Dev D : bandwagon, atrocities, lightyears, shut up!
(Warning: This review might contain spoilers)
What a film! First reaction. Rest assured. No bakwaas. Lovely film. Right from the first shots of Punjab to the drug and sex infested underground, it is a buoyant ride all along. From spoken words to unspoken emotions, from eyes that meet to eyes that shy away, from outbursts to guilt trips, from lost causes to lazy strolls, Dev D is quite an ode, to the road, to the after hour walks, to the very joy of aftertaste.
There will be enough talks for many days, as it happens for every Anurag Kashyap film, on this and that, on drugs, on sex, on literal fuck-ups, on wtf’s, and so on. And that’s a signature. A cinematic one.
(OK I can’t do without bakwaas)
It begins somewhere in a village, young kids talk nonsense, cut to a self-convinced spoilt young brat munching to glory. You see the expected, cyber chats, The Dude talking to Chhammak Chhallo, nude pics(well, almost), the Vegas kinda flashy city streets and a desperate jawaan munda dying to meet his kudi. But he ain’t no man on a mission. His pleasure is in deceit, his charm is in the lost ways. His destiny is undefined, and there is no quest either. The village is from the real world, rarely seen. The mills, the undecorated houses, the un-made-up faces, a marriage is happening somewhere amidst all this. Our man Dev is visibly changed from his higher education abroad. He looks cocky. He gives in to the seduction, he drifts again. He meets Paro. He likes her, but not enough. Paro is confused. We are confused. And it is beautiful. In come the songs, the dhol, the band. Some confrontations follow. The narrative is followed to some literal extent. Confrontations happen. The much awaited heartbreak happens too. CUT TO Chanda, it is a new film. You forget the village. You are transported to Chanda’s world. The intertitles help you. The mood changes from a ‘ye hi meri zindagi hai’ to a ‘paayaliya’. The two meet. Their screwed up lives(albeit their own choices?) cross paths. Intertitle again. DEV D….
And so my friends, begins Dev D, a rooted, wild, racy, silent, unapologetic journey, of three characters, as they toil with the choices they make in lives, mull over their failure, revel upon their ‘success’(moving on), and generally getting high on it.
That is the preface. What happens beyond that is your own trip.
You expected that, didn’t you? Well, have it your way, take a chance.
Let’s get to the cinematics. This is so many films in one. This is three films. One for each. And then it is Dev D’s film. Never has aftertaste been so tasteful on cinema. A first half that gives you the events, what makes the three.
Paro. Her expressive eyes. Her clarity of ambition. Quick decisions. The legendary impulsiveness. The addiction to ego. The arrogance. The pride.
Chanda. The innocence of growing up, and the horror of grown-up. And the shock of it all. And the smile.
Dev. The slacker road looks endless. Well, at the onset. The vodka bottle. The credit card.
And a second half that takes you inside the heads of the three. All songs are over now. The party is done. The noise is muted. The traffic lights have withered. The smoke, well, NOT settled. It has just begin. The heavy-headed silence begins to hit you. And you realize it’s fiction no longer. Dev D becomes you. And that’s just about where the film stands up and introduces itself, and some introduction it is. Take it or leave it.
As for the thereafters, the film moves on, quite literally. The father dies. Dev D sees life in the face. Gulps it down again. Chasing lines. Chasing life. Chasing himself. He hates the man in the mirror. He loves the man in the mirror. He pokes fun at Chanda. She says, ‘let’s get smashed tonight!”. They get smashed, they have some steamed momos, the laugh they sing. And just like all the other events, this too passes before you can realize. You see Paro return. It is important. She pisses Dev all the more. As if this was not enough, he commits a crime, his father dies, runs out of money. Almost. Takes a trip. And it’s a trip to leave you with.
That’s it. The film.
And the film knows its music.
Dhol yaar dhol opens to the fields of Punjab, the sunrise, the mills, the cycles. The promise of a fulfilled life, the dreams of many more.
Yehi meri zindagi hai, does pretty much the same, albeit for a different character, in a different setting. And as you are being slowly seduced by the optimism, the batteries run out. I will leave it for you to find out.
Paayaliya. An ode to the morning fog, and an ode to the sad realities that follow. A classical montage.
