Rang Rasiya

Director: Ketan Mehta

Cast: Randeep Hooda, Nandana Sen, Ashish Vidyarthi, Paresh Rawal, Vikram Gokhale, Sachin Khedekar, Darshan Jariwala and Tom Alter

There are two conflicting aspects of Rang Rasiya. One’s the great story of an artist that just needed to be told. The other’s its incontrovertible erotic content. But they’re two sides of the coin that was Raja Ravi Varma’s art. His paintings were as revolutionary as they were sensational. And yet, this man’s creations have enabled billions of Indians to worship deities in the human form. Those ornate pictures of gods hanging in your home, office and temples are a spin-off of what Varma introduced to the world. And his visionary life has been captured in great detail in Rang Rasiya. But where its palette and content are so strong, the presentation of this biographical motion picture lacks an artistic finesse. If only it had been done with lesser flaws and more masterful strokes.

But hats off to writer / director Ketan Mehta for attempting to tell a story, not many would have the vision to execute. He employs a deft aesthetic approach to telling this tale of a misunderstood painter. A young and ambitious artist Ravi Varma goes from the social stigma laden backwaters of Kerala to the progressive world of art and adulation in Bombay. It’s a journey that takes us through the 1850s right up to the early 1900s. It captures the orthodox sentiments of our society to great effect. In 2014, a large majority of our society is still hiding under the veils of taboo. And this ever so frustrating practice of stifling sexuality has been at loggerheads with our nation’s cultural progress for centuries now. When Ravi Varma painted nudes in 1896 it was met with the same sort of criticism that we’ve seen our country in the 21^st century. And that choking sentiment forms the basic conflict of this artist’s biography. Mehta weaves in an unorthodox love story and themes of friendship, camaraderie and human vices with great effect. But it’s the inconsistent writing that lets him down. At the bottom of that barrel is the dialogue of the movie. There are a few lines in pivotal moments and crucial scenes that are just too clichéd. It’s like the director builds up a great moment with awesome visuals and plot developments and then pours water all over it with clammy dialogue. It’s a real pity.

Despite those damp squib moments, Rang Rasiya maintains a hold on its viewer thanks to its visual pizzazz. The multitude of colours and vibrant images are the perfect motif to tell a painter’s tale. They add to the romanticism. They invigorate the experience. And then there’s the added punch of bold imagery. There’s a direct projection of nude art and then there’s an aesthetic glimpse of Nandana Sen’s bare chest. It’s erotic in nature but it doesn’t seem unsavoury. Some credit to the Indian Censor Board, who have uncharacteristically, allowed content of such nature to be displayed in an A-list film. Yes it titillates but it maintains an air of aesthetic quality that doesn’t make it seem distasteful. That’s a fine balance well achieved.

And the perfect complement to those bracing visuals is a resplendent cast. It helps that seasoned actors like Ashish Vidyarthi, Paresh Rawal, Vikram Gokhale, Sachin Khedekar, Darshan Jariwala and Tom Alter shine in supporting roles. Nandana Sen plays Varma’s muse and paramour with great gusto. Her performance is as refined as it is bold. And then there’s Randeep Hooda. 2014 has been a kind year to Randeep, but this film has been in the cans for a long time now. And it shows why Randeep is a talent to contend with. His performance is suitably subtle and appropriately dramatic. The make-up lets him down when he’s playing an older man, but even then Randeep catches the body language to perfection.

As a biopic, Rang Rasiya offers a treasure trove of history and detail. It’s got the right hues and shades. It’s got the impeccable references. But even so, it needed that little bit of panache, which Ketan Mehta misses out on. This could’ve been a true masterpiece.