ABSTRACT
On January 26th, 2006, Rang De Basanti ( Color Me Saffron, hereafter RDB) directed by Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra premiered in select Indian cities. RDB was one of the major hits of that year, a reputable film critic declared it to be among the ten best films made in the decade spanning 2000 and 2010, and it won a slew of international and national honours (Kamath, 2009). 1 But most interestingly, it struck a chord with middle-class youth, who have spent most of their lives in an India flooded with global goods, images, and cultural icons. Blogs discussed the RDB phenomenon, contextualizing it within a debate wherein nationalism was defined as a resurgence of patriotism and a willingness to fight for a more just India (Dilip, 2008). Indeed a few protest movements adopted some of the activist strategies valorized in this film (Chakravorty, 2006; Chaudhury, 2006). The popular current affairs magazine, Tehelka placed an iconic image from the film in the first page of its online issue dated February 11, 2006; the caption above read “What’s Right about India,” while underneath were the following words: “vibrant, resilient, resurgent, ancient, rooted, inclusive, plural, singular, country unputdownable.” These words framed the bare muscular torsos of four young men as they leaped up and reached towards an Indian air force jet flying above.