Aankh Micholi. The song that follows Chanda through her journey of a life gone wrong. The hood on the head, the long road ahead. The comic timing of life.
Emotional Atyachar. The rock version is a slap on the senses. The riffs bring in the shock and amplify the effect. The Delhi metro, the blank-face passenger, and the storm of emotions underneath. These things CANNOT be done by an idler, they reek of a keen observation, a roving eye voyeur, a heart at the center of it all.
O Pardesi. The dance trio. You want it you got it trip. The reason every addiction begins on a high note. The reason this world is the way it is. The reason your mother frowns at the word ‘drugs’.
Saali Khushi. The proverbial unexplained thread. The eternal question.
Dev Chanda Themes. The labor of love.
The mostly toned down background. The violin cut-in in the Delhi hotel.
Nayan Tarse. The only slo-mo shot. Dev buys the whole shop. Gets on the bus. Old lady next to him. Again an element. Old lady gives gyaan. Dev eats her ticket. (Laughter)
Post Saali khushi/somewhere along this time, Paro makes a re-entry. Premika has become aunty now. Aunty with pride. Aunty with gyaan. Ma-hilaayein. Don’t tell me you never noticed it. Shows him the truth kinds. But who wants the truth. Get out of here!
Saawan Barse. Chunni gives the dark humor. The pillow becomes his shield. (Laughter)
Dil mein jaagi. Chanda’s night-out with Dev. You see her smile, and you think Jean Seberg. You think Anna Karina. She teases Dev. It’s a filling ego banter. “she moved on, what do you know about pain?” she makes paper planes. She goes to college. Dev sees her life in her diaries. She asks him, “will you be here when I come back?” he says yes. “I love you”, “I love you, Chanda”. Dev smiles. You smile. Abhay Deol finds his definitive scene.
Duniya. Satpal Singh taxi driver let’s hit the road. The car reverses, and we are here in Himachal. And back to Delhi. Dhaba on the way. The affluence dies. The dogs come in. the much-called-for kick in the ass follows. Dev questions himself “sambhalja bete abhi bhi waqt hai…”
Dhadkan maheen dil mein jagaati ek hulchul si. The return of Dev. Not Dev D. The D is exchanged for a better future.
That one look (sponsored by steamed momos)…
Mehfuuz kar le, yaa dil ye pal
(I can’t believe you didn’t write it, Anurag)
The references. Pretty few. Or the ones that I could spot.
“Dilli mein billi le lo, maar lo, paalo mat”(reminded me of Yuva).
Some funny quintessentials Anurag Kashyap nods(yes I saw Anurag in one shot, Vasan in few others, and Shukla ji and Thani too!, Bhansali’s Devdas referred at few points, the bar they frequent is psychedelia itself, the one shot when Chanda appears disappears before you say fuck!, Chunni babu is a personification of references, the way the songs blank out and grow louder, the way they come one after another like a playlist for every mood, the way the second half unfolds is sheer brilliance).
It is a Fatih Akin film with brilliant Indian songs for montages, for device. It is a road film at times. It is a journey. And just so you ‘get’ it, you are asked to get down.
That’s Dev D. That’s one film that got it. A grand nod for cinema. Forget the genres. Forget the sections. Mainstream. Arthouse. Whatever. A definitive film.
Is it about drugs? Is it the same story of Devdas? Is it ‘surreal? Is it ‘wtf’? Is it worth enough? Is it a good film? How is Abhay Deol? Does it have any ‘scenes’? Does it show the MMS scandal? Does it drag? What’s the audience’ reaction? Will it be a hit? I missed Public Ad and Cyber Law lectures for this?
(well’s that’s the college group that annoyed me to no end for you, sorry about that)
A grand applause.
Sach hai, sach hai, sach hai….
It is NOT written.
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, Dev D, Dev.D
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
“It is NOT written. ” ..lol…class ..cant wait to watch …btw how is chunni babu ?
It’s slowly becoming clear that Anurag Kashyap may have one great movie in him and that he has already made it: Black Friday.
This is the third weak film in a row, after No Smoking and Hanuman Returns. The only reason this one may not put you to sleep is the stupendous music, used relentlessly, leaving no room for the film to breathe on its own.
