Rangeela Review

This is the movie I chose to watch for my birthday, and wow, am I glad I did. The story is classic tale of a young starlet pulled from the chorus to become a star, and she leaves her childhood friend who secretly loves her behind. Aamir Khan is always excellent, but his acting in Rangeela as the tough boy next door is a completely other level above. Hustler orphan Sunil has to be one of his top performances ever.

What really blew me away about Rangeela though is the music and choreography. The score was A. R. Rahman's first Hindi film, and it is beyond amazing. The choreography is really different than probably any other Bollywood film I've seen -- very much modern dance.

Everyone was great. I was really impressed with Jackie Schroff as the aging Bollywood superstar, and Urmila Matondkar was a revelation. I have never seen her before, and her transformation from girl next door to glam heroine star was something else.

Running out of superlatives, but have to mention that the added bonus of the film is that Aamir has an entire wardrobe of different colored see through mesh shirts keeping his hairy chest always on display.