filmbriefs
Producer

Ronnie Screwvala

3
briefs
13:00
average
39 min
in total
On film.briefs3
13:00

Rang De Basanti

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra · 2006

Rang De Basanti (2006) follows five Delhi students drawn into a British filmmaker’s documentary about 1920s Indian revolutionaries. As they rehearse acts of defiance, real-world corruption forces them to confront their own passivity. Directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, with cinematography by Binod Pradhan and music by A. R. Rahman, it blends contemporary realism with historical re-enactment to ask what civic courage costs today. Though its climax strains credibility, its emotional logic and ensemble performances sustain its 157-minute runtime.

13:00

Jodhaa Akbar

Ashutosh Gowariker · 2008

A 2008 Hindi-language biographical epic directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, Jodhaa Akbar dramatises the 16th-century political marriage between Mughal emperor Akbar and Rajput princess Jodhaa Bai. Starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, it uses spectacle, music by A. R. Rahman, and Neeta Lulla’s award-winning costume design to explore tolerance as daily practice — shared meals, translated texts, adjusted postures — rather than abstract ideal. Though criticised for compressing historical complexity and underdeveloping its female lead’s interiority, it remains notable for its visual coherence, disciplined pacing, and commitment to craft over concision.

13:00

Swades

Ashutosh Gowariker · 2004

A NASA engineer returns to rural India to find his childhood nanny and stays to build a micro-hydroelectric plant. Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and starring Shah Rukh Khan, Swades (2004) is a deliberate, physically grounded Hindi drama that treats infrastructure, education, and caste not as themes but as daily practices — demanding patience, precision, and collective labour over rhetoric or revelation.