waah!!! kya movie hai :)

DevD: The Ultimate movie

I am not into writing reviews for movies or am someone who is really aware of technicalities and stuff regarding films or am even someone who can perfectly gauge the performances of the actors on a 1 to 10 scale.

I just like seeing movies as a good source of entertainment. Also I must clarify that I am too unemotional or artistic to get touched by pieces of art , be it Monalisa or LOTR. Hence I totally refrain from seeing romantic movies like Before Sunrise, After Midnight etc. :P

So i found it unusual when after seeing DevD and coming out of the theatre I really felt like seeing it twice. I know its not one of the best motion pictures ever made (at least no review or experts have said so;)) but seeing it made me really happy in more ways than one.

It was one of the very very few movies which I had to see once more, and the quest ended today when it finally arrived on LAN :) .. I can't pinpoint the things which I found really exceptional and perfect about the film but I would still try.

First and foremost it was a slap (or in devd style: a kick in the ass) on the faces of those mediocre bollywood directors and those worthless bollywood fans who just want to see uber famous personalities like (yeah i will mention some names...& their fans can kiss my ass :) ) khans,kaif,hrithik,kapoors etc... on the tube. Its not as if they do not know acting and stuff but either they are too snooty to try to put in whole-hearted efforts are too afraid to experiment with roles not conforming to their role-bubbles. And most importantly, they know that whether they perform excellently or not their movies will ascend the box offices and this shows in their shabby pieces like Billu, Singh is King etc..which seem more like half-baked pieces. Films like Welcome which were not worth it to view if paid , went on to become the top grossers of the year, In this manner Anurag Kashyap and others of his kind are worth a standing ovation to change this shitty mindset of bollywood junta.

Then come the other brilliant features of this masterpiece.

The film shows the scenes in a really realistic way and all the scenes show that they have been carefully researched upon and the editing of the movie is superb. Like the scene of the wedding which is so similar to the real weddings held (unlike the fancy weddings of typical bolly movies). Each scene has something to be savoured. There is a scene where the name of the neon logo of the restaurant has been cropped so that only "delhi" can be seen. This not only shows that the scene is going on in delhi but also maintains the privacy of the restaurant and also shows that the director has taken interest in such minute details. Then again, the director has not been afraid of portraying the world of sex and drugs vividly and strongly. The smooth CSW-talks of Chanda, the ambience of the brothel (red-lights etc..), the scenes of the bars and like have not been bended to suit the uneven mindsets of the people. The "A" tag and the corresponding loss in revenues did not deter the director, thankfully.

One laughable aspect of this ""ADULT" tag is that the skin show here is far less than in non adult movies like dhoom and the scenes are also not just to titillate the viewers but because they go with the script and the theme. But obviously this amount of logic is too much for the censorship board to comprehend :P

Then the excellent back-scores which add to the content of the movies and form an integral part of it . In fact when you listen to the songs after seeing the movie you can constantly recollect all the scenes because they are so perfectly suited to each other. This is in direct contrast to the typical bollywood songs which are only there because the poor viewer in the theatre cannot fast-forward it. I doubt a single non-moron viewer will go through the agony of watching a song sequence while seeing the movie on a dvd :)

The three gentlemen beautifully represent the dark and murky underbelly of delhi and these subtle representations go a long way in showing how good and powerful the way of presenting a theme can be. With their excellent dance steps combined with the touching background songs you can get a strong feel of each and every emotion of the characters.

Unlike Devdas which showed no history of a leading character like Chandramukhi and thus leaving a gaping hole in the script , DevD leaves no such error. Also the boring way in which DevDas keeps drinking the same type of drink (never mentioning what that it, some dark brown liquid in a dark brown ugly bottle) , here we properly see how Dev goes deep down into the alley of disaster, vodka followed by stronger and stronger drugs.

Another thing which struck me was the neat assimilation of the two incidents of MMS scandal and the BMW incident in a movie which had nothing to do with them. I really got touched when Chanda speaks, "My clip was never shown on tv or newspaper. Everyone downloaded it, used it for their own fun and then called me a slut".. Now that shows how hypocritic the people (read Indians) are . It was not as if Lenny was filming for some porn for money, it was some personal and mutual physical relation between two people and logically there seems to be nothing wrong in that. But of course when you do not get it and see some one else getting it :P , jealousy is bound to be produced and that is what leads to all these ram sene's and bajrang dal's shouting out to women to stop becoming modern and to sit in their homes until their husbands come, choose them and then take them as their slaves :P. Not only the hypocritic common mass in general picks on Lenny and makes her life a complete hell, her father too, instead of understanding her bad state of affairs and lending her a helping hand, goes on to prevent her from moving out of her house. Instead of forgiving her and trying to smoothen things out he makes her life worse by committing suicide whose blame again is put on the poor girl. I wonder how an Army Man can be coward enough to do such a dastardly act :O

Last but not the least, the wonderful performances of all the leading characters who really looked as if they were built for these roles. This again reminds me of the great hollywood movies ,take harry potter for an instance, where you feel that each actor was born to do his or her role and you keep on wondering how the directors found out people for each role. Ron or Harry, everyone looks in the movie just like you had seen them in your mind's eye in the book. The formula of course lies in good casting followed by perfect acting and direction.

These arguments can only take the movie to a certain height. Ultimately , like any other piece of subjective value, it has to connect with your soul , and I must say DevD connected to mine.

Hats off to Anurag, Abhay,Gill and Koechlin.

You made my days :)