The Hindu : New Delhi News : The legend of Mangal Pandey comes alive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 15, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

The legend of Mangal Pandey comes alive

Staff Reporter

THE BEAUTIES AND THE BRAWN: THE Army Chief General, J.J. Singh, with film stars Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerji and Amisha Patel, at the music release of `Mangal Pandey -- The Rising' in New Delhi on Thursday. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

NEW DELHI: The long queue of men dressed in red and white of the sepoy uniform and the jarring music played by a local band was only the beginning. With Ketan Mehta deciding to bring alive the legend of Mangal Pandey in `style', the Capital may have missed out on the revolutionary aspect of the legendary sepoy on Thursday, but it did get its share of Bollywood's star `army'.

Touted as the most eagerly awaited film of the year, the music of "Mangal Pandey: The Rising" slated for a August 12 release was released by the Chief of Army Staff, J.J. Singh, at Priya Cinema here, with a curtain raiser of the film's songs also being shown.

But the highlight of the evening was the rather big entourage of stars. Almost the entire star cast of the movie - right from Aamir Khan to Rani Mukherjee and Amisha Patel -- to music director A.R. Rehman, Yash Chopra, Javed Akhtar and Bobby Bedi were present.

His long locks may have gone and the moustache now replaced by a clean look, but the legend of Mangal Pandey did come alive on Thursday evening as those behind the film stressed the relevance of Mangal Pandey in contemporary times. "The film questions the right of a society to come and rule a section. And it is relevant event today as we see superpowers like the US enter countries like Iraq or for that matter Vietnam as it did earlier,'' said actor Aamir Khan.

"We find that across the world, foreign forces telling people how they should be governed. The film is all about every man's right to hold his head high as the man next to him,'' he added. Having stayed with Ketan Mehta for nearly 15 years now, the basic concept of a film on Mangal Pandey may have gone through changes, but Mehta believes it is important to keep the spirit of Mangal Pandey alive.

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