Delhi 6 - Disappointing - * * *

To all those going for Delhi 6, expecting to witness the chemistry between “Massakali” –Sonam Kapoor and “Burger Chaap” – Junior Bacchhan, the trailers pretty much show all that there is. Delhi 6 is not a sweet romantic movie that the trailers mislead us into believing. It is satirical, symbolic, metaphoric but NOT romantic. Another bit of information – Sonam and Abhishek are only the second leads. The lead role is played by ‘Kala Bandar’.

The movie has a striking resemblance to Swades - When Roshan (AB) comes to drop his ailing grandmother, he realizes that there is more to India than he ever thought. As he starts to assimilate the Indian culture, he becomes a part of it. He also encounters the dark side - differences because of caste and religion, stone-age superstitions, undue pressure on girls to get married etc. He tries to be a part of the solution but faces resistance from every quarter. He is confused about his identity, and about whether to go back or stay on. Falling in love with Bittu(Sonam K) makes the decision even harder. But everything falls into place in the end. But unlike Swades, Delhi 6 hardly shows any scenes between Sonam and AB, that it almost seems a little forced when Roshan(AB) confesses that he is madly in love with(Bittu). Mehra uses most of the screen time in ‘Ram Lila’ and ‘Kala Bandar’. As the movie progresses, it metaphorically draws a parallel between incidents in the movie and Ram Lila. Similarly, Kala Bandar is used as a metaphor to showcase the dark side in all of us. One of the characters, supposedly demented, uses a mirror to symbolically show that there is God in all of us. There is a song that shows a mixed US and Chandni Chowk setting to metaphorically depict the identity crisis that Abhishek is going through. These metaphors and symbols are cleverly thought of. However, by constantly using them throughout the movie and with so many of them, Rakesh loses touch with reality. Only metaphors remain.

Rakesh uses a lot of screen time to meticulously delineate all the characters in the movie, all except that of Sonam and AB. There is a funny inspector Ranvijay, a demented Gobar, two brothers who are not in talking terms, their respective families, a certain untouchable Jalebi, Suresh the charlatan and several others. Although these characters take the movie forward, they do not leave any screen time for the characters of Abhishek and Sonam.

Rahman’s unreal music and Prasoon Joshi’s fancy lyrics enliven the first half. But having exhausted almost all songs, the second half stretches and drags for the lack of periodic Rahman interventions. It’s amazing what a Rahman can do to a movie. The movie probably has the best cinematography in recent times. The camera moves with as much ease as “Massakali” (Bittu) does in the streets of Chandni Chowk , or Abhishek jumps from one building to another. The interior shots of the galis and nukkads of Chandni Chowk bring a life into the whole setting so much so that it becomes an integral character in the movie.

The ending is probably the worst part of the movie. With a momentary heaven scene with Amitabh, and then Junior AB waking from the dead, Rakesh cannot get any worse.
And thus the viewer leaves the theatre with the shoddy ending imprinted fresh in the top layers of his mind, probably not even remembering the few good parts in the movie.

If you had a crazy week,and wanted to go for a light romantic movie with your better half, Delhi 6 is not for you. However if you are ready to rack your brain trying to link metaphors and symbols and then derive satisfaction out of doing so, Delhi 6 is watchable, at least once.

Film Review - Billoo * *

Billoo is a story of how the underdog finally emerges victorious against all odds, just like Slumdog was. Only that Slumdog was far superior in all respects. Billoo on the other hand is a very shoddily made movie.

Priyadarshan uses one his favorite recipes – humor in the rural setting. This is a recipe that he has very effectively used in his previous movies –Malaamaal Weekly and Hulchul. As the movie progresses and the same characters start emerging one after the other, you almost feel a sense of Déjà vu. It’s not long before you realize that this is probably the same village and the same people that you have seen in Maalamal Weekly.Sadly the setting is the best part.

