brilliant take on the rising part of the Rising..