Dev D : Reader Reactions
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iView Author: Random Ramblings (Delhi, India)
Emosanal Diaries
I guess I am not as over Dev D as I thought…how could I be? For there’s more here than meets the eye…
Dev is actually more about me, you, us… scary prospect, ain’t it? How can I identify someone so hell bent on self destruction, someone who has been judged harshly once too often, someone who has been rejected, refused a second chance? Someone who has lost his soul, well almost… someone who is so malicious, and yet so lost… Have lost count of times when I have listened to my own prejudice, my own ego, even when deep down I know I am wrong… lashed out in anger at someone who I know is innocent,pushed away people who loved me, then pined away for that lost love and affection… agony of lost love,mistakes made and realized when it was too late… I have plunged to the depths of hopelessness and loneliness, felt bitter regret and defiant denial, for I am Dev…
Paro…. the epitome of headstrong love, willing to break all boundaries for the object of her affections…possessive and defiant by turns.. refusing to cry in face of rejection, yet unable to stem the tide of tears which keep escaping the tightly shut eyelids while walking away… I am Paro, for I have faced rejection, and then, I have squared my shoulders, deciding to move on… despite accused that moving on was easy for me… I am the dance she danced on seeing her beloved after years, and the despondence with which she walked away, brutally rejected…I am Paro, and all the tears that she shed for a lost love, all the wounds and scar she carried around all her life…
Chanda… dare I admit that she is the scariest of them all, for she reminded me of innocence lost, illusions broken and cynicism attained… she is the toughest and maybe that’s why the most vulnerable of the lot… She is grounded, and you want to lend her a hand, so she does not fall, despite all that bravado and brave smile… Unforgiven by those who should have protected her,shielded her, she longs for someone to tell her, “beta sab theek ho jaayega“… I am Chanda, all her yearning for acceptance, all her bravado. I am her numb smile, all the times she was let down by those who should have known better, and all the tears she gulped down, and the brave face she put up to face the world and fool it… for I am Chanda, and I am a mask…….
This is why Dev D is dangerous… it brings out all the deep scars, all the hurts, all the festering wounds which you thought had either healed, or had pushed down deep inside your psyche… and in the end you have no choice but to face them, whether you have the courage or not… It strips you of all defenses, all masks, and leaves you for what you are, a raw pulsating mass of pain… nothing more, nothing less….
iView Author: Avinash D. (New York,USA)
Email : Avinashh7@aol.com
Support Anurag Kashyap for his Work
I have never written on these blogs but I wanted to share my thoughts with all of you after reading Taran’s review for DEV D. I wanted to support Anurag Kashyap and his movies because he DESERVES it.
It started when ‘No Smoking’ got one star by our very own Taran Adarsh, he said movie didn’t make any sense. Understandable, sometimes world’s best movies could be hard to understand for an individual, it all depends on individuals perspective. However, I fail to understand his review, because, it wasn’t about the movie it was about the Anurag’s character. I don’t think anyone has a right to comment on an individuals’ believes and about their personal life. Well let it go….he has a right to express his opinion, any maybe he was right.
Now, it’s time for DEV D, which got 3 stars, 4 stars, 4 and half stars and some critics also gave 5 stars. What did Mr. Taran Adarsh gave this movie? Don’t be surprise….. 1 Star. What were his comments about the movie?
“There’s no harm if you pick up an enticing story and tell it your way, but Kashyap goes a bit too far, crosses all limits and tends to get abstract once again. And that’s the reason for DEV D’s downfall.” By Taran Adarsh
“So what’s the final word? Does Kashyap redeem himself after the boring and listless NO SMOKING? Unfortunately, he doesn’t. Watching DEV D is akin to doing atyachaar on oneself! ” Taran
“On the whole, DEV D is NO SMOKING 2. Does one elaborate more? ” Taran
You can go ahead and read his review
Taran did his job, good or bad, fair or unfair, public will decide that through public rating. Now, there is an interesting twist, public rating for this movie was 4.8 on Friday, 4.7 on Saturday and from Sunday on Public rating was closed for DEV D. What I want to know, why Taran closed public rating for this movie? Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye, released on the same day as DEV D, Luck by Chance released week earlier, shockingly their public rating was open but public rating for DEV D was closed. Why would you do that?
We need directors like AK, we need writers like AK, we need people in this film industry who try to go above par and do something different. He’s the man who introduced dark themes and reality with his Black Friday in film industry, he is the man who introduced Indian Ocean band with his Black Friday, he is the man who speaks his mind and does what he believes in. He is the man who gave chance to new crowd instead of taking well known names.