If one is expecting Devdas with a difference, this in not the film. Superficially, yes, lots of ‘modern touches’ have been given to the story but in the end it is the same old thing. Two-and-a-half hours of self-pitying. Tagging a two-minute happy ending doesn’t change that.
Watching a hero hell-bent on self destruction, brooding, moping, sulking all through the movie with music blasting in the background is tough work. The whole exercise seems empty. Dry. And yes, self-indulgent.
All style, no substance.
@rocky
I don’t know what type of differenr Devdas u were expecting?As u mentioned,story of Devdas is same old thing and already 2 times picturised before.Whether AK has been able to convincingly tell it to present day audience sance item songs and manipulations of Johars and Chopras is what we should look for and he has succeeded brilliantly.Yes I will give equal credit to Amit Trivedi also
http://chavannichap.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post_2298.html
read my review in hindi
Class act, sir. Makes me like the film more- and also to perhaps give the second half a second chance, perhaps…
A good review of the film can be found at:
http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-reviews/reviews-2/dev-d.html
Taran Adarsh who gave Singh is King a 4.5 gave Dev D a 1. what a taste he has.
Raja Sen gave it a 3.5 out of 5. TOI gave it a 5.
I hope Rajeev Masand reviews it well because many people set store by what he says.
Rajeev gave a 4 for Black Friday and a 1 for No Smoking.
here is an interesting discussion between Rajeev and Anurag.
http://www.mid-day.com/specials/2008/oct/051008-Anurag-Kashyap-director-Rajeev-Masand-heated-discussion.htm
rocky i also felt that the style factor went way ahead of substance in this film …there was so much anurag kashyap could have done here. after black friday it is a disappointment, i will even choose no smoking over this one .okay you worked out the details but it was hardly deep enough . the whole film seemed very superficial to me .i liked the idea. the language it spoke was good . the music ,the cinematography excellent bt then the style overtook substance by miles.i ownder how it got 5 stars by some reviewer.
can someone pls explain me that scene where paro comes to meet dev d in his hotel roomand the performance by the actor….lots of such scenes heer and there completely distracted me.
i hope anurag moves bey'¶nd adaptations. .black friday was d zaidi novel. .no smoking. .stephen king story. . . . .and of course dev d . . Cmon man give us a knockout before the self indulgent doga. . Like fucking satya
gulal is original, watchout for tat
@anand, Chunni Babu is supercool man. He is the kind of guy you can blindly cast to weave magic and flow in your film.
@rocky, no substance?
@sharath, AT is a big part of the film.
@Eswara, chuck the ratings, such films are beyond all that.
@sags, explain the scene? Really? Paro coming back is one of the finest parts of the film. More later.
@abhay k, nothing is original.
@crazyrals, gulaal is the next big thing in this wonderful year.
Masand’s Review is out:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/masands-movie-review-dev-d-not-for-fainthearted/84673-8.html
Rating: 2/5
amazing…. just go and watch it … i guess that should sum it up..ABHAY DEOL IS TOO GOOD!!!!!!!
Brlliant film. Loved it. I will watch it again. RAMU KI Jai Ho- “Hamare desh ki Janatha ko development nahi Entertainment Chahiye”. So true. Out of context. Still.
I absolutely loved the movie, the first half was a fucking genius.the second half was a tad slow but it was one hell of a ride!
Take a bow AK!
No North America release? There’s no theatre playing Dev D within 50 miles of my city. I haven’t looked further. Anybody know anything on this?
Hey anurag,
I would really love to thank u for this brilliant and outstanding piece of cinema that u have churned out from the recesses of ur genius mind….
It acutally is an amazing journey of self destruction,pathos,regret, and self realisation and at the same time displays women empowered with their secuality and in complete control of their lives…..
I wud love to acknowledge that u have directed one of the most finest movies of 2009 and i doubt that any other movie might match up to DEV.D in terms of the style and content that u have incorporated in this movie in terms of story telling and shot taking…..
Thanks a lot anurag sir……
Just waiting to catch this gem as many times as possible in the cmoing weeks…..
I am yet to watch this movie.
