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DevD

One of the most intriguing characters of Indian literature and one of the famousest loser has now been reborn as Dev D. He is a modern day Punjabi and his focus area has shifted from east to north India - all thanks to Anurag Kashyap and Abhay Deol combo (Two guys who have made a reputation of being offbeat) This movie has generated lot of buzz thanks to its emossional atyaachar, references to MMS controversy among others. Also, this is one of the movies in recent past to have got probably the widest range of reviews - from 1 star to 5 star ratings, from awesome to shockingly bad with people debating endlessly about morality aspect of various things shown in it. Here is my take on the movie which I watched on 14th Feb in a 9 : 45 AM show in a nearby cinema!

I loved the movie while watching, and few weeks later I am finding it even better, although I haven't had a repeat viewing. Of course, one of the parameters for evaluation is comparison with earlier versions of Devdas, but it was meant to be that. The music gels wonderfully into the narration and is often used to take it forward. The characterizations were awesome (not being judgmental about how good or bad, or right or wrong they were but they were strongly written). The performanaces were superlative, but the movie belongs to Abhay Deol, methinks.

But, there are two things that worked for me nnd make me look at the movie differently -

- Dev D is mean. He is selfish. He is low on intelligence. He does not deserve any sympathy and this movie has shown that. The character is not a typical hero. He is NOT an anti-hero, but he is just another selfish individual whose life didn't go as per his whims and fancies.
(That was the real Devdas in Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's original novel as my friend, Dada also pointed out!)

- The ending where Dev D decides to give himself another chance- a ray of hope as Dev D gives himself an opportunity for redemption. Original Devdas was sad and sympathy provoking, but this is not.This is NOT a happy ending as such, but it ends on optimism. A bit open ended, but that works!

The movie is amazing. Love it or hate it. But you can't ignore it!

Comments

  1. Arvind Iyer11:16 PM, March 09, 2009

    good honest take on the movie. Liked it!

    p.s - I too loved the movie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nikesh Rathi7:58 PM, March 12, 2009

    Thanx!

    Too good a movie :)!!

    ReplyDelete

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