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Mangal Pandey The Rising – A Preview
11th Aug 2005 21.20 IST
By Nitika Desai

Mangal Pandey – The Rising , the most expensive film in the history of Bollywood, will hit the theatres on Friday. Actor Aamir Khan returns to the big screen after a gap of four years with this movie.

The last time when Aamir played a village lad Bhuvan in the historical Lagaan (which was set in the British-ruled India), the movie went on to become a blockbuster and was even nominated at the Oscars.

Expectations are sky high from Aamir’s latest movie ‘The Rising’ that has the versatile actor playing the valiant sepoy Mangal Pandey who provided the first spark for the Indian freedom struggle against the British.

The film, a bilingual directed by Ketan Mehta and produced by Bobby Bedi , is believed to have been made at a whopping budget of Rs.400 million ($9.1 million approximately). The film also has foreign cast including Toby Stephens , Coral Beed and Emily Kent.

Rani Mukherjee plays a prostitute who stirs up Mangal Pandey’s conscience and emotions. Amisha Patel plays a widow.

Set against the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, 'The Rising' tells the tale of a heroic sepoy Mangal Pandey (Aamir) who saves the life of a British commanding officer William Gordon (Toby Stephens) in a fierce battle in the Afghan wars of the mid 19th century. Despite the difference in their rank, Mangal and Gordon become good friends.

Their friendship is tested with the arrival of a charming and beautiful young aristocrat, Emily Kent. In the meantime, Gordon saves a beautiful young native girl, Jwala (Amisha), from the funeral pyre of her late husband, and falls in love with her.

Differences arise between Mangal Pandey and Gordon when the controversial new gun cartridges are introduced in the infantry of which Mangal is a part. The new cartridges require soldiers to bite through their greased casing, made of animal fat. And the Indian soldiers in the infantry refuse to use them.

Gordon assures Pandey that the cartridges have no animal fat, but the truth turns out to be the opposite.

Mangal Pandey leads a mutiny against the British, thereby setting off a wave for India’s freedom from its imperialist rulers.

‘The Rising’ was the opening film at the Locarno Film Festival where it got a standing ovation from the audience that mainly constituted the French, Germans, Italians and the Swiss.

The film has got good review in the British tabloid ‘The Guardian’, although the ‘Hollywood Reporter’ dubbed the film as “a kind of Indian ‘Braveheart’”.

Hollywood Reporter said the movie was “sumptuously designed and beautifully shot,” but criticized the film’s “melodramatic style and jarring combination of stirring action, brutality and musical numbers.”

However, the reviews stated that the movie would most likely appeal to Indian viewers and Bollywood fans.

Related
The Rising
Aamir Khan
Lagaan
Ketan Mehta
Bobby Bedi
Toby Stephens
Coral Beed
Rani Mukherjee
Amisha Patel