When SLB released Devdas in 2002 I thought what is the point in making it the same way? Why not tell the same story in a different way. When I read that Anurag Kashyap is making Dev D and setting it in today’s day and age then the idea excited me and made me curious to know how it will be made.
I have seen Devdas by Bimal Roy and Dilip Kumar. But it was set around independance time and everything was underplayed and given best of the performances.
Vejyantimala played Chandramukhi and refused to accept filmfare award for best supporting actress saying she was as good as the lead.
Back then Paro visiting Devdas during night was a big deal and now sending nude images is fine. Is this moral degradation of society as a whole?
Purists panned SLB’s Devdas. I still remember Shobha De being unhappy for inaccurate depiction of Bengali culture etc. I wonder what will they do with Dev D.
It is still possible to make subtle movies like Luck By Chance / Jodha Akbar / TZP / Company etc to name a few.
I don’t know why vulgarity / over the top and loud movies are made in the name of showing REALITY. Slumdog Millionaire for example.
May be it is shock and awe strategy that few film makers have adopted.
Youth have few role models and a character study of legend like Subhash Chnadra Bose by Shayam Babu sinks without a trace and character study of a thief Oye Lucky Lucky Oye which is far from entertaining gets all the accolaids.
Anurag Kashyap is the same person who made Black Friday a cult classic which handle such a complex subject so beatifully. It was not a loud movie. All characters were underplayed. It was reality as it should be. Not glamourising anythign. I hope Dev D is made the same way and I wish every director taking serious subjects or doing character study should adopt subtlety. Study Gulzar sahab and Hrishikesh Mukherji and Bimal Roy to know how to make movies with rock solid script real characters and which are entertaining as well and make money too without resorting to loud or vulgar shock and awe.
Hasn’t released in Dubai..what a shame!! can anyone explain this to me? How the f@&% does shit like this happen? For 2 months now, I’ve been waiting to watch this film and its not even releasing here…u know what anurag..nxt time u make a masterpiece…make sure its distributed well!!
Paanch hasn’t released yet, Black Friday came out after it was dated, No Smoking is the only movie of urs I cud enjoy in a theatre…and I loved it!!
I want more of ur stuff man…dont be the peddler who wont show up when a junkie needs it the most!
http://buzz18.in.com/reviews/movies/review-abhay-deols-devd/114342/0
Rating: 3.5/5
Mindeffinblowin , there has been no doubt of anurag’s talent, but Abhay is the one who is to look out for.
wish i could write like you.
tushar , paro coming back isnt my point in asking explaination…that makes a whole lot of sense to me ….
SPOILERS AHEAD..
i wanted an explaination for mahi gill’s performance in that scene till abhay deol asks her to make love .just check out the way the scene is written till that point…it distracted me cos i felt something amiss…if it was intentional that she seemed disconnected , then it didnt come through to me .
and yeah gulal looks much more promising than dev d. whatever little i could make out from the promo.
Thanks all you Dev D’s! keep the fire alive!
@dilipr, lol!
@cliff, awesome line mate!
@sujith, thanks, that’s saying too much.
@sags, got your point. On distraction, she distracted me many a times, even I guessed it might have been intentional/improvised. Frankly, all my attention was on Chanda, just a personal observation. Paro was the righteous one, she always appeared to me a foil for Dev and Chanda to reflect back upon. Paro in this literary context was damn good written I think, for she provides the guilt trip material.
This film was able to take audience to the mood of dev and this was contributed by music which was best. But the end is disapointment esp for anurag’s film. Read about taran adarsh’s review what he sees in film?
But in the list of anurag’s film for me NO SMOKING IS IN THE top
Vodka, London eye, Joints, Paro, shady hotels, wasted life, loser and back on, MMS and BMW, momos,Saawan Barse,Chunni, Pills and on n on.Brilliant Anuraag,just brilliant.
Newer Heights, splendid cinema , Dark, Real or Surreal, Identity.
Abhay and Anuraag will be last “MEN” standing.
Anurag… Aree aisi ki taisi reviews ki.. You will get housefulls with a nod of apprecoiation from each audience for some or other part of your work.. Aur kya chahiye… Taran Adrash pagla gaya hai agar Singh is King ko 4 aur Dev D ko 1 star diya hai..