Movies like Aamir, A Wednesday, Mumbai Meri Jaan, and so on only came after AK’s brave effort and hard work of Black Friday. We never knew the reality of Mumbai and inner India, it was AK’s attempt to show us that films are not only about larger than life character, hero fighting with 20 villains to save the heroine, well choreographed songs, having big names and so on.
AK was and he is very well known writer, if he wanted to, he could have made films with big stars like Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra ( Who are only stuck with SRK) instead he chose the path to show us reality, to show us the truth about system, to show us the different perspective about life, to show us that it is not necessary to have happy ending at the end.
We need AK, we need more directors like AK, and to have more directors like AK, it is our job to support them and support their movies. Or else stupid critics like Taran with their stupid reviews will destroy young talent.
I salute this man, who stood up for himself; I salute him for making such a classic movies like DEV D and Black Friday. We need more from you AK, and don’t stop making what you believe in, because your believes are our believes. Thank you so much for giving us Black Friday and DEV D.
“WTF, didn’t know LKB Inc. were laying off!”
“I got fired from work today….NO, I actually screwed up!”
“I was playing EA X-Rated Version LOUD in my cubicle”
“Ass***e! They must have been really pissed off!”
“At first noone seemed to mind, but…then…”
“Why? What did you do?!”
“When my manager asked about project status, I said, “Bhaad mein jaa saali r***d f**k you…maa c***a*3….and then…SIGH…”
“Ha ha, you sonofadick, now don’t sulk like a Devdas, be a “DEV D”"
Picture/sketch contribution by
AXW11(Albany, USA)
Emosanal Atyachar phenomenonAn illustration attempt based on Dev D’s Emosanal Atyachar X-Rated version [Warning: Explicit language usage]
Tags: Abhay Deol, Anurag Kashyap, 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
this movie is like a wake up call to the filmy families(read Yashraj Films) and the camp system (read Dharma Productions) of the HIndi film industry. Anurag Kashyap takes the age old story by Saratchandra Chatterjee and turns it on its head. WOW what a turn around. Thankfully, this movie is in no way a romantic tear jerker. In fact there just is no place for normal filmy scenes here. Realistic to the core, the scenes in DevD r so different from a regular Bollywood fare, u will get totally sucked in the narrative only to be let loose in the half an hour after interval. But as the grip tightens again, it only lets u go in the end. But beware, this is not for the fainthearted and K-serial watchers. This film is bold with a capital B. The women talk without any inhibitions, like in real life. But so much unlike the regular Hindi films.
Direction by Anurag is A-grade. He’s here to tell a simple story (unlike No Smoking) and he tells it with elan. while writing the script, this man just gets into the mind and psyche of each character. All his characters are different from their counterparts in the earlier versions of Devdas as chalk and cheese. No filmygiri and melodrama yaar, cut to cut dialogues between the characters. The shots taken on streets, in trains and buses r so real that u imagine that r the ppl walking and standing behind some junior artists or real people. The “camera tripping away” technique taught to him by Danny Boyle is just so effective. Good to see such techniques, which we have been witnessing only in English movies. The good dose of humour is just the apt tadka that this recipe required. And u laugh out loud several times.
Abhay gets into the skin of the character, but just so deep that u can’t imagine any other actor playing the title role.
Mahi Gill is an effortlessly natural actress. Kalki is good too.
A special mention of the Patna ke Presleys in the Emotional Attyachar song. Yaar the short fellow with curly hair was so much into the character. Just couldn’t take my eyes off him. Also when, in the Pardesi song, the three men dance in tandem, its a visual treat. Brilliant.
I laughed out Aloud in two scenes : When little Dev calls his father as Sattu and the ensuing scene.
And when(this was really hilarious) the old lady pakaos him in bus, Dev eats her ticket and gets her caught by the Ticket Checker.
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Ok, I just watched Dev. D and was really, truly disappointed. Which is still totally fine, you don’t have to like every movie out there. But the more disappointing part is I came back and read reviews and so far only found good ones. But then I noticed something. All the reviews were saying how different it is from the typical Bollywood movie. No review said why they truly enjoyed the film. So yes, if your going to talk about it being different from Bollywood movies then yes, it was a great movie. But as a movie by itself, then no.
So many movies are different from typical bollywood that ‘different’ should stop being taken into consideration as the only good aspect of the movie. A movie shouldn’t be judged and given good ratings just because its not the usual Shahrukh movie. India has been making different movies right from the good old black and white days of the Apu Trilogy. Here is a short list of some other good ‘different’ films – Everyone says I’m fine, No Smoking, Missed Call, Hyderabad Blues and many more.
