Colors of Passion, original Hindi title "Rang Rasiya" Directed by Ketan Mehta - 2008, 2015
Viewed at Innsbruck Film Festival, June 2015
By Alex Farba Deleon
The Message of the movie is "Down with Artistic Freedom of Expression" --very timely in the year of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris only six months ago, but the Medium is unfortunately weak. Rang Rasiya was actually made in 2008, and even premiered at Cannes Festival, but was not released in India, because of certain bold scenes. The film was finally given a theatrical release after six years in 2014.
TRIVIA:This Indian film by a highly respected veteran director, Ketan Mehta, when completed five years ago in 2008 and revealed at the River to River Indian Film festival in Italy at that time, but was quickly banned from circulation in India and shelved until now. The reason for the ban at the time was not for political reasons but rather because Mehta dared to tweak the long standing Indian taboo against female nudity and mouth to mouth osculation on screen -- involving actress Nandana Sen, the daughter of an Indian Nobel Prize winner, no less! That restriction has now been openly challenged in a number of other films since, so a somewhat modified version of Rang Rasiya has been approved for general release. At Innsbruck two versions were actually shown, a full length original director's cut, and the somewhat trimmed and shortened version currently on release. Lead actress Nandana Sen, an official guest of the festival, was on hand to introduce the film and field audience questions at both screenings.
Basically Rang Rasiya is a classic biopic focusing on the life of 19th century Indian Painter Raja Ravi Varma, who was and is India's most famous painter, contemporary with the French Impressionists, but who became quite a controversial figure because he painted the gods and goddesses of Indian tradition as down to earth humans, often partially nude in erotic compositions. So compelling was his painterly skill that many people worshiped his tableaux on their knees seeing them as divinely inspired sacred iconography. At one point Varma was arrested and put on trial for offending public decency but eventually acquitted by a sympathetic judge and jury. Director Mehta has made a handsomely crafted picture rich in color, period detail, and voluptuous imagery, but strangely lacking in passion. One big problem is that lead actor Randeep Hooda is too macho-handsome and 21st century contempo to convince as a sensitive 19th century artist from the Dravidian south. Which is not to say that he doesn't give what the script asks of him -- just that he was the wrong man for the job -- a tricky case of miscasting probably aimed at attracting the mass audience to a touchy subject. What comes out is a preachy dissertation on censorship of sexiness rather than a moving condemnation of artistic repression in general.
Because of the surface glossiness and compromises made in order to reach the unwashed masses the sincerely intended message(s) become muddled in a colorful but dispassionate biopic that could have and should have been much more gripping. Bottom Line, nice try but no Cigar ~ better luck next time
Viewed at Innsbruck Film Festival, June 2015
By Alex Farba Deleon
The Message of the movie is "Down with Artistic Freedom of Expression" --very timely in the year of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris only six months ago, but the Medium is unfortunately weak. Rang Rasiya was actually made in 2008, and even premiered at Cannes Festival, but was not released in India, because of certain bold scenes. The film was finally given a theatrical release after six years in 2014.
TRIVIA:This Indian film by a highly respected veteran director, Ketan Mehta, when completed five years ago in 2008 and revealed at the River to River Indian Film festival in Italy at that time, but was quickly banned from circulation in India and shelved until now. The reason for the ban at the time was not for political reasons but rather because Mehta dared to tweak the long standing Indian taboo against female nudity and mouth to mouth osculation on screen -- involving actress Nandana Sen, the daughter of an Indian Nobel Prize winner, no less! That restriction has now been openly challenged in a number of other films since, so a somewhat modified version of Rang Rasiya has been approved for general release. At Innsbruck two versions were actually shown, a full length original director's cut, and the somewhat trimmed and shortened version currently on release. Lead actress Nandana Sen, an official guest of the festival, was on hand to introduce the film and field audience questions at both screenings.
Basically Rang Rasiya is a classic biopic focusing on the life of 19th century Indian Painter Raja Ravi Varma, who was and is India's most famous painter, contemporary with the French Impressionists, but who became quite a controversial figure because he painted the gods and goddesses of Indian tradition as down to earth humans, often partially nude in erotic compositions. So compelling was his painterly skill that many people worshiped his tableaux on their knees seeing them as divinely inspired sacred iconography. At one point Varma was arrested and put on trial for offending public decency but eventually acquitted by a sympathetic judge and jury. Director Mehta has made a handsomely crafted picture rich in color, period detail, and voluptuous imagery, but strangely lacking in passion. One big problem is that lead actor Randeep Hooda is too macho-handsome and 21st century contempo to convince as a sensitive 19th century artist from the Dravidian south. Which is not to say that he doesn't give what the script asks of him -- just that he was the wrong man for the job -- a tricky case of miscasting probably aimed at attracting the mass audience to a touchy subject. What comes out is a preachy dissertation on censorship of sexiness rather than a moving condemnation of artistic repression in general.
Because of the surface glossiness and compromises made in order to reach the unwashed masses the sincerely intended message(s) become muddled in a colorful but dispassionate biopic that could have and should have been much more gripping. Bottom Line, nice try but no Cigar ~ better luck next time