A Mom reviews Dev.d, who says its for the youth?
Dev.D doesnt belong to just the youth of today, it is ageless. Check out a review by the mother of a 30 year old.
“My mom is 58. Born and brought up in Bombay. Highly religious and conservative. Brought up on writers like Kalki, Devan, Jayakanthan, James Hardly Chase, Leon Uris, Robert Ludlum, Arthur Healy and Ayn Rand.I dragged her to a cinema hall to watch Dev.D ….last she saw a movie in a cinema hall and liked was Kakka Kakka”
Her Review.
While watching Anurag Kashyap’s Dev.D I almost went down the memory lane. The awe and astonishment of seeing old and contemporary movies especially those of K.Balachandar who was a trendsetter when it came to depicting women on screen. Brash, uninhabited, unapologetic, traits which were unheard of in those days…..in society and in cinema.
“Araungetram” story of a conservative bhramin girl becoming a call girl, shunned by the very brother who realizes the dream of becoming a doctor with her money.
“Aval Oru Todar Kadai” – Middle aged mother and teenage daughter dating the same middle aged man. Lover of the female protagonist conveniently marrying her widowed sister.
Apoorva Ragam – Young boy’s crush on a middle aged woman.
Sindhu Bhairavi – The “other” woman who becomes the man’s inspiration.
Kalki (the film) – A girl of tomorrow. Who brazenly bares the man’s child as a gift for that man’s first wife who has been jilted by him for being barren.
So it is always apt and relevant when you attempt to make a movie reflecting the dazzling social spectrum around you. Dev Anand’s Hare Raama Hare Krishna with the song Dum Maro Dum, a take on the Hippie culture very much prevalent in those days when I was in my 20s. Today’s self centered youth and their conflict about values, the rush for momentary pleasure and gratification resulting in emotional atyachar is certainly well depicted. A welcome movie refreshing enough and though provoking without being obscene nor thrusting and teaching ones views but showing the characters as they are with a smooth flow.
So, doesnt this prove a point, that, though Dev.D is targetted towards a youth audience, it still can be watched by family, with family!!
and more importantly..LOVED BY THE FAMILY 16 or 60!!
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
A 107 yr old in Antarctica too loved Ded.D.
That proves a point too.
“So, doesnt this prove a point, that, though Dev.D is targetted towards a youth audience, it still can be watched by family, with family!!
and more importantly..LOVED BY THE FAMILY 16 or 60!!”
no offense, but a classic GRE question of the fallacy type!
and OM, are you serious about the target audience? really??
You would have made the UTV folks’ day
its official.
DEV D is a hit.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/box-office-report-dev-ds-a-hit/84923-8.html
Hmmm this is serious ass-licking
cinemausher – that’s enough for today. now go wash your mouth.
cinemausher – please call me 09821584684
Anybody who likes KB movies will surely like this one..
I like Anurag,s work and liked his movies also.
My comment was regarding the post which i felt was kind of Ass licking.
I prefer Handshakes in words of ANURAG.
My apologies if i have hurt you it was never my intention.
@Vasan
Called you
Well, one intellectual-highbrow gramma surely doesn’t represent elderly in the country. And what’s the relation to that ‘Highly religious and conservative’ bit? It’s not Anbe Sivam.
I know it can pretty hard to digest women to like this film…esp. elderly….the moral and social norms have always pinned them down…and a word from them will always be looked down upon as we expect them to say the right things if not just shut up which is always the preferred option.
Another woman who read the review had mailed me.
“I know women who related to those Tamil films she listed, but would not be caught dead admitting it. But I think many Tamil Brahmin women of our mothers’ generation are extremely well-read and are thinkers. If they defer to their men, it is out of love and a sense of humour :-)”
For SatyaVrat and cinemausher I guess all the intellectual-highbrow gramma should shut up and stay in their 9 yards making sambhar in the kitchen and chat in the temple in their free time…out of love and a sense of humor
@ Vasanbala, really I was picturing gramma of one of my tambram friend while reading the review.
