Re: The Rising -
^
She’s gotta small role though but not very small. And I trust Aamir, he can’t go wrong with his productions.
I can’t say for sure I’ve crush on her. There’s a lady on my avatar who has made me sleepless. sigh
Re: The Rising -
The 1857 uprising shows that Hindus and Muslims fought together and installed the deposed Muslim King!!
It was after this that the British strived hard to divide these two communities & keep them week(Divide & Rule) and this same policy was followed which encourged the creation of Pakistan.
This policy was so successful, that till today we are fighting each other, and remaining weak(and buying their weapons to kill each other)
The Rising
After Viruddh, another good movie…
Blood, death and dancing girls
In 1857, Indian soldiers turned on their British rulers in a mutiny that led to an unprecedented wave of violence across the country. Is it really a good subject for a musical? Geoffrey Macnab reports
Friday August 5, 2005
The Guardian
Blood, death and dancing girls | Movies | The Guardian
“For too long, we have rusted in the service of foreign masters. All it takes is a bit of grease to remind us who we are.” So declares Mangal Pandey in The Rising, an epic new film about the so-called Indian Mutiny of 1857. Mangal is a sepoy , a private in the British army. New Enfield rifles have just been introduced. To use them, soldiers are required (quite literally) to bite the bullet. The paper cartridges encasing the gunpowder are heavily greased with tallow. This, the sepoys correctly suspect, contains traces of beef and pig fat. Neither Hindu nor Muslim soldiers are prepared to use the new cartridge, which they term the kartoos.
The Rising is a historical epic complete with all the Bollywood trimmings. There are spectacular battle scenes and even more spectacular song and dance sequences. (The music was composed by AR Rahman, of Bombay Dreams fame.) As the heroic sepoy, Aamir Khan leaps around with an energy reminiscent of Errol Flynn in his heyday. There is strong support from Toby Stephens as Scottish officer William Gordon, saved by Mangal Pandey on the battlefields of Afghanistan, who becomes his closest friend. Director Ketan Mehta provides a rogue’s gallery of British officers: Flashman types in red tunics who beat and humiliate the natives; and elderly officers with fat, grey moustaches who think nothing of double-crossing the sepoys. The drama, though, hinges on whether those cartridges really are smeared with animal fat.
Historians have tried to explain the 1857 rising in social, economic and political terms, but it is clear that the kartoos played a key part in provoking the violence that subsequently swept through India. “If you go back to the original Urdu and Persian documents of the mutineers, which I have been translating, the religious nature of the uprising is blatantly obvious,” says London and Delhi-based historian William Dalrymple, whose next book, The Last Mughal, about Bahadur Shah Zafar, looks closely at the events of 1857. “The old cliche of the cartridges really was terribly important. It was the issue that broke the camel’s back, in every sense.”
In truth, the information available about Mangal Pandey’s one-man revolt against the fat-smeared cartridges is relatively limited. Christoper Hibbert’s book The Great Mutiny (1978), still considered by many as the best English-language, single-volume study of the events of 1857, only contains three pages about him. Hibbert gives an account of the sepoy, “evidently under the influence of some intoxicating drug”, rampaging about with a loaded musket, taking pot shots at British officers, and shouting that “from biting these cartridges, we shall become infidels”.
“To me, Mangal is a symbol more than a character - a symbol of the spirit of freedom,” says Ketan Mehta. He has been trying to make The Rising since the late 1980s. His initial inspiration was a book his father wrote about freedom fighters and the battle for Indian independence. This portrayed Mangal Pandey as a folk hero: the first martyr of the war of independence. Mehta’s film does something likewise. The casting of Aamir Khan, one of the biggest stars in Indian cinema, reinforces the sense that Mangal is a kind of latterday Robin Hood.
As ever, Khan threw himself into the project. He spent a year and a half growing his hair long, nurturing a huge moustache, and researching the part, “getting soaked in the period”, as he puts it. Unlike other Indian stars, who appear in several films simultaneously, Khan will only make one film at a time. With him on board, financiers finally overcame their suspicion about backing a “historical”, a genre that has rarely done well at the Indian box office. “It’s disarming when you’re in a crowd with Aamir because Indian fans see him as a god, something akin to a deity,” his co-star Toby Stephens says. “There is a religious look that comes over their faces when they see him in the flesh.”
The first time we encounter Mangal, his head is shown in big close-up in what seems to be an oval frame. It takes a moment to realise that he is staring at us through a noose. Ironically, in British army parlance of the 1850s, the sepoy 's name became synonymous with treachery. A Mangal Pandey was the term that British soldiers gave to all mutineers. Mehta’s film ends with black and white newsreel footage of Gandhi and Nehru. The inference is clear. By standing up against the British colonialists, Mangal set in motion the events that led to the formation of modern India. Even so, the director acknowledges that Mangal remains a shadowy figure. Outside the reports of how he attacked the adjutant of his regiment on March 29 1857, and the documents chronicling his court martial, all historical trace of him has disappeared.