The movie is a depiction of how a village is crazily waiting to meet their superstar and how they can do anything to achieve this. It is but difficult to stretch such a weak script for three hours. Pritam’s peppy item numbers featuring Kareena, Deepika and Priyanka help the pace of the movie. They are a welcome break from the permutations and combinations of antics that the villagers adopt to appease Billoo into getting them to meet Sahil. Priyadarshan is really brave to have stretched this for three whole hours. The movie seems to have been made within a really short span. Even the lip-syncing hasn’t been done well. Unexpectedly for a Priyadarshan movie, the dialogues aren’t funny either. Rajpal Yadav who’s playing a writer and the guy who is playing the hotel manager are irritating. The part where the hotel manager meets Shahrukh for the first time and the part where he wastes an eternity saying the same dialogue, get on your nerves.

In spite of the fact that he is playing himself, Shahrukh’s acting is disappointing to say the least. He uses the movie to get the point across to Akshay that he is the real King of Bollywood. The movie shows his poster amongst that of Gods (the hardliners are rightly protesting), of the village painted with posters of all his hit movies, villagers worshipping his poster and a full song describing how he is a superstar. He flagrantly cracks jokes about Akshay. I hope Akshay watches this, or Sharukh’s effort will go a waste for the audiences will hardly come. I hope noone kills me for saying this, but the kids who’ve played Billoo’s son and daughter have done a better job than Shahrukh. Irrfan Khan is just the same - no good no bad. He does the same acting and the same stammering act in every movie, so one can hardly comment. Lara looks authentic as a village woman.

All in all, Billoo is a no-effort movie, made to earn some quick bucks. For me, not even a one time watch.

Bowled over by Dev D * * * * *

I could never agree on a youth icon, when the seasonal polls for the 'Youth icon of the year' flashed on TV channels. I've always had doubts and no answers. But I just got my answer for this year, even before the polls - Anurag Kashyap, maker of Dev D, and no doubts.

What would a film-maker who has had three bordering-on-the-art films, all of which did miserably on the box-office, do on his next film? If he has been lucky enough to have got the finances for the next film, I am sure that the last thing he would do is make a remake of a classic that has been already remade more than five (or more?) times and by some of the best considered directors, the last one having been made as less as six years back. But Mr. Kashyap does everything that has never been done, and more. In spite of the Box-Office collections of Black Friday, Paanch and No smoking, Kashyap goes on to make an even more unconventional and outrageously bold movie.

An adaptation is one’s take on someone else’s work and not a similar work. Dev D is the first true adaptation of Sarat Chandra’s Devdas. All the others have just been minor tweaks in the original story and setting. For instance Banshali’s Devdas has the same Bengali Zamindari setting as the book and similar delineations of characters, except may be Sarat Chandra didn’t conceive of a Devdas who is obnoxiously loud and speaks in poetry, and who spills more than he drinks.

Anurag’s Devdas is set in a modern setting, replete with emotions that every youth can identify with. His version has Paro obliging Dev by sending him nude photographs. It has Paro cycling through a field with a rolled-up mattress so that she can make out in broad daylight. It has no emotional drama, only Emosional Atyyachar. The music is so outrageously original that it’s probably created a new genre for itself. Coming to the cinematography, especially in the scenes where Dev is soaked with alcohol, the hazy-camera-effect is psychedelic. Playing Chandramukhi is a school going teenage girl, who embroiled in an mms scandal, turns to prostitution. How orginal is that! The story is the same and yet everything is so different about this movie.

Anurag didn’t indulge in any of the publicity stunts that have become a ritual with Indian directors. No glossy previews, no actor interviews and no fancy haircut for the ticket sellers. So sure was he about his masterpiece. Kashyap has got balls of gold and I pray that for once the Indian audience doesn't do what it did to Swades, for it may force Kashyap to leave direction just like Swades made Shahrukh leave acting forever.

This is probably one film that really deserves to go to the Oscars. Though set in a cosmopolitan setting, the movie narrates one of the greatest Indian classics in real style.It depicts today’s India and is probably a better window to our country than Slumdog Millionaire which does nothing but reinforces the Gora’s image of a poverty ridden country. If this movie doesn’t do well commercially, there is no hope for Indian cinema. It will be the end of the beginning that has come with directors like Anurag Kashyap.