Personally I am all fanatic about the film myself, but seriously do you think that an applaud by one intellectual gramma means that it is approved by all our elderly. Isn’t it the fallacy of generalization?
It at best represent that we have such elderly who, even when all traditional and conservative, can see through the existing society. And I’m delighted at this.
@CINEMAUSHER – i wonder why u choose ur id like this ? Is this a pun that only men and teenage pimple faced mms generation should see DevD ? only they r to be ushered into the theater and not the women/elderly ? What should they do then ? Watch Wafaa ???
I dont think the post was ass licking. I think it was just a feedback on the film which was put up. And the lady happens to be from the other extreme part of the country than from where anurag is from.
Obviously the lady knows her cinema and literature which unfortunatly nor u or I have heard about …but what is the harm if she praises a film and calls it a balachander-ish effort of breaking the stereotypes. I have seen balachander’s films and i completly connect and agree with what she says. This coming from me who didnt think too much of Devd as a classic. Its her unbiased interpretation and i think its quite unfair to call it ass licking without having understood an iota of what she is saying or having a miniscule idea of the microcosmic references she is giving.
But then as vasan said, we would rather have women and the elderly make sambhar,vada idli dosas, than formulate opinions and give us their take on the issue,their perspective. Who would want it from them anyway ? Why should the mothers and mother in laws, the grandmoms see films and give us their take on it ? After all arent they supposed to be pure cooks and maid servants. It’s the new age Gen X teenage pimple face generation girls studying Psychology/Histroy/English Literature/Pure Scienes/Fine Arts Honours courses from St Xaviers, The Stephens, Sherwoods, Doons Schools that have worthwhile opinions and not the housewives.
Now Im thinking if u had a serious ass-kicking agenda to call the post ass licking … But thats me. At least i dont claim to be an usher …
I like your comment and liked your movies also.
My comment was regarding the comment which i felt was kind of Ass kicking.
I prefer Handshakes in words of ANURAG.
My apologies if i have hurt you it was never my intention.
Calling u rightaway
@SATYAVRAT – exactly !!! nor does a truth seeking realistic Satyanveshi Byomkesh Bakshi’s named commentator represent the finality/truth or the great elite educated class/the burguoised mass. Let me explain ‘Highly religious and conservative’ to you
Highly = lot (kaafi saara in hindi)
Relegious = defined by performing practises/devotions towards God (be it allah, ram, krishna, budhdha, VaheGuru, Jesus)
and = along with (hindi translation aur)
Conservative = traditional, abiding by rules/socially acceptable norms (aam aadmi/aurat)
Relation with post – simple. A lady who is from such and such background whom we would be shy taking the film with us if she were our mom (since the film is rated A) has an opinion on the film. We would think she would think the film is ‘crass/vulgar’ and bad for society. Since she is not liking the film so why take her with us. I will rather go with the girl next door who is a “Gen X teenage pimple face generation girl studying Psychology/Histroy/English Literature/Pure Scienes/Fine Arts Honours courses from St Xaviers, The Stephens, Sherwoods, Doons Schools”
But no, she sees the film and surprise of surprise. Not only does she like the film but she also connects with the film.
WOW …BAM ..we were wrong about our opinions yaar. We alwasy thought we know what the elderly women know but we’re so wrong. I’m amazed.
Kickass KK. I am licking your ass KK.
@Kartik Krishnan- Your first line is simply ad hominem attack. I pardon you for that.
I am enlightened by your deconstruction of the sentence ‘Highly religious and conservative’. The film, from whatever I know about it, is not blasphemy to the religion or the customs. I mean it is very open and all, but does not attack, explicitly or otherwise, religion or tradition or customs- like for instance Anbe Sivam did. So a not so religious and not so conservative elderly might still dislike it just because of debauchery it shows.
Now if you could see above I did express my joy at the knowledge of positive review of the film from an elderly. This post is all well meaning, what ruined it is the sweeping verdict it provides at last, the generalization that it can be loved by 60. And you could argue that voila, we have such a gramma, don’t we! Oh yeah, we do have, but we say a film is loved by elderly if there are visible number of such people endorsing it, not just isolated example- and I simply don’t see it happening in India.
