SYNOPSIS - RANGEELA
("COLORFUL")
- SONG: RANGEELA RE
- Mili (URMILA MATONDKAR) wakes up from her dream.
Mom's upset because dad's late for work. Mili's brother, Motilal, teases
Mili about failing Class 10 three times. She defends herself: she was
studying to be a dancer, wants to be a great actress, and has no intention
of becoming a clerk.
- Mili's job: a dancer in films. The producer
is taking credit for being the real writer of "Hum Aapke Hain Koun's"
script. The director considers himself too good for Bollywood and wishes
he were in Hollywood. The heroine of the film is a spoiled brat with
an overprotective mother.
- Munna (AAMIR KHAN) is selling black market movie
tickets. He nearly gets caught.
- The heroine injures herself during a dance movie
that her mother complains was too difficult and dangerous. When the
director implies that she's not really injured, the heroine's mother
declares that the day's work has ended. The film's hero, Kamal (JACKIE
SHROFF) leaves too. Mili sympathizes with him. Her friends don't care
- they know they'll get paid anyway - and this offends Mili's artistic
sensibilities. Unlike them, she is determined to become an actress herself.
- Munna and his friend Pakya visit a restaurant
where Munna's line of credit is wearing thin. He is glad to see his
friend Mili, but is unsympathetic about her complaints regarding the
heroine of the film. He's been trying to convince her to abandon show
business for some time now. An old, tired argument sparks, in which
Mili castigates his vagabond lifestyle and encourages him to get a real
job while he defends himself by asserting his unwillingness to be a
toadstool for some fat cat when he can be his own boss. Exasperated,
Mili takes off. Pakya and Munna follow, defending their carefree lifestyle
with a song. SONG: YAARO SUN LO ZARA.
- Mili offends Munna by refusing his gift of ice
cream. He's very irritated by it, and proceeds to steal a banana and
then get angry when the vendor protests. Mili, anxious to prevent a
fight, pays for the banana herself, which annoys him further. He's easily
ruffled, and too proud. Later, Mili tells her mother the story, and
is annoyed when her mother finds it amusing. Mili's mother defends Munna
by pointing out that many orphans go bad after their parents' death,
but he is a good boy, though admittedly a bit mischievous. Mili is unconvinced,
but quickly makes up with Munna when he reveals that he has tickets
to see the latest film starring Kamal.
- Kamal is unthrilled to learn that his new picture,
Mr. Bond, is a super hit.
- Mili is shocked to see Pakya selling black tickets.
Munna explains the sad details of Pakya's life - orphaned young, he
struggles now to earn money for his sister's dowry. Inside the theater,
Munna quickly provokes a fight.
- Mili is enraged by Munna's cantankerous behavior.
He wonders why she always blames him for anything that goes wrong.
They bicker, and finally make up.
- Kamal is gloomily pretentious as he ponders
the skyline. He's clearly an unhappy man.
- Taking advantage of yet another early day caused
by the heroine's tantrums, Mili practices dance. Munna interrupts and
scornfully remarks that this studio she's so obsessed with is less impressive
than their street at festival time. Mili decides to prove him wrong.
SONG: MANGTA HAI KYA
- Munna confides to Pakya that he wants to marry
Mili. Pakya encourages him to ask Mili. Munna fears rejection, but resolves
to propose.
- At the amusement park. Munna teases Mili for
being so scared on the rollercoaster. Pakya encourages Munna to go ahead
and propose, but Munna loses his nerve at the last moment, blustering
that he wanted to tell Mili that he, too, was scared by the ride.
- Mili practices her dance on the beach, where
Kamal sees her and is very impressed.
- The director is shocked to hear that his heroine
is dropping out of pictures because she's getting married to her driver
and he doesn't approve of the love scenes - though he thinks that a
rich girl marrying her driver is a great idea for a movie (see "Raja
Hindustani," also starring Aamir Khan, to understand this joke).
- Mili gets a phone call from Kamal asking her
to star in his film.
- At the screen test, Mili flubs her lines. Kamal
comforts her, saying it happens to everyone. He advises her to go home,
rehearse, and come back tomorrow morning to try again. Mili quickly
seeks the aid of Munna, but he is not willing to get into the spirit
of the venture, probably since her dialogue is that of a woman rejecting
a man's declaration of love. When she critiques his wooden line-reading,
he gets angry and refuses to help. She breaks down and shares the mortifying
debacle of her screen test. Contrite, Munna comforts her and helps her
rehearse.
- Mili nails the screen test. Thrilled for her,
Munna buys a new suit and decides to take her out to a five star hotel
for dinner. He arrives at her house just in time to see her heading
out the door, looking gorgeous, for a party celebrating the success
of Kamal's current movie, "Mr. Bond."
- At the party. A drunken actor disparages the
party, saying his film opened in America, and they had the premiere
in the backyard of his good friend, Bill Clinton. He makes ridiculous
boasts to Mili, saying he gave Rekha her screen name and knew Amitabh
Bachchan since childhood (both are living legends of Bollywood). Then
he gets busted by a man whose name he has dropped. Later, on the beach.
Mili laughs about the incident with Kamal. He warns her that she will
meet many people like him. Mili vows never to become like him, since
she loves not the glitter or potential fame, but the possibilities of
film itself. Kamal asks her about her family; in turn, she asks him
about his, but this question does not seem to please him. He falls silent,
and the night is over.
- Mili's on Cloud Nine after the party. It's Munna's
birthday, so she goes with him to the five star hotel, where he has
difficulty understanding the waiter's English and asks for a fan to
be turned on despite the waiter's insistence that the AC is working.
