The year 2006 was a year that created history in the Indian film industry with its innovative releases. Amongst many others, two significant movies were “Rang de basanti” and “Taxi No 9211”. I had a chance of watching these two equally fantastic movies. Both of these movies, that showed possible paths for revolutionizing India Inc., provoked keen emotions amongst its viewers. Hence, I cannot help but compare the ideas presented by two. Also I have a feeling that a very essential message conveyed by TN9211, might be drowned in wave of ignition that is brought about by RDB, because one can’t feel the moonlight in the sun. But before I dive into that discussion let me put in brief, the storyline of these two movies, just to make the discussion more relevant.
RDB, is the story of five youth who live an apparent life of merrymaking and fun, and obviously doing nothing. They live in a fool’s paradise and indulge in every activity that promises to be fruitless and worthless. Even so, this doesn’t stop them in thinking about themselves in the highest terms. But inwardly they do realize the truth, and they reveal these themselves in the carousals that follow their boozing sessions. Not even the prosaic, practical and mature company of a foreign national, whom they chance to meet upon, is capable of changing them. This person from England is a dedicated journalist, whose ardor to shoot a film depicting the experiences of her grandfather with Bhagatsinh and company, the legendary freedom fighters of India, is unmatched and by some intuition she chooses our heroes for her documentary. Well, the depiction of the lives of the heroes of India’s freedom movement does deviate our heroes into sense. But they are jolted into reality not until they loose a common friend of theirs, an air force officer, in a plane crash. The crash is ascribed to poor parts in the craft, which made their way in due to a scam in defense transactions. The defense minister comes under the line of fire and he counters in defense, that it’s the amateur and untrained pilots that cause such accident and no scam like thing. The non-violent oppositions to such statements and demands of a unbiased justice by the friends and family or the deceased pilot (that includes our heroes) is met by hostility and violence on part of the government. Enraged by this and afresh from encounters from the lives of Bhagtsinh and his likes, our heroes draw the weapon on the defense minister. Following the assassination, these youth confess their crime, to prevent the immortalization of the defense minister who was starting to get proclaimed as a national hero. The youth are officially murdered by armed forces, a consequence of a political collusion, but they do not fail to raise a conflagration of patriotism all across the nation.
Phew...., coming to TN9211, it’s a story of two atypical characters. One amongst them is a taxi driver (of taxi no 9211) who thinks that the whole world is a very bad place to live in. All about his nature is revealed by the fact that he has changed 23 jobs in 15 years and not for the better. He fools his wife into believing that he is an insurance agent, and is a boisterous and acerbic person, with no limits to his acerbity. Another character is again a youth living in a fool’s paradise, but this time his paradise is secured by the bountiful wealth of his deceased father, a mammoth industrialist. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he is a cavalier in his dealings with life and sincerity and seriousness are alien feelings to him. In his terms, there’s a minor problem is caused by unfolding of a copy of will by his parent in which a fortune worth Rs. 300 crores is bequeathed to a very veteran confidant of his father and his father’s empire, so to say, rather than his prodigal son. So our “Mr. Cool” arraigns the benefactor, claiming to have another version of his father’s will in which he has been pronounced as the legal heir, and that the later will was made by his father in the healthiest conditions. It’s noteworthy to point here that even his father’s death had not caused him to ameliorate his ways. Well so, as destiny had it, on the day of hearing, “Mr Richie Rich” has to travel by a taxi to a vault to acquire the will, owing to an accident of his car. And by a stroke of luck he hires the taxi 9211. The events that follow are really amusing and the depiction of the attitudes of both these characters is marvelous. “Mr. Richie Rich” causes the taxi to crash, by his insistence to on the driver to drive fast, and starts all the trouble for the already mangled soul and above all leaves the mess for the taxi driver to clear. As for “Mr. Richie Rich” himself, it’s by the loss of the vault key in the taxi itself that he atones for his extravagant smartness. It’s a clash of the titans that follows, and both are bent to destroy each other in every possible way, and needless say that they have an equal aptitude for the task at hand. Well almost near to the end, owing to their own faults, one has nearly lost his fathers fortune (and of course gained by the loss of his hippocratic friends and girlfriend) and the other has lost a loving wife and a kid, both of whom are worth countless fortunes. So chastened by the nature and mended by two angels; “Mr. Richie Rich” by the veteran friend entitled to the fortune and the taxi drive by his prosaic wife, both find themselves befriended to each other and that too on a day on which they share their birthdays. And in the end it’s all well, with both of them learning the true way of living life and the key to success, of course with no losses bore by any of the parties. “Mr. Richie Rich” also finds a renewed love interest in a damsel, by a lucky accident of their cars.
