Mangal Pandey - The Rising (2005)

Great Film overall

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

A colourful Bollywood film, typically melodramatic, which co stars Toby Stephens as a native-sympathetic Engish officer on the eve of the First War of Indian Independence (formerly the Indian Mutiny, 1857). Aamir Khan looks good but is a bit lightweight and without depth as the central hero. Well staged and photographed, the long (210mins!) film suffers from some intrusive narration and several needless songs, which detract from the required gravity of events. Also it failed to transmit any real, necessary, social outrage at British rule a la Braveheart - instead substituting stereotypes for historical accuracy. Good to see the British in a less than positive light in this imperial context though, while Stephen's Indian dialogue, which didn't seem to be dubbed, was very impressively carried off. Film included one kiss, as well as some overt, non-symbolic lovemaking - a refreshing sign of the new Indian censorship policy. But it was all more entertaining than the plodding JINNAH (1998), also seen of late, in which another English actor, Christopher Lee, has a central role in playing similarly momentous events - this time as the founder of modern Pakistan. Another film handicapped by unimaginative incidentals, this time a clumsy framing device.SPOILER Best moment: at the end, when the hero, about to be hung for his part in the uprising, shouts ATTACK!!! is hoisted upwards to infinity while the appalled crowd of native onlookers surge forward to start the revolution. Even Prince Charles apparently clapped at this at the premiere...

I had very high expectations for this film. I had listened to the music by A.R. Rahman for weeks before it's release, and was excited about many other factors including Aamir Khan's presence, the theme, the fact that it was actually about a revolutionary whose story had not been told earlier, etc.I went to the first show on the Friday that it released. When it started off with the song "mangal mangal mangal," I was elated with the beautiful visuals and I remember thinking, "Here we go, finally a good film after a long time." But it was all down hill from there. After the first half ended, I was extremely disappointed. The excessive emphasis on Rani's role, and that whole aspect of the film regarding prostitutes. Even if this was a part of Mangal's life, it did not need to be given such great focus in the movie. I was really hoping that the second half would get better, because so far, the film had not connected with me on an emotional level, at all. Though the second half did get better, not by much. I didn't understand how there could be so many "holes" in the movie, eg. Amisha's role, how she just disappeared, etc. I mean, don't get me wrong, the film was fine technically, it just wasn't a "solid" film, it lacked that "something." When I left the cinema hall, I felt cheated. The last time I came to see an Aamir Khan film, it was Dil Chahta Hai, now that was a film. This, was just a disappointment. I was expecting a film with a lot of josh, emotion and heart. Hopefully "Rang De Basanti" will make up for this film's lack of...well, that "something", I guess you could call it a soul.

Kehtan Mehta is one of the worst directors to walk the earth this movie was bad songs were bad acting was just terrible this movie failed at the box office and i'm pretty glad the script was terribly written by few selected writers who's idea was to make this movie what happened to Aamir Khan after 4 years in Lagaan he was the man what happened in this movie maybe the director is just bad and doesn't know how to direct how could this movie be a success terrible thumbs down to the director scriptwriters basically everyone who was involved with this movie i'mm just a biased commentator who's saying that every scene was a piece of nonsense what the hell is this and where did they come up with this stuff truly one of the worst movies made should be the tagline of this movie if you're a one-sided commentator then you'll hate this movie i really hated it

I liked the whole atmosphere of the movie and the professional outlook. There should be more movies like this rather than the same soapy mushy mushy romantic movies.The story built up nicely, from the point where Mangal (Aamir Khan) was just a normal soldier to the point of him fighting for freedom and leading from the front. The Foreign cast in the movie such as Toby also did a great cast in making the movie professional rather than a joke.Heera(Rani Mukherjee) and Amisha did a good job although their roles were small. But it was needed since the emphasis was not them but Mangal.All in all, a worthwhile movie. Although many dispute its originality and historical facts, with the amount of historical facts available, the movie was well directed and shot. Inspiring and the ending made my heart heavier .