Dev D
Anurag Kashyap weaves a colorful movie out of the blue print of the classic Devdas. The story is loosely based on the original and what the director has done can be best described as an attempt to depict an equivalent to every episode of Devdas in the past to the Dev D of the present. The story is of a lad, Dev, who comes back to his village in Punjab after living for sometime in the UK. He meets his childhood sweetheart, Paro and everything is going fine till he falls to the hearsay that she has been sexually involved with some other guy. By the time he gets to know the truth about it she is gone and has married another guy. Dev takes to alcohol and drowns himself in it. He goes to Delhi to meet Paro and that’s where he meets Chanda. Chanda is a victim of an MMS scandal that pretty much ruins her life and family. She works in a brothel of foreigners. The story takes several twists and turns from there on.
The story is brilliantly set up and the director paints a beautiful scenery right from the greenery of the fields of Punjab to the bright lights of mujras. The story unwinds subtly with each character playing his/her part. The subtlety might have been overdone in some scenes. The movie is replete with brilliant performances. Abhay Deol as Dev has just taken his acting to another level and seems to be on par with the best. The new comers Kalki and Mahie have delivered sublime performances too. The music is refreshingly done by Amit Trivedi mixing folklore with rock impressions. But the movie somehow lacks the punch. It drags like a monologue set in the same pace. Too many events take place and Abhay seems to have taken the brunt of the movie on his shoulders. Though he does an outstanding job many will walk out of the cinema hall feeling what have they come for.
The director’s style is unique in portraying an emotional story in the most unemotional way. The ending of the movie is a culmination of various things and has freshness to it. The story though set in a contemporary time, we still have to wait to find out how much the audience accepts the new light in which love and feelings are portrayed in this movie. Go watch Dev D for difference, for variety and because you will never see another movie like it.
The story is brilliantly set up and the director paints a beautiful scenery right from the greenery of the fields of Punjab to the bright lights of mujras. The story unwinds subtly with each character playing his/her part. The subtlety might have been overdone in some scenes. The movie is replete with brilliant performances. Abhay Deol as Dev has just taken his acting to another level and seems to be on par with the best. The new comers Kalki and Mahie have delivered sublime performances too. The music is refreshingly done by Amit Trivedi mixing folklore with rock impressions. But the movie somehow lacks the punch. It drags like a monologue set in the same pace. Too many events take place and Abhay seems to have taken the brunt of the movie on his shoulders. Though he does an outstanding job many will walk out of the cinema hall feeling what have they come for.
The director’s style is unique in portraying an emotional story in the most unemotional way. The ending of the movie is a culmination of various things and has freshness to it. The story though set in a contemporary time, we still have to wait to find out how much the audience accepts the new light in which love and feelings are portrayed in this movie. Go watch Dev D for difference, for variety and because you will never see another movie like it.
Very well balanced review of a very wild movie...
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