Dev D Film Review
I saw Anurag kayshap for the first time last year, when he came to one
of the Bioscope workshop at PVR Juhu . He admitted that he is branded
as a jinxed director and the manipulative ways of Big Banners to kill
his film Black Friday. I saw his new film Dev D recently, though it is
really very late to write a review of this movie but still I love to
write my impression about this wonderful movie which can compete with
any world class movie.
I have a feeling that the thought of this film is based on two real
life news clippings. One is X Rated MMS of a school going girl shot by
her own friend and then circulate the MMS among the entire school
crowd, the trauma of the girl, her family. Second one is killing of
six seven innocent people on road by a rich spoilt drunken youth
with his BMW. Now weaving old Sharat Chandra's Dev Das story around
these two modern day sagas with a new treatment, is the film craft
can only be done by Anurag Kayshap. Jinxed level has gone , the film
is promoted by Ronnie Screwvala of UTV. Yes the whole plot is woven
around old Devdas, with lot many modifications, the characters are
not Bongs but Punjabi. Paro is also open , mod she is not meek but
equally strong , she also enjoy sex like any normal male. She is bold
enough to take a decision of her own to marry a person much elder to
her age just to take revenge from the hero who want to abandon her.
Emosional Atyachaar is Nothing but the cracker of a song (composed by
the Amit Trivedi who creates an exceptional soundscape for the film)
can describe the pain you feel as you see a potential cult film wreck
itself right before your eyes. In a surreal turn of events, you see
film become the man, as Dev D turns self-destructive, directionless
and seemingly senseless. You look for a spark somewhere, a small shard
that you can hold close and perhaps connect to, but it all gets lost
in a purple-blue haze of smoke.
Speaking of which, even No Smoking, for all its indulgence and
magnificently bizarre twists and turns, never completely lost the plot
this way. It held together, because there was some innate method to
the madness, which is hard to find here. What could have been a
poetically tragic, bittersweet tale of two wounded, lost souls finding
momentary happiness together becomes an exercise in futility and for
the viewer, often sheer frustration. Kalki Koechlin, who plays Chanda,
has an endearing fragility and waif-like presence, but she falls
woefully short, and her labored accent and patchy characterization
(even after Kashyap painstakingly sets up a sad and unnecessarily long
back-story for her) makes it impossible to relate to her.
There's some of Kashyap's trademark witty dialogue here too, and a few
scenes that sparkle in between- my personal favorite (and especially
topical in a way, with the recent incidents of moral policing) is one
where an old lady launches into a lecture for the protagonist whose
side-splitting reaction nearly made me fall off my chair. But with the
absence of any propulsive narrative force, Dev D almost begins to
torture, and the repetitive onslaught of montages (all of which are
brilliantly shot by Rajeev Ravi) takes this part beyond redemption. In
the end, it's another of Trivedi's mind-blowing tracks that perhaps
echoed my sentiments:
Nayan Tarse, Nayan Tarse,Daras Na Mile,Nayan Tarse...
Sarson ke khet are in place, and her dupatta does flutter, but, this
Paro is hardly one to melt like ghee and butter. The sacred Yash Raj
idiom is turned on its head, with Kashyap's heady and cleverly
concocted cocktail. The esoteric filmmaker springs a surprise and even
a few pleasant shocks onto us, and discovering each moment of this
wonderfully quirky take on the classic novel is a delight.
Frankness and candor like this has perhaps never been seen in
mainstream Hindi cinema. Even as the director cheekily and sincerely
references the novel and its adaptation by Sanjay Bhansali, he
contemporarises it like perhaps only he could have- and turns romantic
icons into flesh and blood people. Set against an impeccably detailed
and colorful Punjab, Dev and Paro's love story comes alive like never
before, because Kashyap has the balls to acknowledge them as sexual
creatures without making a fuss over it.
A landmark film in the way it portrays youth and young love, and
superbly etched with irony and humor, Dev D marries Kashyap's typical
stylistic flourish with multi-layered substance, and this is truly a
match made in heaven.
Abhay Deol is perfectly cast here, and the actor by the way it is he
who who conceptualized the film. He drips coolth and 'typical Indian'
male chauvinism in equal measure. The attitude and arrogance of the
spoilt Punjabi lad is brought out with astounding realism, and once
again the courageous young actor packs a solid punch.
But the real knockout here, without doubt- is Mahi Gill, whose fiery,
spunky presence commands viewer's attention in each frame she is in;
her raw earthy charm wins you over and the sheer poignancy that she
brings to Parminder is truly heartbreaking. Gill, who has earlier
acted in Punjabi films, is a far cry from our delicate, virginal
heroines, one can not but fall in love with an actress this way since
Vidya Balan made her debut.
Overall this viewer film invites you to come along on a stunning
multi-layered journey---the psychedelic contours of the
overloaded-on-substance, on-the-verge-of-losing-it mind, the physical
degradation of the body, the slow dissolution of the spirit. With
Anurag and Abhay, (whose idea it was in the first place), 'Dev D'
becomes one of those rare films which is all of a piece: every single
frame is where it should be. As Dev and Paro part ways, Chanda aka
Chandramukhi (Kalki) enters the equation, and the film steadies into
its triangular groove, rocking to an inverted, just-right climax.