@sags
May be u will get your answer from Rusted Rick’s post on DEVD
A good review by bikas Mishra
http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19871&Itemid=57&limit=1&limitstart=0
A good review here
http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19871&Itemid=57&limit=1&limitstart=0
Some more recollections:
Amongst many other things…
- for the first time, I saw the visualization of the phrase, ‘ganne ke khet mein’…
- ‘ab bahut ho gaya chutiye, sambhal ja..’
- the neon signs, it was so european yet a paharganj neighborhood
- the way the dancing trio looks at Dev, it is so theatrical.
- yes, the titles, and the intertitles
- the play of colors in second half, the blue filters, the low angles, the solhouettes of dev and chunni, almost made it look like a grand deceit
- the way the camera goes around the room when Chunni does the line, you see him in the mirror again as he asks if Dev wants to do it
- Chanda speaking on the listline in different languages
- the slowing down of ‘yehi meri zindagi hai’
- the way dev drops in at chunni’s small shack, and chunni’s expressions of surprise
- dev’s stoned mill trips
– the way paro’s father thrashes the village guy, in all drunken glory and dev’s reaction on overhearing it
wow, i might just end up speaking about ALL the scenes. lol!
Smile on Chanda’s face when Dev hugs her and says something like ‘Forget it and move on’(I am not sure it is correct dialogue)
Pain on Dev’s face when he imagines Paro having sex with her husband also Paro’s facial expressions
Done with second watch and this time ‘under influence’, I enjoyed it more than the first. The main factor for that being first time it was in Rex and this time in Inox.. Sound matters and the absolute credit goes to Amit, Anurag, Abhay in that order.
@sharath thanks for referring me to rusted rick’s post ..what he has explained was what i guessed becos thats what i expected , but i just felt that somehow the female actor or the way it was written or directed , cudnt get it across without me guessing because i expected it . may be thats just my opinion. i thot it was an important scene. and no i dont like things fed to me but i dont want to guess things.
I love the way that in many scenes the background is as interesting as the foreground. And after some time it was more interesting to watch what is partly hidden…
.
Did you notice the lecherous student sitting behind Chanda in College…?
And when Dev leaves Chanda…you can see a blurred vision of her in the background…on the balcony…the camera doesn’t zoom in but she’s there all right…the movie needs a second look to notice all these details…am buying the DVD!
Some more observations after second watch:
- Patna ke Pressley written on the wall in the final collision shot
- Gulaal’s Raja Choudhary in the Punjab pub
- The background(as D&C said), the wedding sequences in Punjab or be the brothel shots
- The way EA rock version is spliced for multiple effects, and the way it climaxes when Abhay walks in smiling silly in the brothel
- The two times he immerses his face in the bucket, and the way the sounds mute
- The way he calls the dog ‘Dwij’
- He spots the sardarji back
- The blank shot is a painting in Leny(Chanda)’s room
- Leny’s mom is the co-art dir on the film, Helen
- The paharganj bridge shots are almost a recurring image
- Chanda saying, we have an appointment with the police
- The shot which shows Dev’s t-shirts, these are the 3-4 t shirts he wears in the entire film, a grey one, a blue one, and so on. The only time he wears a shirt – the red one, in Punjab, when he looks at the ring
- The violin cut-in was much more clearer now, Paro looking away reminded me Dil Se, so was Abhay abruptly saying, main tumse pyaar karta hoon, Dil Se again
- The use of SMS sounds in the realization but in Yehi meri zindagi hai
- The books the characters read
- The comic-art graffiti in Chanda’s den
- Dev crosses The Twilight Players, against a ‘hat ja re’ in EA Rock.
- Saali Khushi – the foghorn montage, the word HIV becomes prominent just before the accident shot
- ‘aur mere liye’ reminded me of Pan Parag ad
- Dev’s use of binoculars
- Detailing – Dev asks the hot girl, is your bhaiya home, that’s her connect with Paro and he is simply using her to reach Paro, but he is not accepting that, typical of his character who takes pleasure in not accepting his intentions
- The bill of the car showroom
- Paro putting on the shades and TP looking at her in surprise