Kamal comes in, and offers to introduce Mili to her favorite director.
She leaves Munna sitting at the table alone.
- Motilal is upset because he feels that Mili
has become the favorite child. His mother's upset because Mili won't
eat - she's on a diet - and neither will Munna. Disturbed by this news,
Mili goes to find Munna and says if he won't eat, she won't either,
though she's starving. Munna gives in, but warns her that the movie
industry is bad news, full of glitter but ultimately hollow. Mili's
angered by what she sees as his lack of faith in her judgment.
- Kamal takes Mili to a stretch of beach where
he wants to build a house. She wonders how it feels to be the object
of such adulation. He tells her that it isn't so much fun, since the
fans love the fiction of him they see on screen, not the real person.
Later, he confides to her that he was in love once, with a woman named
Suchitra, who died. She is stricken by his loss. He apologizes for having
gotten too personal.
- Munna is drunk. Pakya taunts him, saying he
doesn't have the guts to tell Mili how he feels. Pakya shares his own
tale of a less-than-successful seduction attempt.
- On the set. The director's a little insane:
he wants four, and only four, of Mili's hairs to hang in her face. Declares
himself to be in competition with Coppola and Spielberg. Bystanders
harass Mili. Kamal advises her to ignore it, then finds he can't ignore
it himself. Later, he encourages Mili to address him familiarly.
- A drunken Munna castigates himself for thinking
he's such a big shot, yet fearing to tell Mili how he feels. When he
breaks a window, neighbors complain, but he invites them down to hear
the tale of his own broken heart. SONG: KYA KARE KYA NA KARE
- Munna visits Mili's. She's already gone to sleep,
so he seeks advice from her father, asking him if he's ever been in
love. Mili's dad confides that he has, and his mistake was too wait
too long to speak up. "Don't delay in matters of the heart, Munna."
- Kamal is ecstastic, having realized that he
is in love with Mili.
- Mili goes to Goa to shoot a song sequence. SONG:
TANHA TANHA YAHAN PE JEENA. Munna shows up to wish her a happy birthday.
He has a gift for her, but when he goes to give it to her, he finds
that Kamal has outdone him. Feeling like an outsider, he leaves.
- Pakya finds Munna and wants to know what happened
in Goa. Munna is angry and embittered, and wants to be left alone. SONG:
PYAAR YE JAANE KAISA
- The first copy of the film is ready. Kamal is
assured that it's going to be a hit, and that Mili is fantastic. Mili
invites Munna to come to a special screening at the studio. Meanwhile,
Kamal prepares to propose to Mili, but he is afraid as well as eager.
Ever since Suchitra died, he has been anxious that every happiness that
comes to him will be brutally taken away. SONG: HAI RAMA
- Kamal postpones his proposal when he realizes
Mili is totally absorbed in the prospect of seeing herself on screen
for the first time. Meanwhile, Munna and Pakya are rudely evicted from
the screening room to make space for important personages. Munna is
uncharacteristically resigned, but when a guard manhandles them, he
defends himself. Mili, encountering the fight in progress, assumes Munna
is at fault and tells him to go.
- Mili returns from the performance, and is thrilled
by Kamal's praise of her acting abilities. When she finds Munna waiting,
she apologizes for her behavior, explaining that back at the studio
she had been so excited to see the film that she hadn't thought before
speaking. Munna says she wasn't in the wrong; that with so many important
people in the screening room, it wouldn't have been right for him to
watch it there. She's annoyed, and tells him she's apologized already,
so let it go. He asks how the film was, and she gloats at the overwhelmingly
positive response, adding that this, the realization of her childhood
dream, would never have been possible without Kamal.
- The movie's premiere. Munna doesn't show up;
Motilal gives her a letter that Munna left for her. She begins to read
it, but the lights go down. When she does read it at the end of the
movie, she is shocked: Munna confesses that he loves her, but knows
he has no place in her life, because he is a small man and she is destined
for and deserves to be someone important. He adds that he knows Kamal,
or someone like him, can give her things that she deserves, things that
he, Munna, would not be able to give. But he cannot bear to see her
with someone else, so he is leaving - forever. Stricken to the core,
Mili bolts from the theater and then demands that Kamal take her to
find Munna, explaining that he's somehow gotten the crazy idea that
Kamal loves her and she loves him, and that they're getting married.
What a fool he is, she adds, to think I don't love him! Kamal, his heart
silently breaking, takes her in his car.
- Mili finds Pakya, who upbraids her for her horrible
treatment of Munna - tells her how Munna came with a ring to Goa, but
she never cared to find out; how Munna went to see her film, and she
insulted him; how Munna had been saving all his money for a wedding,
and had now given the money to Pakya, though after witnessing what Mili
had done, Pakya wasn't sure he cared for love or marriage anymore. Kamal
interrupts this tirade, telling Pakya to save it for later and tell
them Munna's whereabouts.
- Mili finds Munna. When he sees who has brought
her, he says he doesn't want to cause a scene or be an obstacle; he
truly does only wish for Mili to be happy. Kamal scoffs and says the
idea that he would love Mili is nonsense, reminding Munna that
he and Mili are actors, and while they work together every day, that
does not mean they want to spend the rest of their lives together. Moreover,
Kamal continues, Mili is madly in love with Munna - she's told Kamal
so herself. And so, in keeping with their usual style, Mili and Munna
fight - and reunite for a HEA.
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