In this virtuoso re-working of the Devdas story, there's none of the
obfuscatory self-indulgence that marred Kashyap's last outing, 'No
Smoking'. The cast is perfect for their parts. Debutante Mahi Gill is
no Bollywoodized phoolkari-dupatta-wearing ingénue: she dresses, moves
and behaves like a feisty girl who's been born and brought up in
sugarcane country in rural Punjab. The other first-timer, Kalki, is
astonishingly apt too: her journey from a traumatized schoolgirl to a
role-playing, phone sex-worker Chanda, is riveting. The first is raw
and sensuous, the other raises the lust-meter as high as any
red-blooded male can handle, but both are heart-stoppingly, blatantly
alive, needy, looking-for-love-with-sex-as-a-by-product real
girl-women.
Abhay Deol makes this thing sing. His Devdas is both eerily similar
to the others who've played the part (Kashyap cheekily references
posters and scenes from SRK's `Devdas' in a couple of scenes), as well
as completely his own. Spoilt rich brat, king-of-the-castle,
center-of-the-universe, the kind of male who is always so sorry for
himself, that he can't see anyone else as clearly. Right from the
attire—jeans, Tees, strap-across-the-chest-bag--- to the attitude—love
me, love me, love me-- this joint-rolling, alcohol-swilling ( Coke,
vodka 'ke saath', is his line in seedy bars) Devdas wears his
victimhood with panache, blaming others for the `emosional atyachaar'
(one of the eighteen sparkling songs Amit Trivedi and Amitabh
Bhattacharya have created for the film: sometimes the film seems too
stuffed with the background music, but that's a very minor quibble)
being wrecked upon him, but reserving the right to a chuckle in the
middle of it all.
Dev.D boasts 18 tracks by music director Amit Trivedi, who says it
"would be the 'Baap of different genres' with each track sounding
distinctively from the other." There are two Punjabi tracks, one
which is raw Punjabi and the other with a street band baaja flavor to
it. He also reports a romantic Rajasthani folk track, apart from a
hard rock song, world music, an Awadhi number and a song with
1970's-80's pop touch to it.
Anurag alongwith cinematographer Ravi captured beauty of rural Punjab,
each and every frame 'Kuch Kehta Hai' Bravo duo.
Cast: Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill, Kalki Koechlin,
Dibyendu Bhattacharya
-pradeep gupta
of the Bioscope workshop at PVR Juhu . He admitted that he is branded
as a jinxed director and the manipulative ways of Big Banners to kill
his film Black Friday. I saw his new film Dev D recently, though it is
really very late to write a review of this movie but still I love to
write my impression about this wonderful movie which can compete with
any world class movie.
I have a feeling that the thought of this film is based on two real
life news clippings. One is X Rated MMS of a school going girl shot by
her own friend and then circulate the MMS among the entire school
crowd, the trauma of the girl, her family. Second one is killing of
six seven innocent people on road by a rich spoilt drunken youth
with his BMW. Now weaving old Sharat Chandra's Dev Das story around
these two modern day sagas with a new treatment, is the film craft
can only be done by Anurag Kayshap. Jinxed level has gone , the film
is promoted by Ronnie Screwvala of UTV. Yes the whole plot is woven
around old Devdas, with lot many modifications, the characters are
not Bongs but Punjabi. Paro is also open , mod she is not meek but
equally strong , she also enjoy sex like any normal male. She is bold
enough to take a decision of her own to marry a person much elder to
her age just to take revenge from the hero who want to abandon her.
Emosional Atyachaar is Nothing but the cracker of a song (composed by
the Amit Trivedi who creates an exceptional soundscape for the film)
can describe the pain you feel as you see a potential cult film wreck
itself right before your eyes. In a surreal turn of events, you see
film become the man, as Dev D turns self-destructive, directionless
and seemingly senseless. You look for a spark somewhere, a small shard
that you can hold close and perhaps connect to, but it all gets lost
in a purple-blue haze of smoke.
Speaking of which, even No Smoking, for all its indulgence and
magnificently bizarre twists and turns, never completely lost the plot
this way. It held together, because there was some innate method to
the madness, which is hard to find here. What could have been a
poetically tragic, bittersweet tale of two wounded, lost souls finding
momentary happiness together becomes an exercise in futility and for
the viewer, often sheer frustration. Kalki Koechlin, who plays Chanda,
has an endearing fragility and waif-like presence, but she falls
woefully short, and her labored accent and patchy characterization
(even after Kashyap painstakingly sets up a sad and unnecessarily long
back-story for her) makes it impossible to relate to her.
