Ae Saala...

Heard Roobaroo Roshni this morning, and asked myself if there has there ever been a more wistful song; A.R. Rahman's soaring tune is a paean to lost time and wasted youth, "wasted", in the final analysis (mine, not the film's), not because any task was left undone, but because it is irredeemably past at the moment one is able to think it. Indeed in Rang de Basanti the task the five youths have laid upon themselves -- killing the Defense Minister -- is completed, but the task cannot substitute for redemption: youth in this film is lost when Ajay dies, the "Ae Saala" of the song's opening who has always already fled...



Previous posts on the film here and here (unfortunately the Naachgaana.com links referenced in these posts aren't active, as the site has moved to a new version, and posts from "Naachgaana.com 1.0 are no longer available).