- Genre: Drama
- Cast :-- Randeep Hooda, Nandana Sen, Gaurav Dwivedi, Paresh Rawal, Jim Boeven
- Director::--- Ketan Mehta
Visit Site for moreWhile the film moves at a fairly quick pace throughout, the climax seems to be a little stretched. Sometimes adapting an entire book in a span of approximately 120 minutes can prove to be an almost impossible task and RANG RASIYA too seems to be a victim of it. On the whole, RANG RASIYA is for the artistic and creative people who believe in freedom of expression but it surely won't woo the janta who are looking for entertainment and a getaway this weekend.
Rang Rasiya Movie Review
Ratings:4/5 Review By: Srijana Mitra Das Site:Times Of India (TOI)
Rang Rasiya is a colourful triumph, director Ketan Mehta meriting applause for his portrait of painter Raja Ravi Varma, skillfully blending a biopic, a period film, a love story and a social critique, within a tight frame. Rang Rasiya portrays Varma as India's first cultural rock-star, adored, attacked, commercial, inspired, excited and challenged by a new consciousness he sees - and shapes. Vitally, Rang Rasiya emphasizes Raja Ravi Varma's commitment to the freedom of ideas which creates philosophy, science and liberated love, ephemeral, yet lasting - like the pages of his calendars.Visit Site for more
Ratings:3.5/5 Review By: Saibal Chaterjee Site:NDTV
Rang Rasiya is by no means a perfect film, but for the manner in which it tackles an extensive range of important themes related to the place of art in a tradition-bound society, it is an impressive achievement. This film has been in the cans for several years, but given the timelessness of the story it tells and the crucial issues it addresses, it has lost none of its relevance. Rang Rasiya is as good a film as any you have, or will, see this year. Strongly recommended.Visit Site for more
Ratings:2/5 Review By: Rahul Desai Site:Mumbai Mirror
However, as I watched Raja fund young Dadasaheb Phalke's moving-picture dreams, the meta-ness is hard to ignore: I was watching an ordinary cinematic representation of an artist indirectly responsible for us watching films at all. What if he hadn't been generous to the future Father of Indian cinema? Would we be in a position to gauge the uniformity of his legacy? Perhaps not.Visit Site for more
Ratings:3/5 Review By: Koel Purie Site:India Today
Ketan, I am glad you are out of your circumstantial hibernation because you still tell a story more beautifully than most, but, this is not one of your best. I give it 3 stars mainly for the message.Visit Site for more
Ratings:3.5/5 Review By: Rohit Vats Site:Hindustan Times
Ketan Mehta has done a commendable job as Rang Rasiya is far ahead of its contemporaries, which are still dealing with insane item numbers and illogical heists.Rang Rasiya is much more than just a period film. It’s a statement on behalf of people who reject intolerance and are continuously striving for a new India which will give space to free voice. It’s a piece of art.Visit Site for more
Ratings:4/5 Review By: Mohar Basu Site:Koimoi
Ketan Mehta doesn’t shirk from taking the pique stand in telling a well blended tale about love, passion, virtue, chastity and he brooding demand to adhere to social norms, bringing into relevance of Raja Ravi Varma’s story which is more than a century old. Mehta’s line of thought was simple, while gadgets and technology is progressing, our minds are still not free from the shackles of primitive thinking. This is one Ketan’s most effortless, most nuanced and most impactful works and definitely one of recent times’ most powerful and moving films, I had the good fortune of watching.
The film takes a while to gather momentum and begin to underscore the principal conflict points in the legendary artist's career.
The narrative is marked by metaphorical blotches of darkness - these add multiple layers to the forceful drama and serve as counterpoints to the overwhelming beauty that cinematographer Anil Mehta puts on the screen.
The film swings from the highs represented by the untrammeled passion that drives the process of creativity to the lows brought on by the myopic interventions of self-appointed guardians of conventional religious belief and morality, and glides across much else in between.
Rang Rasiya is by no means a perfect film, but for the manner in which it tackles an extensive range of important themes related to the place of art in a tradition-bound society, it is an impressive achievement.
The film, which has been adapted from Ranjit Desai's Marathi biography of Raja Ravi Varma, probes multiple themes - freedom of expression, religious bigotry, deeply ingrained caste and class divides, and the dilemma of a woman who dares to surrender herself completely to the man and the artist she loves and trusts. It does so with restraint and subtlety.
In Rang Rasiya, we witness Ravi Varma being transformed from an unassuming but supremely talented young man to a full-fledged rebel who paves the way for a wholly new approach to art.
He marries a princess, goes the whole hog with a lowly maid for the sake of his art, earns the title of Raja from the impressed ruler of Travancore, is banished from Kerala by the latter's successor, shifts to Bombay, and secures a commission from the Maharajah of Baroda that allows him to travel the length and breadth of India in quest of inspiration.
At the end of it all, Raja Ravi Varma emerges as a successful artist who is both revered and reviled. But firm in his belief that "art is always unfettered", he continues to fearlessly ply his trade, earning many enemies in the bargain.
With the help of an Indian businessman Goverdhan Das (Paresh Rawal) and a German printer Fritz Schleizer (Jim Boeven), he sets up a lithographic printing press in Bombay that reproduces his paintings by the hundreds and thousands.
That fuels the ire of the fundamentalists and he is dragged to court for hurting the religious sentiments of the people, a plight that artists have continued to face across the country ever since.
Rang Rasiya is bolstered appreciably by the strong performances by the two principal actors - Randeep Hooda as Raja Ravi Varma and Nandana Sen as his muse in Bombay, Sugandha Bai - as well as by the formidable supporting cast (Darshan Jariwala, Vikram Gokhale, Sachin Kedekar, Ashish Vidyarthi, Paresh Rawal, Vipin Sharma, Gaurav Dwivedi).
Randeep does not strike a single false note in a complex interpretation of a towering figure, capturing the highs and lows of Raja Ravi Varma's life with effortless ease.
Rang Rasiya is as good a film as any you have, or will, see this year. Strongly recommended.
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