Nor is there much information about William Gordon. There are accounts of an unnamed British officer seen in Delhi, fighting with the rebels against the British army. The real Gordon is mentioned in letters and diaries written during the Indian Mutiny as being sympathetic to the Indians, but these don’t provide enough material with which to build up any kind of portrait.
The fact that so little is known about Mangal and Gordon enabled Mehta and his screenwriter Farrukh Dhondy to weave together their own riproaring narrative. The Rising is as much bodice-ripper as dry, historical study: “a tale of friendship, love, loss and betrayal” as the publicity boasts.
None the less, western viewers are likely to be startled by the sadism, snobbery and overt racism of the British in India. This is not dramatic licence. William Dalrymple says: “The British undoubtedly were at their very, very worst at this point in history - unbelievably violent and awful. It was through the idea of duty which came in the high-Victorian period.”
There are many theories as to why the British began to behave so cruelly. Mehta suggests that it was their transition from being traders in India to being masters of the country. By 1857, the British East India Company was all-powerful: responsible for civil administration and for the running of the army. The film-makers go to great lengths to show how the company benefited from the opium trade and how aggressively it pursued its own commercial interests even as the British were trying to bully the natives into embracing Christianity.
Mehta has tried to be even-handed. In one scene, Gordon intervenes to save a beautiful woman from suttee, the custom requiring widows to be burned. This is a humane and heroic act that upholds the law as passed by the British, but it’s also an example of a westerner riding roughshod over the local culture. “It’s not white and black,” Mehta says. “We’re dealing in multiple shades of characterisation and multiple perspectives.” Dhondy points out that the mutineers’ brutality mirrored that of their oppressors. “Indian rajahs took men, women and children, civilians all, with white skin and put them to the sword. More people died in the Indian Mutiny year than ever before in the history of India.”
The Rising is not the first Indian film to explore the background to the Indian Mutiny. The Chess Players, Satyajit Ray’s 1977 classic, was set in Lucknow in 1856. It showed two chess-obsessed noblemen playing the game night and day, seemingly oblivious to British plans to take over their kingdoms. Junoon (1978), starring Shashi Kapoor, was adapted from a short story, The Flight of Pigeons, inspired by the memoirs of a survivor of the mutiny. There have been various other Indian films touching on the events of 1857, but it’s a subject that the British have left well alone. Even now, close to 150 years later, the story of those fat-smeared cartridges and the chaos they unleashed is one they would rather not tell.
Given how dark the subject matter of The Rising often is, the upbeat musical interludes occasionally seem just a little incongruous. Mehta protests at the idea that the scenes of jewellery-festooned “nautch girls” performing gaudy and elaborately choreographed setpieces look out of place amid the bloodshed. “We have song and dance for almost every incident in life,” he says. He adds that the film was conceived as a ballad and that it was always his intention to marry history and folklore. Rahman’s music runs the gamut from old Indian folk songs to full-blown, western-style orchestral arrangements.
This may be historical romance, but there is a strong argument that the events of 1857 have a contemporary resonance. For William Dalrymple, the parallels with today’s world are self-evident: “In Delhi, where the mutiny took on a largely Muslim aspect, the words fatwa, mudjahadeen and jihad were all in play.” And Mehta is surely accurate that the East India Company is an example of an unscrupulous corporation running wild. “The entire Indian continent was run by a company. This is about what happens when you allow free rein to absolute greed.”
· The Rising is released on August 12.
Re: The Rising (Merged)
Indian journals have predicted that the movie would fail at the box ofice.Lets see its fate but I have conviction that it would succeed as it touches your sentiments-freedom struggle,mutiny against britishers and all that stuf!
Re: The Rising (Merged)
Movie is getting great reviews.....my cousin saw it and just loved it....i might catch this one in the theatre now
Re: The Rising (Merged)
^ heard some fabulous reviews... can't wait to see it..
Re: The Rising (Merged)
Many British are upset over the film.
The Indian film accuses the British East India Company of murdering civilians and flouting a ban on slavery and shows a British army officer ordering the destruction of a village for refusing to grow opium.
Saul David, military historian and author of "The Indian Mutiny: 1857", said: "I am no apologist for the British East India Company but I have never come across any evidence which supports either of these assertions.
"It is nonsense. Of course a certain amount of criticism is justified but this sounds like vilification of the British just for the sake of it.
"The East India Company did trade in opium but I have no knowledge of a massacre like this and I do not believe it happened," David was quoted as saying by the pro-Conservative newspaper Sunday Telegraph.
Hugo Swire, the Conservative Party arts spokesman, criticised the government-supported UK Film Council for investing 150,000 pounds in the film.
"I would be interested to know by what criteria the Film Council judged this film to be worthy of financial backing," he said. "It is not particularly helpful in the current climate.
"I personally think the council should concentrate on supporting British films. I do not see why they see the need to support a movie financially that has been produced by the Indian film industry."
The British investment was drawn from lottery funds that are meant to support worthy charities and the arts.
A Film Council spokesman said it supported projects for their "quality, not politics".