So moving on, to the comparison, RDB does ignite an unmistakable flame of patriotism in every Indian and also gives a very apt metaphor, by depicting the corrupt politicians with the tormentors of India, in the era that anteceded India’s freedom. And it is worth noting that, such leaders are even worse as they have the same origin as you do, and you don’t smell the rat in them or condone them, unless they inflict some pains on you or your dear ones. But the pathway suggested by RDB to amend the deteriorating conditions of our country; to revolutionize India Inc., cannot be reckoned at all in my opinion, due to the reasons that I now present. Before following the foot steps of Bhagatsinh, we must realize his greatness and comprehend this legend. Bhagatsinh was a man with impressive foresight, unmatched maturity, and unrivalled leadership qualities and of course zealous patriotism. He had a flawless vision and governance for himself as well as for the country in his mind and all this at an age of 23. The track of so called violence adopted by him was impeccably justifiable in view of his capabilities and all the more in view of the conditions on India at that time. His ways were calculated and his vision, if not for the unfortunate loss this great man at an inappropriate time and if time would have come to put him in power, would have never ushered in chaos, violence and any such vices. Unfortunately, we Indians are not so fortunate enough and time has never given us opportunities to sustain such great leaders. Much has been said about Bhagatsingh and I, in my capacity, am in no way capable of analyzing this legendary character deeper than what has already been done.
What I strive to drive through at this point though is that Bhagatsinh was a man with self-governance and clear demarcated pathways for his actions. HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING. The question here is, do we, the youth of today, know it? I guess the answer is NO, for most of us. Drawing weapons only due to a blind passion ignited suddenly and certainly without any kind of self-governance is certainly no way to improve the conditions of our country. If at all this methodology succeeds, certainly not before a devastating civil war, the question that we will face will be that do we have the clairvoyance, prudence and the ability to rule our country and to take it to new heights. Well looking by the ways of our lives and maturity levels the answer is self-evident and almost axiomatic. Above all, the most immediate loss, before any possibilities of acquiring a rule, is that of losing “a generation that has awakened”, as the punch line of RDB suggests; a generation that would have possibly started to mend it’s ways, a generation that would be befitting the likes of Bhagatsinh after a few years of such a self-persistent Renaissance. And this is what is shown in RDB. Remember it took a death of a man and grievance and sufferings of his tormented mother, to awaken the five youths in RDB, and the story lost them for almost nothing. They did ignite a spark, but they themselves would be needed by the time to come, to sustain that spark and grow it to a purifying flame. Let me remind here that the memories of a crowd are short-lived and so we need leaders to champion a cause.
And in spite of all this, if success marries the effort to bring in such a rule, it will usher in only utter chaos and deterioration. We have very well seen this during the first 50 years of our independence that if, even a democratic rule, with lack of self-governance and responsibility on the part of the “demos” – we the people, could cause such an astronomical devastation, then there is no saying what a “Rule of the gun” would do. (Let me acclaim here that we are recovering from the aforementioned devastation in a quite satisfactory manner, such a manner that bolsters our optimism). A parallel example is of countries of world where such violent revolutions have been successful but with no useful consequences. And with more violent revolutions following, in a viciously cyclic manner, the future of country is lead to nothing but utter ruin of the civilians. But yes, the way that TN9211, prophecies is that of self-governance, of self-improvisation, of self-amendment. It is like a fable alluding to the well known adage “CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME”. What I am pushing in is that if each of us mends his/her own ways without cursing the world around, looks into his/her own shortcomings and amends it, no one can stop us from scaling the heights and realizing the dreams of the persons of the likeness of Bhagatsinh. A country, as it is very aptly said, is what its people are, and the magnanimity of the task at hand starts to change when each of us start changing on our own. The process may be slow in producing results, but put in patience and perseverance in it, and slow begets sure. And this applies to all, no matter if he is a taxi driver or a corporate giant, when it comes to the development of nation; all have an equally important contribution in their own way. And this is exactly what TN9211 conveys to me, although in an impromptu manner. No examples of such nations, with citizens as described, need to be given, as they are citied almost everyday. So finally (ah, I see you are happy now), I just wish that let us all not waste the spark of patriotism ignited by RDB by indulging into actions inspired by temporary burst of emotions and adrenaline, but sustain this quintessential spark and shape it into a fire that purifies us. Let us call out, “Rang De Basanti, the Taxi No 9211 way”.