There's some of Kashyap's trademark witty dialogue here too, and a few
scenes that sparkle in between- my personal favorite (and especially
topical in a way, with the recent incidents of moral policing) is one
where an old lady launches into a lecture for the protagonist whose
side-splitting reaction nearly made me fall off my chair. But with the
absence of any propulsive narrative force, Dev D almost begins to
torture, and the repetitive onslaught of montages (all of which are
brilliantly shot by Rajeev Ravi) takes this part beyond redemption. In
the end, it's another of Trivedi's mind-blowing tracks that perhaps
echoed my sentiments:
Nayan Tarse, Nayan Tarse,Daras Na Mile,Nayan Tarse...
Sarson ke khet are in place, and her dupatta does flutter, but, this
Paro is hardly one to melt like ghee and butter. The sacred Yash Raj
idiom is turned on its head, with Kashyap's heady and cleverly
concocted cocktail. The esoteric filmmaker springs a surprise and even
a few pleasant shocks onto us, and discovering each moment of this
wonderfully quirky take on the classic novel is a delight.
Frankness and candor like this has perhaps never been seen in
mainstream Hindi cinema. Even as the director cheekily and sincerely
references the novel and its adaptation by Sanjay Bhansali, he
contemporarises it like perhaps only he could have- and turns romantic
icons into flesh and blood people. Set against an impeccably detailed
and colorful Punjab, Dev and Paro's love story comes alive like never
before, because Kashyap has the balls to acknowledge them as sexual
creatures without making a fuss over it.
A landmark film in the way it portrays youth and young love, and
superbly etched with irony and humor, Dev D marries Kashyap's typical
stylistic flourish with multi-layered substance, and this is truly a
match made in heaven.
Abhay Deol is perfectly cast here, and the actor by the way it is he
who who conceptualized the film. He drips coolth and 'typical Indian'
male chauvinism in equal measure. The attitude and arrogance of the
spoilt Punjabi lad is brought out with astounding realism, and once
again the courageous young actor packs a solid punch.
But the real knockout here, without doubt- is Mahi Gill, whose fiery,
spunky presence commands viewer's attention in each frame she is in;
her raw earthy charm wins you over and the sheer poignancy that she
brings to Parminder is truly heartbreaking. Gill, who has earlier
acted in Punjabi films, is a far cry from our delicate, virginal
heroines, one can not but fall in love with an actress this way since
Vidya Balan made her debut.
Overall this viewer film invites you to come along on a stunning
multi-layered journey---the psychedelic contours of the
overloaded-on-substance, on-the-verge-of-losing-it mind, the physical
degradation of the body, the slow dissolution of the spirit. With
Anurag and Abhay, (whose idea it was in the first place), 'Dev D'
becomes one of those rare films which is all of a piece: every single
frame is where it should be. As Dev and Paro part ways, Chanda aka
Chandramukhi (Kalki) enters the equation, and the film steadies into
its triangular groove, rocking to an inverted, just-right climax.
In this virtuoso re-working of the Devdas story, there's none of the
obfuscatory self-indulgence that marred Kashyap's last outing, 'No
Smoking'. The cast is perfect for their parts. Debutante Mahi Gill is
no Bollywoodized phoolkari-dupatta-wearing ingénue: she dresses, moves
and behaves like a feisty girl who's been born and brought up in
sugarcane country in rural Punjab. The other first-timer, Kalki, is
astonishingly apt too: her journey from a traumatized schoolgirl to a
role-playing, phone sex-worker Chanda, is riveting. The first is raw
and sensuous, the other raises the lust-meter as high as any
red-blooded male can handle, but both are heart-stoppingly, blatantly
alive, needy, looking-for-love-with-sex-as-a-by-product real
girl-women.
Abhay Deol makes this thing sing. His Devdas is both eerily similar
to the others who've played the part (Kashyap cheekily references
posters and scenes from SRK's `Devdas' in a couple of scenes), as well
as completely his own. Spoilt rich brat, king-of-the-castle,
center-of-the-universe, the kind of male who is always so sorry for
himself, that he can't see anyone else as clearly. Right from the
attire—jeans, Tees, strap-across-the-chest-bag--- to the attitude—love
me, love me, love me-- this joint-rolling, alcohol-swilling ( Coke,
vodka 'ke saath', is his line in seedy bars) Devdas wears his
victimhood with panache, blaming others for the `emosional atyachaar'
(one of the eighteen sparkling songs Amit Trivedi and Amitabh
Bhattacharya have created for the film: sometimes the film seems too
stuffed with the background music, but that's a very minor quibble)
being wrecked upon him, but reserving the right to a chuckle in the
middle of it all.
Dev.D boasts 18 tracks by music director Amit Trivedi, who says it
"would be the 'Baap of different genres' with each track sounding
distinctively from the other." There are two Punjabi tracks, one
which is raw Punjabi and the other with a street band baaja flavor to
it. He also reports a romantic Rajasthani folk track, apart from a
hard rock song, world music, an Awadhi number and a song with
1970's-80's pop touch to it.
Anurag alongwith cinematographer Ravi captured beauty of rural Punjab,
each and every frame 'Kuch Kehta Hai' Bravo duo.
Cast: Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill, Kalki Koechlin,
Dibyendu Bhattacharya
-pradeep gupta
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