The Rising: Ballad of Managl Pandey

This rising is not only about a man named Mangal Pandey but also about the rising of India. It's a very good team effort, a very well work done in all areas whether it is acting or Himman Dhamija's cinematography or Rehman's Music or Javed Akhtar's lyrics or Ketan Mehta's direction. And the song "Mangal Mangal..." is astonishing, amazing simply superb sung by Kailash Kher. If you are down in life or feel no energy then watch or listen this song.

This is a movie about friendship, social issues (like sati, casticism, corruption), East India Company's opium trade and ofcourse about the beginning of independence of country and of people. clips or plots of social issues were fit into screenplay very nicely. Film also rich in color and music too. Inspite of little avaiablity of the writings in the subject Ketan and team managed to come with a very good end product. Some time may be you feel movie is little slow or little stretch but by the time you realize it you will see picking pace again. There are couple of movies made on India's independence but very few also depict social issues of that time. Rising is one of them.

Only disadvantage what I see for this movie is the label of period film. So everyone knows the end but isn't it true for 99% of bollywood movies. Climax is really great and voice of Om puri in narration reminds me of 'Bharat ek Khoj'.

Overall a movie worth to watch but still not that par for a good actor to dedicate himself on this movie for 4 years. And beware if you are hard core fan of chopra's or johar's style of movie then it's better to sit at home and wait for DVD to release otherwise if you feel a movie should be good to watch in theater then stop readig this, Go and "Halla Bol!".

You can listen Rising's songs right here