Rangeela (1995)

A street-toughened orphan by the name of Munna (Aamir Khan) is befriended by some kind folks, whose effervescent daughter Mili (Urmila Matondkar) soon grows to be his best buddy. Both gravitate toward the Mumbai movie industry. While Mili finds occupation as a movie extra, Munna earns his livelihood selling movie tickets in the black market.Mili has ambitions of becoming an actress. Fortune glances her way, when she dances her way into a movie star's attentions. This actor, Raj Kamal (Jackie Shroff), arranges for her to be auditioned for the heroine's role in his upcoming movie called Rangeela. Mili's shortcomings amount to distractions, but thanks in no small way to Munna and Raj, she lands the role.

The Plot idea of "Rangeela" is not original.. its Bollywood inspired by Bollywood itself.Any guesses ? Well Year -1970 Movie - Mere Humsafar.. only difference here is in the old movie the director played by non other but Balraj Sahini has his eye on the lady and woes to win her, make her career etc., while the poor village boy (Jeetendra) almost looses her to the film world & glamor..Plot very similar and identical..Incidentally there is another Aamir Khan movie again inspired by an old blockbuster movie of 1971 and that's Caravan again starring Jeetendra, and the movie is "Mela", but that attempt was a failure, as the Original was too good.

'Rangeela' means 'colourful' or 'colourful one' in Hindi but this film was entitled Bollywood Dreams at my local library where I rented it. I liked it but felt that some scenes should have either been edited out or have not been included at all. Once the premise was set and all the characters fell into place, at times the movie just seemed to drag on.Okay, here's the story. Urmila's character is a girl with a great bod and big dreams. She wants to be a star. She dreams it every night and one day, her dreams come true when she is spotted dancing on a beach a a big Bollywood action hero (played by Jackie Schroff). But this sucks for her longtime pal and childhood bud (played by Aamir Khan) because he is secretly in love with her and now that she has her big break, he knows that her being with Schroff's character all the time will complicate things. But, if you know your Bollywood sappiest films, then you know how this is going to end. Everything is pretty much predictable but it's a nice, cute film.The songs are exceptional for its time, especially the Asha Bhonsle addictive 'Rangeela' number. I also liked the Kavita Krishnamurthy number too. AR Rahman did a good job as usual on the soundtrack.But let's just try and forget about that flying sofa above the NYC skyline scene. :(

With Rangili "Urmila" dancing tirelessly every quarter of an hour, this movie is a feast from frame 1 to the end. Excellent performances by both Aamir and Urmaila produce some enchanting moments but it is the underplayed role by Jackie that goes to make this movie a complete entertainer. The music by A.R. Rahman is one of its own kind.A must see.