Rang Rasiya

Rang Rasiya is a Hindi drama film directed by Ketan Mehta and produced by Deep Sahi, Anand Mahendroo, Ketan Mehta  starring Randeep Hooda, Nandana Sen, Triptha Parashar. The film shows the modern Indian art with sensuality to the divine and giving faces.

The film is a colourful triumph which merits applause for the portrait of painter Raja Ravi Varma. It is a skilfully blending biopic, love story, periodic and social critique film in a tight frame. The time frame is set to 19^th to 20^th century where Raja Ravi Varma’s growth from youth to a citizen is shown. Young Raja seems to have several sensual encounters by atop giggling swings, waterfalls, wrenching jewels off lovers’ bare skin with painting portraits for royals and this continues till he meets Sugandha in Bombay.

She first neglects his art telling ‘ladkiyon ko ghoorna’ but later on accepts to be his muse and lover. His passion grows for both Sugandha and his art; it slowly drags him to the court blaming his art for plague that devastates Bombay. What will Varma do now?

The film questions and answers very well and the cinematography glides well across Raja’s iconic art – shimmering fabrics with glossy lights, on a paper the jewels gleam, etc.
 

Randeep Hooda did a great job as a swarthee kalakar. There is a hilarious scene when Lokmanya Tilak delivers a speech and Raja breezily flirtrs with a journalist, Frenny and later a man dismisses the critics very arrogantly. Sugandha social gets mocked due to guilt.

Nandana also did well in her role while Paresh Rawal did a characteristically sharp cameo as canny merchant, Govardhan Das.

The film, Rang Rasiya portrayed Raja Ravi Varma as Indian first cultural rock star. Vitally, the film emphasizes Varma’s commitment to the freedom to plan ideas that create science, philosophy, ephemeral, liberated love yet lasting.