The controversy reflects a possible lack of consensus among British and Indian historians over many landmark events in India's struggle for independence.
The Sunday Telegraph quoted historian David as disagreeing with the film's central claim that the 1857 uprising followed East India Company's insistence that Muslim and Hindu soldiers used bullet casings covered in beef and pork fat.
The British historian says the cartridges, which had to be bitten off, were never issued in the light of concerns and therefore unused.
However, many historians say the uprising was inevitable once these cartridges had been issued - whether or not they were withdrawn was immaterial.
The film shows the cartridges as being issued and an officer threatening to slaughter soldiers with a cannon unless they used them.
There are also differences between British and Indian perceptions of the events of 1857. Britain still considers the uprising as a mutiny by Indian soldiers. In India, the events were described as a mutiny for a long time until historians and politicians began calling it the country's first war of independence.
David himself has been criticised in the past for showing a pro-British bias in his book on the 1857 war.
In a review published in an Indian newspaper, fellow British historian P.J.O. Taylor said while David's book showed genuine scholarship, it was one written for a British audience by a British historian.
"Even when atrocities by British troops are reported we get the impression that they are retaliatory, provoked and perhaps 'understandable in the circumstances'," Taylor wrote.
More recently, Prince Philip, the husband of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, said during a 1997 visit to Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar that Indian claims that 2,000 people had been killed in the British massacre there were exaggerated.
Bobby Bedi, the film's producer, accepted that some scenes were conjecture but he insisted the film was against the British East Indian Company, not anti-Britain, the Sunday Telegraph said.
Re: The Rising (Merged)
saw the movie on opening nite...and its nothing too great. I mean its well made and amir khan's acting is good...but at times it got pretty boring and also the movie would have been much better if it was songless. The songs are forced in.
Re: The Rising (Merged)
The movie is just ok nothing great. Why they need 2 actresses in a war movie......would have been better if it is 1.5-2 hrs long without any songs. Amir acted great in the movie.
Aamir Khan’s acting in The Rising
All I can say is I was amazed especially because promotions of this movie just started a month back and the outcome is crazy. Aamir Khan does it again. After watching ‘Mangal Pandey’, one can just not imagine anyone other than Aamir Khan. The movie reaffirms that the actor’s choice in a subject rarely goes wrong. Ketan Mehta comes up with a final product that satisfies a moviegoer completely with no complaints whatsoever. Whats funny is the names of rani and amisha are mentioned but u hardly notice them over the acting of Aamir Khan.
“For a movie for which promotion began just about a month back, it’s amazing to see how it has created such hysteria all over with the best ever first day. With an increased number of shows, high admission rates and great word of mouth publicity, the movie is bound to create records all over and turn into a money spinning blockbuster for everyone involved.”
- Its also got Hollywood actors Toby Stephens and Damien Lewis. *
You should go out there and watch it.. its great..
Re: Aamir Khan's acting in The Rising
I hope the movie does well.... Go Aamir...
hey princess... how long is the movie??
Re: Aamir Khan’s acting in The Rising
sorry, I am not really a big fan of Amir khan 
but i would like to watch the movie for its substance 
There should be plenty of it.
Don’t wanna start a debate by saying, I don’t rate him as high as he usually considered - no hard feelings for amir khan fans 
just my personal opinion however. he surely took me by surprise in Dil Chahta Hai 
Re: Aamir Khan's acting in The Rising
^ 70% of post was abt aamir
Re: The Rising (Merged)
i saw it last night and thought the movie was excellent, aamir khan has proven himself again with his very different role. the british actor william was really good as well, his role was pretty nice. as for the songs they are good but lagaan songs were much better. i loved this movie i thought it was good because the fact it wasnt a typical film and show's that bollywood can be very versatile with the type of movie's they produce. they have ****ty ones and then they have movie's like these that just show how great direction, acting and sets can be so good. i love aamir he is so good!! rani did well i like her but she looks fat!
tu kala kutta!!
Re: Aamir Khan's acting in The Rising
aamir is good! he is so cute when he laugh's and his acting is just different every time. he should keep up the good work.
Re: Aamir Khan's acting in The Rising
aamir is the shizznit!!! hes damm good!
Re: Aamir Khan's acting in The Rising
i am a big Aamir Khan fan..
Re: The Rising (Merged)
The movie is goood :k:
the director says… it took 16 years in making of the movie 
One british critic finds the stroy to be less authentic and biased
Me find Amir khan is too much
After his two successful films got supperhit and then next three year he released no film.
Amazing !
Re: Aamir Khan's acting in The Rising
well he is a creativemind
he is not like Shahrukh Khan
who has done the movies like VeerZaara/Main Hoo Na
i think for the past 18 months only Swades was the better movie
of SRK.
Re: Aamir Khan's acting in The Rising
There are good/successful actors(Aamir) and then there are commercially good/successful actors(SRK)......i think only Amitabh Bachan has both the qualities...
yes GUY1 i loves Swades and really like SRK's acting in it.