‘Dev D’ sets box office ablaze
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/009200902101561.htm
Dev D Adds One Crore Approx On Monday
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/npages.php?page=shownews&articleid=789&nCat=news
“This post is all well meaning, what ruined it is the sweeping verdict it provides at last, the generalization that it can be loved by 60″
now i understand your pov. Thanks for the pardon.
However, I would like to add to the statement you have put “but we say a film is loved by elderly if there are visible number of such people endorsing it, not just isolated example-”
unfortunatly any such opinion is the opinion of ONE person. Any rajeev masand/khalid mohmd/roger edbert etc etc writes a review it is his and his only perspective and he cannot be expected to represent an entire set of community (say for example – punjabi mid 30s gentleman wrt masand, or the upper class muslim community wrt mr mohmd, or the american audience wrt roger)
The point being that one opinion is always one … it is not a complete representation of the group.
Having said that, it is an opinion which i must confess was quite contrary to my expectation and surprised me. However, i would be foolish to assume all the elderly ladies in india will love DevD equally as much as that lady did.
And that is what the problem with reviews is i feel…
It is more like “OMG. Did you think an old lady from such and such background will take a liking to this film ? May be some other people from the same community might as well…I think there must be many more ladies who might like it”
rather than the possibly incorrect approach of
“see this lady liked the film. That means ALL ladies will like the film too”
Its as different as generalising all children will love kill bill becos my 8 yr old cousin loved it (i admit i dont expect children to love Kill bill but if they do, it should come as a plesant surprise and not as the hard and fast rule)
if these were the very people who championed womens lib/exploration of feminine sexuality movies of the 70s and 80s like ankur, nishant, arth, ijaazat etc it really doesnt surprise me that the enjoyed the tone of feminine sexuality in dev d. . I know my mom did. . And i think most people can tell that dev is a flawed character. . The drug use and alchoholism are an obvious giveaway. . No mom would think her son/daughter is taking the wrong idea home. . Unless they are muthalik
I think the author makes a fair point here.
Most people would assume that a 58 year old religious and conservative woman would cringe at having to watch a movie that is at the absolute opposite pole.
But then there is an assumption that EVERYONE dat falls into the “Gen X teenage pimple face generation girl studying Psychology/Histroy/English Literature/Pure Scienes/Fine Arts Honours courses from St Xaviers, The Stephens, Sherwoods, Doons Schools”…Category will love the film. Which is a false assumption too. Its not everyones favourite movie, its not everyones cup of tea..but by pointing out through this post that a 58 year old religious & conservative tambram did infact like this movie…the author is right in saying that the movie can be watched (and infact loved) by people from 16 to 60 years of age.
A single example makes the upper range “inclusive”…..i’ll give u can example..
Sale at Big Bazaar. cheapest products has a price of INR 1/- the most expensive product has a price of INR 1,00,000/-…..the ad would say…Sale on all brands at Big Bazaar…price range INR 1 to 1,00,000. dat would be the absolute truth even if there have just ONE candy dat sells for a rupee and ONE pair of panties worn by David Beckham. Get the Drift?
different men (or women) different minds.
India, for most parts of it, is intellectually deprived. we can’t run away and hide form that fact.
and abt big skools n colleges….well….the lesser we say the better…..
open mindedness has a lot to do with the right kind of education but it also has to do with who you are and ofcourse if you understand the finer nuances of a movie……or if u understand chanda “JUGGLING THE BALLS IN AIR”
more ppl shud try n make more movies
ppl in the forum, i hope u r reading….
@Vasan,
I do not believe in gender discrimination, it is my firm belief that movies are Human Beings best friend.I certainly do not endrose the fact that elderly people should be only looking after kitchens.
@KK
Why did i choose the id because when i was child i was always envious of the person who would get to see so many movies for free.Even today if somebody offers me that job i am ready to take it.
The magic of cinema is that we all agree to disagree.