If someone wants to learn Hindi, there is no better Bollywood movie to serve as inspiration than Rang De Basanti. One of the first films featuring a non-Indian heroine speaking nearly-fluent Hindi, it stars the lovely Alice Patten, playing the character of Sue, opposite Aamir Khan as DJ. While her friends in the UK were going out and getting sloshed at pubs, Sue was perfecting her Hindi in order to prepare herself for a trip to India to make a film. She was inspired to travel to the former British colony after reading her grandfather’s diary, in which he wrote about inspiring freedom fighters. When she arrives, she holds auditions for her movie, casting DJ and a few of his friends – Karan, Aslam, and Sukhi – as the freedom fighters. The boys, at first, are not all that interested in a film about their country’s road to independence, but a series of events convinces them otherwise and they realize the importance of struggling for justice.
“ 'There are only two ways to live your life. Tolerate things the way they are... or take responsibility and change them.' ”
One of the most famous scenes involves Sue, as she surprises DJ with her ability to speak Hindi. Before that, he had joked around with her, saying one thing in Hindi and then translating it into English to mean something else. When DJ introduces Sue to his mother, he describes her as his new wife from London, telling his mother she is her “teri bahu,” her “daughter-in-law.” Sue smiles politely and reaches down to touch DJ’s mother’s foot, a sign of respect in India. Then, she says, “Woh thoda pagal hai.” In Hindi, “Thoda” means “a little” and “pagal ” means “crazy.” So, the whole sentence translates as: “He is a little crazy.” In response to her line, everyone present breaks into laughter and DJ is shocked to discover that she had understood him the whole time.
The movie charts a complete shift in thought and purpose undergone by the protagonists. The group of friends acting in Sue’s movie are careless and self-indulgent college kids, who have no interest in the well-being of their country or in anything else. However, after learning about freedom fighters and being confronted with modern-day corruption and evil, they begin to realize that something must be done. Perhaps the most powerful line in the movie comes when DJ says, “Zindagi jeene ke do hi tarike hote hai... ek jo ho raha hai hone do, bardaasht karte jao... ya phir jimmedari uthao use badalneki.” “Zindagi” means “life,” “tarike” translates as “method or way,” “Jimmedari ” is “responsibility,” and “ badalneki ” means “to change or transform.” Thus, the line reads as, “There are only two ways to live your life. Tolerate things the way they are... or take responsibility and change them.”