So coming back to Dev.D, as a stand alone movie was it good? Not at all. As an experiment or something different from Bollywood? Sure. And here are my reasons:
The characters didn’t ever show any emotional connection, which in turn left the viewer never being able to feel for the character, specially for Dev. I probably felt a little for Chanda. But that’s it. Dev really didn’t have that much going on in his life to be so upset that he had to go out and get wasted or high every night. His love for Paro was never so strong to begin with. He came back to India just to get laid. This was very clearly depicted in the film. And even after meeting Paro he just wanted to get laid. So his whole 2 hours that followed felt like a waste of the two hours coz it never felt like he wanted her that bad to begin with! Then the whole confusion between Paro and Dev about her sleeping around with many people was such a childlike fight because really, how hard would it have been for them to figure out the truth, all they needed to do was have a 5 minute talk. Anurag, come on. You should know better.
And the music. I usually always remember the score after a film. Except for the way it was shot and lit everything else was poor.
Being a friend of Anurag I was extra disappointed because I had such high expectations for the film.
Most reviews I noticed are from young adults or aspiring filmmakers in India right now and they seem to be infatuated by Kashyap (and they are just in feeling so) and will take anything to fill the hole that Bollywood has created, but in the process they will forget how good a movie really is. Therefore its important to watch movies from all around the world, because sure, if you only watch Bollywood then this movie will surely blow you away!
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Very nicely written facts!!!! Dev D rocks….
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I read the Dev D review by Taran Adarsh – I have no regard for the guy anymore.
My friend Filmman everyone has an opinion and I honestly honour yours. But write for yourself. I feel a movie’s aim is to entertain and if as an audience you get entertained then it is a good movie. And that is what people are writing about. How does it matter whether they are young adults or aspiring filmmakers? Learn to understand the other persons point of view rather than making a judgement on who they are or whether they have watched movies around the world or the Apu trilogy.
And dude your comment on !’They ( Dev & Paro) should have had a 5 min talk to sort things out’ – it seems you are not aware of the width of human emotions/character and reactions. Very disappointing. Never meant this to be a personal but some things you said were not right. Think about it.
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I am surprised that patronizing guys (am assuming you are a man) still exist… We must watch movies from all over the world to enhance our thinking? Thank you Oh Kind one… Petty mind, petty reactions…
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I am surprised that patronizing guys (am assuming you are a man) still exist… We must watch movies from all over the world to enhance our thinking? Thank you Oh Kind one… Petty mind, petty reactions…
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I kinda agree with you Filmman. I could not feel for the characters too. No emosanal connect you see and that is atyachaar for me to tell you honestly
The first segment started out very promisingly but once that was over with Paro getting married off, it was a terrible drag from there on.
I wonder if the role of Chanda/Lenny was too risque for any Indian actor to take on? The firangi girl was a bad cast I thought. I hear she does theater! Probably mistaking school plays for theater. If you look beyond the shock value of her sex doll scenes, there was nothing she did in the acting department to make us want to empathise with her character. I was reminded of how I felt for Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver. Sadly I could not feel any such thing for Chanda/Lenny.
And why was that Chuni guy so caricaturish? Didn’t that character deserve to be a real one?
Too much is being made out of the movie. Too much meaning being derived from it when all it does is attempt to be “different” from mainstream commercial cinema by broaching a few subjects that we Indians dont normally expect to see in a typical Bollywood movie. Substance abuse, open portrayal of female sexuality, S&M fetishes. So what???
Shock therapy is no substitute for an intelligent, well thought through adaptation. Omkara and Maqbool immediately come to mind.
I honestly think it was a great idea from Abhay to “contemporarize” the Sarat Chandra novella. He probably needed a better director.
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There is one aspect of this movie which is really puzzling for me. And that is that Dev was in London for so long and with his debauched ways and dad’s money, he could have got laid enough number of times if he was really so desperate. It never appears that he was too committed to Paro to touch anyone else. Why was he waiting for a f**k with Paro then? His sexual curiosity should have been satisfied in London itself.
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The movie was indeed brilliant , not because it was different from others , because it showing you a whole new perspective on an old tale. Although i felt that Abhay could have done better by making the viewer feel for the character.
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I see people saying Dev just came back for sex with Paro. Maybe he didn’t really loved Paro, but the most important aspect is he loved himself and according to his image he loved Paro and its very difficult for people to accept a digression in their self-image.
Coming back to Dev D as a movie, everyone is entitled to an opiniion and so am I, I thought the movie was brilliant with a capital B; not because it was different or because I am bored with Hindi movies (never liked them anyway); because the movie is an example of great film-making aspects like a great script, screenplay, impactful but terse statements, good background score, good editing, perfect acting from actors who really got in the characters and case study direction.I have never seen someone diagnose and bring out the self-obsessed side of Sharat Chandra’s Devdas so well.
I hope AK doesn’t get bored and goes down the road like RGV has done. Because Gulaal showed signs of a slightly bored Kashyap, it was a good movie but disappointing for die hard Anurag Kashyap fans.
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